The Ramblings of TL's Resident Theologian. - Page 4

In the mean time, I have a question for you. How do you feel about religion?

On March 15 2011 07:38 Enervate wrote:
I am a Christian and I also believe in God. It's interesting to me how quickly people who think they are so intelligent are so dismissive of the existence of god. "I believe in science" is always a classic argument. There is actually no science that contradicts the existence of god. I'm talking about the mere existence of god, not any specific religions or whatever. I don't mind if people have a different view on god from me. (I also have nothing against you if you don't believe in god. People are free to come to their own conclusions.) People just seem to think that belief in god directly correlates with stupidity, and the smart people like to pretend they know better than others.

First, an argument against belief in god is burden of proof. People always say prove it or god doesn't exist. This argument isn't particularly effective in my opinion because I can't prove anyone's existence besides my own. I can't actually prove you exist, or anything exists besides myself, but the fact that I think, and that I think about these things, is enough to tell me they exist and justify my beliefs in their existence from a logical standpoint.

Basically, how could I think up something that does not exist if I exist? Here I will preemptively argue against stuff like unicorns by saying they are clearly grounded in reality, like from a horse or whatever.

The second argument I hear is this: why does god let so much pain and suffering occur? Because ultimately, life is finite while heaven is infinite. So let's look at this from a mathematical standpoint. Let's say suffering in this world = -5000 units of pleasure. Now pleasure in heaven = infinity. Infinity-5000=infinity. Also, the fact that people have experienced suffering during life allows them to recognize happiness and bliss.

But how do you know heaven exists? Well, I don't pretend like there is a physical place up in the sky where we go to chill on clouds after we die. But I can easily believe that the state of our mind is permanent when we die. Clearly, we won't be experiencing new things after we die. If I am happy with my life when I die, then I will be in heaven. This can be simplified to if I did good things, I will be in heaven. And everyone I know, everything I did, will be forever preserved as such.

Now, you might argue that you could be happy when you die even without believing in god. But how can you? You will always want to live longer if you don't believe there is anything for you after death. You can't ever be satisfied with your life. You might come to the conclusion that you can't have any more of life, and come to terms with said conclusion, but you would still readily accept life over death if you had the opportunity, and therefore you can't be satisfied. Therefore, you won't be truly happy with the fact that you are dying, and therefore you won't be in heaven.

Life is so short. Basically, I wish people would believe that life is not meaningless or trivial, which it would be if nothing existed permanently, god.

Rev 3:15-16
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.