Why are some people not Christian?

[_brady_]

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Have yet to see a single good argument here.

Jake

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The arguments you made could be made for pretty much any religion. So then...

Why are some people Christian and not Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, etc.?

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[Ben K]

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1. It doesn't make psychological sense.



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This claim is far superior to the others. You're right, atheism makes very little psychological sense. Believers are generally happier than nonbelievers, and they probably live longer. Atheists benefit by satisfying an intellectual conscience, but this by no means measures up to the promise of heaven that satisfies religious people. The problem is, we don't have much of a choice; conscience is a strong thing, and it won't budge easily. (Why couldn't I have taken the blue pill?). An atheist believes that it doesn't matter if he has faith or not, yet he still holds on to a hope for enlightenment, no matter how vain he really knows it is. This is the small amount of faith he allows himself, when he feels confident and proud. In weaker moments even this is too far a stretch.

That's not to say it's all bad, however. There are times the atheist rejoices in his freedom, since he has thrown off the yoke of rigid morality. When opportunities present themselves, he doesn't need to restrict himself like the convservative one who slavishly denies his own pleasure.

But, in the scheme of overall happiness, believers win this round. For the most part, at least. I'm pretty sure there are a good amount of self-loathing, life-resenting christians out there who justify life only by the promise of a better one. And that is very sad.

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Far superior perhaps but still far from correct. Non-believers are more intelligent and better educated, on average, than believers. This has been proved many times.

Greater education improves life expectancy because of access to better jobs with better pay and increased access to healthcare and generally better life preserving decision making. This is also proved continually by studies into mortality.

So there are proven positive statistical links between non-believing and life expectancy.

As for general happiness, well. A bit hard to measure no? Essentially, believers and non-believers do all the same things in life, often including church so why would you suggest they would be generally less happy. Oh, yeah becuase you're told this is the case.

[Hoi Polloi]

Why are some people not atheists?

This has been something that has pestered me lately and I just don't think it makes sense inuitively to not be. Even more important and what I'm truly getting at is why do people believe? I know there are satanics and christians and other religions who believe in God and my question is why?

1. It doesn't make psychological sense.
2. So the earth was made by whom then? ;- )
3. Why wouldn't you be? You have nothing to gain by following the word of God as he set it out.

[PuppyFridayYall]

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1. It doesn't make psychological sense.
2. So the earth was made by whom then? ;- )
3. Why wouldn't you be? You have nothing to gain buy not following the word of God as he set it out.

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1. God not existing is a relief to me. At least there is a limit to the possible evil he/the universe is capable of.

2. So, god was made by who then? Moran!

3. You have everything to gain by not taking the bible seriously. You may hit on a better solution than the one promoted in it.


Sorry, this was really addressed to the poster you answered! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Says the man who can't spell moron,.

[PuppyFridayYall]

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Why are some people not atheists?

This has been something that has pestered me lately and I just don't think it makes sense inuitively to not be. Even more important and what I'm truly getting at is why do people believe? I know there are satanics and christians and other religions who believe in God and my question is why?

1. It doesn't make psychological sense.
2. So the earth was made by whom then? ;- )
3. Why wouldn't you be? You have nothing to gain by following the word of God as he set it out.

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Umm wow this is so inherently stupid I don't know where to begin. Don't you think its a little obvious that you just copied my post and changed some words around? The one thing is it doesn't make sense your way.

[Lestat]

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Why are some people not atheists?

This has been something that has pestered me lately and I just don't think it makes sense inuitively to not be. Even more important and what I'm truly getting at is why do people believe? I know there are satanics and christians and other religions who believe in God and my question is why?

1. It doesn't make psychological sense.
2. So the earth was made by whom then? ;- )
3. Why wouldn't you be? You have nothing to gain by following the word of God as he set it out.

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Umm wow this is so inherently stupid I don't know where to begin. Don't you think its a little obvious that you just copied my post and changed some words around? The one thing is it doesn't make sense your way.

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Ah, and to everyone not of your ilk, YOUR way doesn't make sense! It's laughable that you can't see his response is no more stupid than the OP (his intention, I'm sure).

What a small little self-important world you live in.

[MidGe]

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1. It doesn't make psychological sense.
2. So the earth was made by whom then? ;- )
3. Why wouldn't you be? You have nothing to gain buy not following the word of God as he set it out.

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1. God not existing is a relief to me. At least there is a limit to the possible evil he/the universe is capable of.

2. So, god was made by who then? Moran!

3. You have everything to gain by not taking the bible seriously. You may hit on a better solution than the one promoted in it.


