What is so wrong in having faith and hope for a better life and an after life in paradise, Heaven or whatever?

Question

your faith calls it? I just don't understand why people become total athiest. What drives a person to reject the possiblilty of a supreme Diety that has the power to change your life? What drives a person to reject the idea of an after life and instead believe that when you die that is it? I personally do not like the idea of me being all alone and every thing I do and all the events in my life is in my own hands and I control my own fate 100%. Why do non-religious people get fighting mad over Chrisians and others of religious faith? Is it so bad to believe in something better than what you have in this earth?

Answer 1

Better to believe and just sleep awhile. Than to live a lie and be in for a rude awakening.

I would rather have hope and faith than to rebuke that which I can't fully understand. Thus, gamble away my chance of salvation for a lie.

God bless

Answer 2

I am atheist and don't care what you believe. Just don't lobby the government against embryonic stem cells, create abortion laws based on what your faith tells you, discourage condom use spreading STDs that will effect where government money is spent, spread your ideology in Africa which will starve people to death in refugee camps from religious wars. Don't blow up car bombs because you think your going to heaven for killing people. There is no proof that any non atheist religion is true because it does not follow the scientific method which is the basis of all the science and technology that you use ever day to stay in touch with the American 21st century. Just because you say you have control of your fate does not mean that you do. There is no proof of an afterlife. I have no problem with you believing that never never land is real either. Just don't go lobbying the government to enforcing laws on never never land and I wont complain one bit about those delusions.

Answer 3

>>I personally do not like the idea of me being all alone and
>>every thing I do and all the events in my life is in my own
>>hands and I control my own fate 100%.

Thank you for presenting why I believe theism is a mentally-constructed myth, ultimately driven by human's carnal survival drive.

I feel I'm doing quite fine without this notion of deity in my life. I don't need invisible friends to tell me what to do, how to morally behave, how to stay out of trouble, to explain the universe around me, or to cheer me up on a rainy day. Now if you want me to accept your notion of deity, the burden of proof is on you.

>>Is it so bad to believe in something better
>>than what you have in this earth?

1. The Inquisition
2. The Crusades
3. The Salem Witch Trials
4. Montségur
5. 9/11

So I'd say yes, sometimes it can be "so bad".

Answer 4

Honey, you can believe in anything you want. Many people become atheists because they have never seen any evidence of God at work in their lives. Many of them were taken to church as children and listened to the same bible stories and sang the same songs as you. Then they find out there's no Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy. But they still believe in Jesus. Then one day, something bad happens in their lives and they pray and pray, but nothing happens. Eventually, they cease to believe in God or Jesus too.

You come along all fired up and try to convince these people that they should believe. You can't.

Almost everyone will come to a point where they look around them and know that the world and the wonderful things in it, aren't just the result of some cosmic accident. They know that there is something bigger than ourselves, but they've long ago given up trying to understand it's nature. Some men invent religions to define that something. Wise men know not to try but to just accept that God, by whatever name He is called, is the glue that is holding the universe together.

Answer 5

Believing in an after life (paradise) is a beautiful thing. It gives me reason to live, something to look forward to. It also allows me to be grateful for the things I have, and gives me a feeling of accomplishment when I do some little something to make someone else's life a little brighter. It brings me a feeling of hope that I'll have my family forever.

Now, some people don't believe in an after life, and I can't change that. That's their own decision and I respect that, but
"as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Answer 6

What would be wrong with believing in Santa Claus past the age of, say, eight?

That's what's wrong with the heaven / paradise / afterlife thing. There's no evidence that we have a soul, or any immaterial something that will survive the death of our bodies. I don't like the inevitability of death any better than you do, but I don't expect childish fantasies to make me feel better.

Answer 7

Nothing wrong with it. When you start thinking that your way is the only way and the only truth is when things are wrong.
I have the power to change my life. I don't need the belief of god to do it.

Answer 8

I am with you. If you do not want to believe, that is your choice. I wish you would. I wish you would believe that that the pathway to heaven is through Jesus. Christians are here to help you. Why do people bash those who try to help? If I do not like a certain kind of music, I do not bash it, I just do not listen to it. We have not harmed these people in any way. But I forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Answer 9

We don't believe in something just because we want it to be true.

Answer 10

You can believe any crazy thing you want to believe, if it makes you feel better.