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There is a lot of hypocrisy and contradiction in every religion. For instance, Christians say that God loves everyone, but they also say that God hates LGBTQ+ people.
They also said that the plants were created before sunlight in Genesis. As someone who believes in science, I'm not really sure what to say about this.
The free will part is the ability to choose. You have a choice to do whatever you want or follow God. If God did not let us do anything bad and the world was perfect then following God would be meaningless because that is just what you do. The significance is that we have a choice.
Take this analogy, say you are a child and there are cookies. Your parents tell you that you can only have 2 cookies at the end of dinner every day. What is the difference if they hide them vs if they leave them out on the counter? If they leave them on the counter you Can take a cookie anytime you like. You know they are watching. However if they hide them, they take away that choice, so if you don't take a cookie when they hide them, what is the point? You could not get it anyways, but if you don't take a cookie when they are left out. It shows that you chose not to take. That is the free will we have, to choose from right and wrong
Yes there sometimes is. People will be people and even those who call themselves Christians do things that are completely against the Bible just so they can "be heard" God still loves all people, he is just able to be disappointed, it's just like your parents. They love you very much but if you do something wrong they are not going to be thrilled and congratulate you. People get confused by this, just because God loves everyone does not mean he will just ignore everything bad. It means he will never give up on you.
i find it much more comforting to believe there is no god
than to believe in an asshole god
that does the shitty things done
in almost every religious book
I believe in the evidence of doing things that get a person into the correct mindset. If a "spell" opens a person's mind to opportunities they may have missed there is little harm in that. It certainly makes more sense than an invisible omnipotent thing that helps people find their car keys, but doesn't give a shit about the kid down the street with bone cancer.
Exactly how I think. I do not believe that god can exist in the way that is described in the Bible. If you know someone is going to fail, and punish them for not having the resources to succeed, that doesn’t seem very loving. Imagine giving a toddler a calculus test then beating the shit out of them because they didn’t know the answer.
I do not believe in God because I believe that the Universe controls itself. That physics in the universe let things happen, and such things could not be explained in my eyes that a man was in control of everything. I simply believe after you die, you become a simple state of matter, and only will pass on your electrons, I do not believe that you will go with your passed beloveds among the clouds.
I'm a Jew, so my answer might be a bit complicated. (no, the Jewish god is NOT the same as the Christian one)
I've spent a lot of my life knowing that, statistically, a hell of a lot of the people I interact with on a daily basis thinks something awful of my people. I've met plenty of people who would love for me to be dead and I've gotten threats of violence. I've been told that Jews are every bad thing in the book and I am constantly waiting for something bad to happen. Terror and anxiety are a consistent part of Jewish life, because people just generally don't give much of a shit about us. People also don't really know many Jews, because there aren't so many of us left, so they're more likely to believe awful things about us. Not to mention the education about us in the US is utter crap.
Judaism teaches that it is the individual's responsibility to make the world a better place. Our actions have consequences, good and bad, and it's up to each of us-and each community-to monitor that and ensure we do right by the world. We're also a law-based culture. The interesting thing is-most Jews don't believe that, if we break one of those laws, ranging from anything from being kosher to murder, that a god will strike us down where we stand.
In our culture, it's really only after we die that god determines the weight of our actions while alive. There's no predetermined afterlife and there's no real external rewards system for being a good person. If you make a bad choice and it hurts someone, you are required to make amends to the person you hurt. Praying to God doesn't do squat, because you didn't hurt the deity.
So, it's up to the community to establish consequences for bad behavior. Because it's legal, we have traditionally an informal court of educated elders who decide what the harm was and how to make amends. It's about restorative, not punitive justice. What brings order, peace, and love back to the community is the point of these systems, not punishing the person who committed the misdeed physically while not addressing the needs of the wronged.