Sorry, this was really addressed to the poster you answered! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Says the man who can't spell moron,.

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Newbie, hey! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[ChrisV]

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Says the man who can't spell moron,.

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Joke reference:



btw, I notice you ignored my post and instead quoted things you could ridicule.

[Hoi Polloi]

I sorry you find it stupid. I was simply trying to make the point that these beliefs are largely dependent on perspective and assumptions. After all, what does it mean to say that belief in the christian god is intuitively sensible? That the very belief is self-justifying? That's just begging the question as far as I can see.

Let me try this another way:

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This has been something that has pestered me lately and I just don't think it makes sense inuitively to not be.

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Again, I'm not sure what you mean by "intuitively". Are you saying "I don't know why people don't believe in god."?


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Even more important and what I'm truly getting at is why do people not believe?

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So, your key question is "Why don't people believe in god."?


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I know there are satanics and other religions who do not believe in God but there are also people who do not have ANY FAITH whatsoever and my question is why?

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So, you're asking, then, why don't people believe in any kind of supreme being be it satan or the christian god? So you can understand believing in other gods but not believing in some supreme diety or super-human entity just does not make sense to you? Persumably because there's so much evidence for the presence of satan, or god, or supernatural forces in the world?


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1. It doesn't make psychological sense.
2. So the earth was made by whom then? ;- )
3. Why wouldn't you be? You have nothing to gain buy not following the word of God as he set it out.

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And this list, then, are some issues that for you are addressed sufficiently only by your belief in god or belief that there is some supernatural power.

Well, let me address each of these in reverse order.

#3. Why wouldn't you be [a believer in god]? You have nothing to gain buy [sic] not following the word of God as he set it out.

This point begs the question of belief by asserting that I can know prior to belief that the Bible ("following the word of God as he set it out") is without doubt the word of god. But, why should I believe that to be the case? The bible is a document that people say is the word of god but there is nothing intrinsic to the bible that would lead me to believe it is the word of some super natural entity. If I just stumbled across the bible on side walk or in a drawer in a hotel room; what is there about this physical object that can assure me that it is the inerrant word of a divine being? Believing the bible to be the word of god is always already wrapped up with belief in god such that the argument that I should believe in god because I have nothing to lose by following the rules laid down in the bible by an entity in which I do not believe in rather assumes what it sets out to prove, no?

As to the particular issue of whether or not I have something to lose by following these rules; are there not many, many rules in the bible (613 in the old testament alone) that most so-called believers have not even heard about let alone follow? For instance, adulterers should be stoned to death in the village square. Do you believe that? Do I have nothing to lose by following that rule? How about the rule that says I should sell all my possessions and follow Jesus. Do you follow this rule? Do I really have nothing to lose by following it?

#2. So the earth was made by whom then? ;- )

Where does this question come from? Does one wander about wondering "who made the earth"? Is this a pressing question? If so, why exactly this question? Why the question of authorship? Or craftsmanship? Or a personhood ("who")? Who made the earth? It is sort of a weird question. I went to the lake to go fishing but I couldn't fish because I was stymied by this nagging question: who made the lake?

So, in short, the earth was not made by anyone. Not by man, nor beast, nor bird, nor god. Zeus didn't make it, Allah didn't make it, Jesus didn't make it, Yahweh didn't make it. It is unmade, uncrafted, as it were. It is no one's junior high science fair model.

#1. It doesn't make psychological sense.

One or more posters suggested that this was the only part of your post that made any sense but, for the life of me, I have no idea what you mean by psychological sense. Do you mean that the world must have a creator since everything we know was make by someone so to the world must have been made by someone? Man-made things were made by man. Everything else seems rather unmade to me.

Or are you simply saying that christians get a good deal. Follow Jesus and live forever in paradise; that you can't understand how anyone could reject such a great deal--it is literally unthinkable? This goes back to the whole belief business. If I tell you that I will give you eternal life on an ice cream planet if only you shave your head everyday of your life are you going to do it? Ice cream planet, eternal life, good deal!! Well, you'd probably ask yourself, why should I believe this guy is capable of fulfilling this promise? And so you would be in my shoes when someone like you says to me, why wouldn't you be a christian: eternal life, paradise, good deal!!!

So, there are my active reasons for not taking this great deal. On the passive side, it just doesn't come up. I don't wander about wondering whether there's a powerful all-knowing creator with a plan I should be devoting my life to. It just doesn't come up.

I hope that helps.