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Importance of believing in GOD
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Religion is Destructive
Why does “God” interact with humans from 6000 BC to 600 AD but is nowhere to be seen once the video cameras are invented? Many people agree that it is absolutely impossible to prove that there is a higher force controlling us. Yet many people still choose to believe that there is some mystical force has planned our lives out and a nonexistent figurine is guiding us through life. There is no solid evidence or any logical argument for God. His existence is solely based on faith and not by proof. Religion is like an addictive drug and devoured by desperate people. But then again, what is there to lose from believing? Belief in a god makes the world black and white, less confusing, and easier to deal with but the universe does not owe us comfort and meaning; we create them ourselves through our various religions. Religion gives us harmful
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But if God exists, the believer gains everything (goes to heaven) and the unbeliever loses everything (goes to hell). If God doesn’t exist, the believer loses nothing and the unbeliever gains nothing. There is therefore everything to gain and nothing to lose by believing in God.” However, there are many flaws with this logic. Pascal’s Wager theory depends on the idea that you don’t lose much by believing. Many have died from putting their trust in God for help instead of seeking reality-based solutions such as medicine. Every day billions of believers devote significant time, energy and money to worshipping their god. That money could have been invested in the development for both the individual and for humanity as a whole which explains why the least religious nations are also the most advanced nations. Nigeria, for example, is one of the most corrupt nations today and also one of the most religious. Another flaw with Pascal's logic is that you are assuming that all unbelievers will go to hell. There are horrific religious people as well as good-hearted
Religion has greatly influenced western civilization. Religion is a way to express ourselves in our own way. To be able to choose who or what we believe in freely. This gives us a sense of individualism and helps our civilization to grow and develop each religion. Just about every ancient culture practiced religion in some way. They were either monotheist, polytheist, atheist, or believed in “magic”. Western civilization was impacted by religion in more ways than one. Every religion contributed in their own way. Some religions even worked together to help create a stronger, more structured civilization.
Pascal’s Wager was a major strength of his theory on God and Religion. The argument made in Pascal’s Wager is an example of apologetic philosophy. It was written and published in Pensées by the 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal’s Wager claims that all humans must bet their lives on whether God exists. He argues that rational people should seek to believe in God. If God does not exist the loss is minimal, but if God does exist there is an infinite gain, eternity in Heaven. It was a ground-breaking theory because it utilized probability theory and formal decision theory. Pascal’s Wager is applicable both to atheists and theists. While other philosophies may
Pascal’s Wager is an argument that tries to convince non-theists why they should believe in the existence of the Christian god. Pascal thinks non-theists should believe in God’s existence because if a non-theist is wrong about the existence of God they have much more to lose than if a theist is wrong about the existence of God.
In today’s culture, dominated by being right and shunning anyone who dares to oppose that right option, society is in a constant game of who can convert the most people to their beliefs. Since there were people to debate about it, even before there were Twitter memes of Kim Davis to retweet or website articles like The Plan For Muslim World Dominance, religion has been a staple topic to be right about. As society appears to be falling apart at its seams, it is time to set pride aside and find common ground. As a nation of immigrates, Americans live side-by-side with Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. No longer do public schools have Christian-based daily pray, and almost 10% of the 114th Congress consists of religions other than Christianity. It is time the world’s people found their
...age existed far before religion came along. But what if our ancestors spoke of religious teachings but never recorded them? Then we can say religion existed before organized religion. Does this time-line give credit to religion or prove that humanity can exist and even prosper without religion? It is likely that what we call religion today has existed since the first days the Homo genus. People came together and were kept together by their similarities and like-mindedness. However, as our population grew, so did the pluralisms of man. These “human principles of cooperation” became labeled and domesticated. Soon idea A became more lucrative and thus reinforced and Idea B forgotten. When we found something that worked for us, we took it and ran with it, refining it on the fly. In this way, we can say, “Yes, God exists”. After all, God is whatever we humans say he is.