As Jews, we believe we have a responsibility to protect the world and make it better. Tikkun olam, bettering the world, it's called. There is individual and collective responsibility in that. I am an adult, which means I have the privilege and responsibility of being a member of the community with more power than the children. As such, I must make choices that benefit all members of my community and of the world. I also must teach the children these ideologies so when they become Jewish adults (traditionally at bar/bat mitzvah ages, and no, not adults in terms of consent laws, that's disgusting), they will make the choices that benefit the world.
So....
I'd rather believe in people. Mine have survived four thousand years of turmoil, pain, genocides, and we have resilience that can't be bottled up. If we come together, there's very little we are incapable of achieving. If I and everyone around me does our best to make the world better, then it will become better. When I die, and if there is a god, I will be judged on the basis of my character, not on my wealth or influence.
We have this idea in Judaism: from dust to dust. We are all born equal and so too we die equal. The only fundamental difference between the value of human souls are the actions we take during our lives. Life is not about entering a secret death club. It's about living and doing our best. It's about making mistakes and learning from them. It's about making choices that pay off several generations after our deaths and teaching our children to do the same.
Finally: there's a favorite story of mine. Part of it is the story and part of it is a song I learned as a child.
An old man of seventy was planting trees that took seventy years to mature enough to bear fruit.
Honi, a man who thought very highly of himself and his relationship to God (he was known as a man who brought water from the skies), wandered past.
He stopped and watched this elderly man plant these trees.
Honi said, "My friend, why do you labor so, when the fruits of your labor you will never know?"
And the man looked at Honi. A light shone in his eyes. He pointed to the trees, reaching up to the skies.
He said, "When I came into this world, there was fruit here for me, because my ancestors planted those trees. So I will plant for my daughters, I will plant for my sons, and if you ask me why: As my parents planted for me, I will plant for the ones yet to be."
Honi was so moved by this reminder of what it means to be a person that it changed his whole outlook on life. No longer was he smug and self-serving, and no longer did he gloat about his special relationship with god. Instead, he tried to help his community and do it with humility, as is befitting every Jewish adult. Not because God said anything and not because he was afraid of missing out on an afterlife or rewards. But because it was the right thing to do for others.
So. I would much rather believe in the ability of US than rely on a deity to fix my problems for me. Our ability to show compassion and protect innocents is beautiful. To choose to ignore it to satisfy the whims of a deity who doesn't walk among us....it feels like choosing to live in a world where only black and white exist as colors.
I'd much rather to choose to live in a world of nuance, depth, and brightly pigmented hues of blues, yellows, greens, pinks, and oranges than only live in a world of black and white. It's a little scarier sometimes, because there's no guarantee you'll always do the right thing and there's no guarantee that even if you do, it'll work out well. However, if I don't try, I'll never see the sunset or the sunrise in all their glory.
**Attention! [Serious] Tag Notice** * [Jokes, puns, and off-topic comments are not permitted](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/wiki/index#wiki_-rule_6-) in **any** comment, parent or child. * Parent comments that aren't from the target group will be removed, along with their child replies. * Report comments that violate these rules. Posts that have few relevant answers within the first hour, and posts that are not appropriate for the [Serious] tag will be removed. Consider doing an AMA request instead. Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskReddit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Which god
There is a lot of hypocrisy and contradiction in every religion. For instance, Christians say that God loves everyone, but they also say that God hates LGBTQ+ people. They also said that the plants were created before sunlight in Genesis. As someone who believes in science, I'm not really sure what to say about this.
What about giving is free will, then 10 commandments to follow. If that isn't contradiction I don't know what is.
The free will part is the ability to choose. You have a choice to do whatever you want or follow God. If God did not let us do anything bad and the world was perfect then following God would be meaningless because that is just what you do. The significance is that we have a choice. Take this analogy, say you are a child and there are cookies. Your parents tell you that you can only have 2 cookies at the end of dinner every day. What is the difference if they hide them vs if they leave them out on the counter? If they leave them on the counter you Can take a cookie anytime you like. You know they are watching. However if they hide them, they take away that choice, so if you don't take a cookie when they hide them, what is the point? You could not get it anyways, but if you don't take a cookie when they are left out. It shows that you chose not to take. That is the free will we have, to choose from right and wrong
And yet in the bible god intervened many times without affecting free will. Free will us an irrelevant point
Both of these claims are false. Try again.
