Sunday 14 June 2009

Better off with - or without - God?

Well, it depends what you want out of life. Truth or illusion - I am tempted to say.

Many argue that without God and without belief in God, the existence of the world is somehow mysterious. What is paradoxical about this claim is that many people who argue thus also say that God is mysterious. So, on this view, one mystery is replaced by another. Is that progress?

Many argue that without belief in God, there would be no sense of right and wrong, of what is morally good and bad. That is a frightening claim. Are such believers really saying that if they lacked belief in God, if God did not exist, then they would think it was perfectly all right to rape and pillage, torture and kill for the sheer fun of it? - that it would be okay for me to give well-argued essays low marks and poor essays high marks? If they are not saying that, then it shows they do not depend on belief in God for a sense of right and wrong. If they are saying that rape and pillage etc would be fine, if God does not exist or there is no godly belief, well it is best to steer clear of such people...

For further links to such thoughts, try humanism.

2 comments:

coricocat said...

If you haven't already seen it, I recommend watching 'The Invention of Lying' in cinemas just now.

WhyzGeek said...

'one mystery is replaced by another. Is that progress?'. This can be a progress but depends on the perspectives. I would argue all science is like that! We constantly solve problems and bumped into more problems! Is that a progress?! Expecting mystery from a mind is totally different type compared to a random event. Like if you role dice, you can have two explanation of the outcome. One you would say it was random. The other would say, the dice was designed to give such outcome. You can't disprove any of the claims unless you repeat the event and compare several outcomes. Even in this case what science gives you is probability of having each theory right or wrong.

"Are such believers really saying that if they lacked belief in God, if God did not exist, then they would think it was perfectly all right to rape and pillage, torture and kill for the sheer fun of it?"

There is a difference between thinking something is right or wrong and doing something. People constantly do things which they don't think it is right! Now if you remove God and specially life after death. What would prevent someone not to steal? If it is quick money and nobody sees it, the mind tells you to go against your morals and do it. Actually there is old saying that for everybody there is a price! Just the amount is different. Certainly strong belief in God and hereafter will raise the bar. To prove this you can examine the converts to religions. Many of them led a horrible life before their conversions. Therefore, there is something in belief which humanist do not have!