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Someone said that even if you don't believe in God, it is advisable to live your life as if there is a God. What do you think of that?

#god
Lidasman 4 Apr 5
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69 comments

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3

Isn't a life based on reality better than one based on a fantasy?

9

I like this:

8

Which god?

Bad idea, some of them are pretty fucked up.

1of5 Level 8 Apr 5, 2019
7

Why would it ever be advisable to live under a false assumption?

6

I believe the opposite. You should be good to others because it is the right thing to do, not because you might burn in hell otherwise. With God you are allowed to do whatever you want as long as you apologize before you die.

6

Total crap!

5

I think that even if you believe in a big man that sits on the clouds, it's your responsibility to not be an asshole.

4

What always struck me about Pascal's Wager (and people touched upon it below) is that the "logic" behind it would suggest you should believe in every god anyone ever believed in (or could believe in) "just in case" any of them are true, as to not jeopardize your afterlife. But as Hitchens said, there could be a god and no afterlife...or an afterlife and no god...or a trickster god that punishes good people...etc., etc.

The list of things you COULD believe in to cover your eternal a$$ is very, very long, and nearly all of which is mutually contradictory.

Besides, "believing" something just-in-case doesn't sound like a genuine belief to me in any case. No one would think jumping off a building would be a smart bet just-in-case The Force is real and the Jedi will save you from certain death, and then save the world because that's just the kind of thing they would do.

Well laid out

4

Since half of the ten commandments are about worshiping god, as are 3 out of 4 of the pillars of Islam, I'd say no, I don't see any value in living my life according to their rules.

4

Welcome to the site William. People do not need a god to be good. The golden rule is a concept made by humans for humans. Gods are just relics of the past: born out of ignorance, fear, and superstition.

4

It might be even better to believe god is just the universe, and that the the universe hates you and is trying to kill you at every turn. I'm sure believing this would make the world as it is make much more sense, and maybe motivate you to solve problems to defend yourself against this hostile universe.

Unfortunately the universe doesn't hate us. It just doesn't care. At all. Which always gives us the hope of solving all of our potential problems, and near certainty that ultimately we won't be able to.

I don't know, sometimes I think the universe does hate me, honestly I do.
🙂

@David1955 Lawrence Krauss made a comment (in a video somewhere on youtube, but I can't remember which one) where he said that it is odd that Intelligent Design proponents never tell us to quit cancer research because the cancer has been designed to kill us.

4

i think it's crap. first of all, which god? zeus? baldur? it is advisable to live as if you are a human among many humans among many animals among many living things among many elements on a delicate planet in a big universe. gods are at best useless and at worst destructive. live without regard for whether or not there are any gods.

g

4

Pascals wager.

4

I think that if that means living a good life and treating others with kindness, compassion, and respect, then that's not a bad way to live.

I live like that, a good life, and I don't care about gods. Why relate it to a god? Is it that agnostics cannot live a good life?

@Merseyman1 I don't see why they can't. I'm an atheist, but that's how I try to live. Too many people are wrapped up in the nonsense that you can't live a good and moral life without religion. Sad that they can't see beyond their own biases.

3

Which God? Should we believe in Zeus “just in case”. How about Ra? Allah? Oh geez what if I follow the wrong one????

3

I don't need a religion or god to be a good person. I'm not the best, but I do good without a thought of an afterlife. At least I don't condemn a baby to hellfire if it isn't baptized.

3

This is a form of Pascal's wager.

3

Based on the assumption that any God is so stupid that it wouldn't know you were faking it. It's not like gods are omnipotent or omniscient or anything. If there's anyone you can pull wool over their eyes, it's a God. Yes sir.

3

That's horseshit. Easy one. Anything else? 🤓

3

As an extra comment here.
If, as the o.p. states, " it is advisable to live your life as if there is a God" then logically it is also condoning, promoting and advising, etc, they we ALL should behave as would this Abrahamic God, i.e. decide to send forth a massive flood and wipe out every living person save a few, commit genocide on neighbouring peoples and nations, commit rape and pillage with immunity, capture, keep and breed and sell slaves, etc, etc, the list is almost endless so I won't bother even trying to write the whole thing.
But I will add this, NO thanks, I'll stay a decent, Heathen Atheist, a Humanitarian and Humanist, etc, rather than following in the footsteps of an Imaginary, Vile, Genocidal, Ego-centric, Psychopathic, Socio-pathic Dictatorial Tyrant.

3

IMHO, pure and unadulterated BULLSHIT. Live each day as if it were your last, be good to yourself, kind and considerate towards others, take from life and nature no more than you truly need and ALWAYS give more than you take, that's the motto I do my darnedest to abide by.

3

The ruling ideas of a society are the rules of the ruling class. Karl Marx

Actually it was "the ruling ideas of a society are the ideas of the ruling class"

3

Nope, that's dumb. It's not that hard to be a good person.....

3

Complete BS.

3

Why is this advisable and what does it mean?

3

I think it's cowardly AF.

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