*snip*
I'll close with a quote from a godly man I once knew... "If I live my life uprightly and it turns out there is no God, so be it, I lived a good life. But I'd hate to be the guy who lived his life for the vain pleasures of this world assuming there is no God, but was wrong."
I don't disagree with what you said, even though I'm atheist. Assuming God exists, I agree with what you said, and more importantly how you said it. That's a very good stance to have.
I only reply because of the quote you used. It just rubs me the wrong way some, but that could be me just reading too far into it. It seems to me like it's pointing at atheists, and generalizing them. It's probably not, and I'm just reading into it, but I just wanted to point to that.
And that's a problem I have generally, about how some people tend to view atheists. We are often put down, thinking we are some heathen sinful person, when that's usually not true. I'm not saying you specifically think that way or anything of the sort, your quote just got me onto this topic.
Atheists are no different than every other person. We all sin, some more than others, and we all have negative qualities, some mroe than others. But there isn't much correlation between what you believe and just how far up you are on the sin scale. I've known people who claim they are Christian and do more sinful things then i would have imagined. On the opposite, I've known atheists that are nicer, and more good natured than most religious people I know. it's those 'gems' that do fit the stereotype that really give people of a respective group a bad name. And its, more than not, the bad ones that get the most attention, and spread around the stereotype around more.
I personally don't believe in God, a god, a goddess, multiple gods and goddesses, or anything of the like. The reason is for a lack of credible scientific evidence. I don't have a hard time believe there is a god, or goddess, or whatever, I just choose to follow a more scientific path, at least until some hard scientific evidence. My mind won't be swayed on that as I don't believe such evidence exists as of yet, if ever at all. I've heard and scene plenty of people defend both sides and provide what they say is evidence, but for everything that I know, I can't see what they present as evidence supporting their claim for religion. But that's me just rambling now.
I kind of went right past my point. Regardless of what you believe, or don't believe, it shouldn't influence you being a good person. You shouldn't be a good person because a religion tells you to. I think that is pretty stupid. You should be a good person, do good things, because you want to, because that's who you want to be, and because it's generally accepted as the right thing to do. I know religion has a large basis in what everyone sees as right and wrong, and it's hard not to be influenced some that way. Some things are obvious(don't murder) and somethings are more blurry(adultery), but after so many years, those things have evolved into a general acceptance of right and wrong, with some moral ambiguity sprinkled here and there.
I know many people who will, and have, argued what i'm about to say before, and regardless of what I say, people will most likely discuss it, but what I believe is that if a god does exist, you just need to be a good person to gain the rewards of whatever religion that god is about. I know, at least in Christianity, just being a good person doesn't grant you access to heaven, but you have to believe Jesus is your lord and savior. I just can't wrap my mind around that. Why would a loving god turn his child away, not because he was a bad person, but simply because he does not believe? That's just...it's just wrong in my mind. And just simply believing in Jesus doesn't grant you access to heaven too, at least, I'm somewhat sure of that. I could be wrong because of the line "For he who does believe in Me shall not perish but have everlasting life." There could me more before or after it that I don't know or other lines. But that's just me rambling again.
