This is a pretty good way of looking at things, actually. It reminds me somewhat of Pascal's Wager. That being: If a God doesn't exist and you don't worship him, it doesn't matter, you'll just be dead alongside everyone else. If a God doesn't exist and you believe in it, the result will be the same as previous mentioned. Alternatively if there is a God and you don't believe in it, you'll probably spend eternity in some form of punishment (suggesting this God isn't merciful). Whereas if there is a God and you do believe in it, you'll be granted eternal bliss in paradise. You don't lose out on anything if you believe in God, so you tell me the sensible option. That pretty much summarises it. If a God exists though, I would expect it to judge us more on our actions in life, as apposed to our belief. After all it gave us free-will.
Getting back to the OP, I think any objective look at the disparate and contradictory religious beliefs out there would strongly suggest that there is some explanation other than divine inspiration for the religious impulse in humans. The "cheeky fart" feeling is due to a lack of understanding, not you personally, but humans' ignorance in general. We cannot give concise and accurate answers to the secrets of the universe yet, and the ones we have got pretty far with are not shared with the general population of the earth, so it's no suprise that people turn to the writings of primitive cults for their cosmological models. Having said all that, I do think that there are psychological techniques used by many religions that can be of benefit to people. I would not like to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we first have to disentangle the dogma from the technique... a lot like martial arts really...
How do you know it is non-falsifiable? That might not be true. Why can't we prove God doesn't exist, somehow? It would seem that if that is indeed reality, we can prove it someday. With apologies to Kierkegaard, IF it happens to turn out God exists, and God cares does really care about you believing in him: you could actually be in for some trouble. Believing would then be a safe bet. If God or an afterlife doesn't exist, you're not going to be disappointed if there is nothing beyond the grave, you'll be dead. If you moderate or limit yourself to the vices of the world..well that seems to be a good idea in general, anyway, and hey, if that pleases your god and God exists then you're in for a good time, eternally speaking. To prove nothing in the Bible happened, we kind of do need evidence that it didn't happen to convince people. The Bible contains a lot that is historically accurate, but scientific processes and evidence discovered during archaeology has certainly proven many Biblical episodes to be inaccurate. What we don't have yet is any sort of evidence that the major religions are "fakes", or that Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad etc weren't real. There is ample evidence to suggest all three were, regardless of whatever mysticism you might attach to their being. Death is similar issue where logic doesn't really explain enough...even with logic, we still don't know what's beyond death. One person can claim to experience what's beyond death, and the other claims that's impossible and cite whatever logic or science they like...but neither truly knows for sure. Taking a yes/no position on such a grave matter....I'm not smart enough to be capable of such a thing.
Who are you to say how God would judge us if at all? For all we know God's a big baby having fun with us like ants. Or "god" is a giant being and the universe is just one cell or parasite on their body. We very well may be just an accident. To find out if God really exists we must wait for Prometheus 2 and 3 and see why the engineers created us. I like this theory gods a scientist who accidently created a virus which is our universe and sent the devil in as an exterminator.
Pascal's wager is broken: it does not account for the diversity of religious beliefs each promising eternal punishment. You are not choosing between belief and no belief, but a particular religion, and the wrong choice is just as bad. Besides which, belief based on self interest is not really belief. I could believe that there is a beautiful orca in my rectum, but that would be delusion based solely upon my cetaceous preferences.
Only if all criteria are accomplished that (a) God exists, (b) God exists in a format we have recognised (say the Abrahamic one), (c) God is interested in us and whether we believe in it, (d) there is the possibility of eternal paradise/damnation/some similar variation and (e) that our acceptance into that afterlife hinges on the notion that our belief in that deity is correct. Even then, what is to stop such a deity not knowing if a belief in it is simply hedging your bets or if it is sincere? What is there to stop such a deity being offended that the notion of a "hedge your bets" belief would be satisfactory to it? This is why I prefer the Atheists' Wager. Better to live your life in a way you deem good and if such a deity acknowledges your existence and cares, let it judge your life by the merits of your existence. And if we're totally wrong and there's nothing there, then hey - you did some good and probably threw a few parties
I wonder if the film Orca is any good. I rewatched Jaws the other week, I forgot what a classic it was. Shaw is great in it. I guess Orca won't be as good. I also saw a film about....On wait, I think I'm on the wrong thread.
There's a problem with that wager as well, how you define the "merits of your existence". Most religions lay those down in various formats, that seems to be their purpose (depending on where you're from of course). So without those religions to at least give some basic layout, how does one find "merit" throughout their existence? There are a lot of philosophers that have tackled that one, as well as ethicists. "Natural Law" etc. Cultural relativism presents some problems...some cultures and religions determine "merits" that are very counter to peaceful civilized society. Even a society of atheists could be deranged, self serving genocidal lunatics...I laughed so hard at that one South Park episode with the various factions of Atheists and otters fighting in the future because it had replaced religion. If you haven't seen that two - parter please do That's kind of why I brought up Kierkegaard (Existentialism 101) his "knight of faith" archetype etc. To be an atheist is relatively easy, especially if you rely on logic. To be a person of faith is to take a "leap" past logic to beyond death. It may be a slim margin, but it's still iron clad. Even if we break both Pascal and the Atheist's wager brothers, this fact remains. To science death is like outer space, we just don't know what's out there yet. Might be a bit soon to make vast assumptions...Cthulu might be laughing at us all, right now...foolish mortals... we might explore all of time and space and never find him, guess what, Cthulu turned out to be falsifiable!!
Where does my computer go when I switch it off? Will science ever have an answer? Still though, no matter what we believe, I think we can all agree that as long as we never build a house without sacrificing a llama to Pachamama, we'll be doing alright
Well then let's look, is there life in outer space? Not a yes/no question fellas if you give either it's an opinion...can't be proven either way yet but indications are there could be especially given the prevalence of water in space. So it's possible a huge demonic-looking organic beast from outer space could be hiding out int the stars, gobbling any life that passes by. Logic and science actually seem to support that idea, rather than prove it impossible. If life can exist anywhere, and given the diversity of life on earth, and given the extreme environments of space...why can't a Cthulu form? Yes brothers I am playing devil's advocate, before anybody gets excited Why can't the universe, or whatever spawned our universe, also form a god-like being able to manipulate it? The only real factor limiting our understanding of this concept could be time. What if humans learn to manipulate the laws of time and space. What would we learn about God then? Would we find God, turtles, nothing, Chtulu...who really knows?
That's all fine. It's when you take money from suckers by claiming you talk to him; that's when it's not okay.
Well, likely because we thought it up. Stephen Hawking and a few others have made not of the fact that given our limited scope of experience it is highly unlikely we could conceptualize the form of any ET. The same with deities really. They're all oddly human for beings with such extraordinary power and non-human biology.