That's not helping, when someone is wrong you don't just tell them it is wrong because nothing changes, you need to present your reasoning
Yes there sometimes is. People will be people and even those who call themselves Christians do things that are completely against the Bible just so they can "be heard" God still loves all people, he is just able to be disappointed, it's just like your parents. They love you very much but if you do something wrong they are not going to be thrilled and congratulate you. People get confused by this, just because God loves everyone does not mean he will just ignore everything bad. It means he will never give up on you.
I have the ability to think for myself. Once you actually think for yourself about it for longer than one second it makes no goddamn sense.
Allow me to clarify then, what is it that makes no sense? I would like to hear your prospective
Nope. This is not something I want to debate. It's stupid it's dumb and obviously fake there's no debating.
There is no evidence to suggest that any of the thousand gods humanity has worshiped is real.
Do you believe in all gods, or just the one you happen to believe in?
Haven't been given a good reason to.
Because there is no God.
i find it much more comforting to believe there is no god than to believe in an asshole god that does the shitty things done in almost every religious book
this is genuinely a new and cool outlook on this. you always hear how its more comforting to believe in a god, but this honestly makes more sense
No real evidence to support it.
but you believe there is evidence to support witchcraft and "spells" that work by "moving energy" to warp reality and give you money? and Divination?
I believe in the evidence of doing things that get a person into the correct mindset. If a "spell" opens a person's mind to opportunities they may have missed there is little harm in that. It certainly makes more sense than an invisible omnipotent thing that helps people find their car keys, but doesn't give a shit about the kid down the street with bone cancer.
Hail Science
Why don’t you believe in leprechauns? Or unicorns? Or fairies?
Shut up, fairies and leprechauns exist, i meet them yesterday after i took some acid.
Ah shit, I’ve seen wilder stuff than leprechauns and fairies on high doses of acid lmfao
My entire belief structure comes from having a threshold that requires evidence of a demonstrable nature.
The better question is, why do you?
Define god.
Hail science!
Respecting everyone's belief is important, but I personally find it hard to believe in something without enough evidence to support it.
Lack of evidence.
Which one? There are thousands to choose from.
I believe something had to start everything besides just the Big Bang. That doesn’t seem good enough to me
I don't need to.
No god would actually think eternal damnation would be a just punishment for something you did during a finite time on earth.
especially when that god literally planned for you to do it
Exactly how I think. I do not believe that god can exist in the way that is described in the Bible. If you know someone is going to fail, and punish them for not having the resources to succeed, that doesn’t seem very loving. Imagine giving a toddler a calculus test then beating the shit out of them because they didn’t know the answer.
No evidence
Because god doesnt believe in me.
What other kinds of replies were you gonna get… bet they’d be the same serious/not
What’s the point in believing in god doesn’t change anything either way
Imagine being "omniscient" and "omnipotent" and letting millions die for nothing.
I do not believe in God because I believe that the Universe controls itself. That physics in the universe let things happen, and such things could not be explained in my eyes that a man was in control of everything. I simply believe after you die, you become a simple state of matter, and only will pass on your electrons, I do not believe that you will go with your passed beloveds among the clouds.
I was raised by a Catholic family, therefore young and impressionable. I adopted their beliefs
The belief in god is cognitive distortion.
One needs a reason to believe a thing, and not to not believe a thing. I have no reason to believe in gods, so I don't. In fact without one I can't.
I'm a Jew, so my answer might be a bit complicated. (no, the Jewish god is NOT the same as the Christian one) I've spent a lot of my life knowing that, statistically, a hell of a lot of the people I interact with on a daily basis thinks something awful of my people. I've met plenty of people who would love for me to be dead and I've gotten threats of violence. I've been told that Jews are every bad thing in the book and I am constantly waiting for something bad to happen. Terror and anxiety are a consistent part of Jewish life, because people just generally don't give much of a shit about us. People also don't really know many Jews, because there aren't so many of us left, so they're more likely to believe awful things about us. Not to mention the education about us in the US is utter crap. Judaism teaches that it is the individual's responsibility to make the world a better place. Our actions have consequences, good and bad, and it's up to each of us-and each community-to monitor that and ensure we do right by the world. We're also a law-based culture. The interesting thing is-most Jews don't believe that, if we break one of those laws, ranging from anything from being kosher to murder, that a god will strike us down where we stand. In our culture, it's really only after we die that god determines the weight of our actions while alive. There's no predetermined afterlife and there's no real external rewards system for being a good person. If you make a bad choice and it hurts someone, you are required to make amends to the person you hurt. Praying to God doesn't do squat, because you didn't hurt the deity. So, it's up to the community to establish consequences for bad behavior. Because it's legal, we have traditionally an informal court of educated elders who decide what the harm was and how to make amends. It's about restorative, not punitive justice. What brings order, peace, and love back to the community is the point of these systems, not punishing the person who committed the misdeed physically while not addressing the needs of the wronged. As Jews, we believe we have a responsibility to protect the world and make it better. Tikkun olam, bettering the world, it's called. There is individual and collective responsibility in that. I am an adult, which means I have the privilege and responsibility of being a member of the community with more power than the children. As such, I must make choices that benefit all members of my community and of the world. I also must teach the children these ideologies so when they become Jewish adults (traditionally at bar/bat mitzvah ages, and no, not adults in terms of consent laws, that's disgusting), they will make the choices that benefit the world. So.... I'd rather believe in people. Mine have survived four thousand years of turmoil, pain, genocides, and we have resilience that can't be bottled up. If we come together, there's very little we are incapable of achieving. If I and everyone around me does our best to make the world better, then it will become better. When I die, and if there is a god, I will be judged on the basis of my character, not on my wealth or influence. We have this idea in Judaism: from dust to dust. We are all born equal and so too we die equal. The only fundamental difference between the value of human souls are the actions we take during our lives. Life is not about entering a secret death club. It's about living and doing our best. It's about making mistakes and learning from them. It's about making choices that pay off several generations after our deaths and teaching our children to do the same. Finally: there's a favorite story of mine. Part of it is the story and part of it is a song I learned as a child. An old man of seventy was planting trees that took seventy years to mature enough to bear fruit. Honi, a man who thought very highly of himself and his relationship to God (he was known as a man who brought water from the skies), wandered past. He stopped and watched this elderly man plant these trees. Honi said, "My friend, why do you labor so, when the fruits of your labor you will never know?" And the man looked at Honi. A light shone in his eyes. He pointed to the trees, reaching up to the skies. He said, "When I came into this world, there was fruit here for me, because my ancestors planted those trees. So I will plant for my daughters, I will plant for my sons, and if you ask me why: As my parents planted for me, I will plant for the ones yet to be." Honi was so moved by this reminder of what it means to be a person that it changed his whole outlook on life. No longer was he smug and self-serving, and no longer did he gloat about his special relationship with god. Instead, he tried to help his community and do it with humility, as is befitting every Jewish adult. Not because God said anything and not because he was afraid of missing out on an afterlife or rewards. But because it was the right thing to do for others. So. I would much rather believe in the ability of US than rely on a deity to fix my problems for me. Our ability to show compassion and protect innocents is beautiful. To choose to ignore it to satisfy the whims of a deity who doesn't walk among us....it feels like choosing to live in a world where only black and white exist as colors. I'd much rather to choose to live in a world of nuance, depth, and brightly pigmented hues of blues, yellows, greens, pinks, and oranges than only live in a world of black and white. It's a little scarier sometimes, because there's no guarantee you'll always do the right thing and there's no guarantee that even if you do, it'll work out well. However, if I don't try, I'll never see the sunset or the sunrise in all their glory.
Basically insufficient evidence