Pascal’s wager is the name given to an argument that was present by Blaise Pascal who was a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. Pascal had a strong belief for God’s existence. The argument hypothesizes and attempts to prove that there is more to be obtained from venturing on the existence of God rather than the rejection of the existence of God. Pascal’s wager states that man loses nothing in believing in God instead of reason through a game of chance. “You must either believe of not believe that God is – which will you do?” (Bailey, 99). Here, Pascal argues that reason and intellect cannot decide the question of whether God exists or not. Therefore, it makes logical sense to choose the option that would benefit us most even if it were considered to be right. Pascal states four options: one may live a religious and moral life and be rewarded by eternal happiness; one may live a pleasure – seeking life and be denied eternal happiness; one may live a holy live but there is actually no God or eternal life; and one may live a pleasure-seeking but it makes no difference because there is no God. The first of these options is the most important one because it represents the maximum gain and loss. If the turn out proves that there is no God, then the sheer risk of deciding against such a possibility warrants that we should take that option (99).
In the first two paragraphs of Pascal’s “Of the Necessity of the Wager” the idea addressed is that one must seek God in order for God to seek them. There are those who only say they seek God, making an artificial effort through attending church, and reading the bible only to say they are still blind to his glory. Then there are those, who sincerely seek God with their whole heart in interest of all that is them and the world they live in. These beginning paragraphs carry a condescending tone. The author does this by addressing the ignorance of the unbelievers, and a counter argument to their disbelief.
Pascal’s argument “The Wager” says that it is more reasonable to believe in God than to not believe in god. There are many objections to “The Wager” argument, but William G. Lycan and George N. Schlesinger defend Pascal’s argument. This response will give a brief overview of Pascal’s wager and an overview of Lycan and Schlesinger’s argument while it is being evaluated.
In The Wizard of Oz (1939), Dorothy and her friends journey to the Emerald City in seek of Oz – the great and powerful wizard. Upon finally reaching him, Dorothy’s dog opens a curtain to reveal that the Wizard is merely an ordinary man speaking into a microphone while using various knobs and levers to create a smoke-and-mirrors effect. In many ways this story is similar to the creation and interpretation of religion by individuals within society.
Between the years of 300 and 800 C.E different cultures’ religion and politics were correlated to each other. Religion is commonly linked to politics because it is an important aspect of people lives. Even though some influences may be negative or positive towards the people, the religion’s protocol is always a major factor. Christianity caused uproar in the Roman faith, so they created laws that affected their environment and laws that were unfair to Christians. Islam positively affected the government and improved their environment. These different religions will show the different impact it brought among their people.
The proof for the existence of God is an issue that may never be resolved. It has caused division among families and friends, nations and society. The answer to the question “does God exist?” is almost an impossible one to give with certainty seeing that there is a variety of people, ideas, cultures and beliefs. So how does one know if one’s actions here on earth could have eternal consequences? What is, if any, a “safe bet” to make? Blaise Pascal was a 15th century philosopher and a mathematician who proposed the idea that although one cannot know for certain that God exists, one can make a “safe bet” that it is far better to believe in God than not to believe in God. This is not a proof for the existence of God but rather an idea that suggest that if there is a God, it is in the person’s benefit to believe rather to disbelieve because the odds are in favor of the believer. This gambler-like idea is better known as “Pascal’s Wager” or “The Gambler’s Argument.” Nevertheless, this sort of play-the-ponies idea is not quite precise. Although Pascal’s Wager serves as a stepping-stone for non-believers, it is a rather vague, faithless and inaccurate argument.
disagreement. With everyone trying to promote themselves in the eyes of God, or achieve eternal salvation spirituality is no longer about humanity’s deliverance. The individual believes that as long as he serves the word of God he is justified in benefiting himself. Humans have, in a way, made religion into a competition, and with competition comes conflict.
Over the years, society has come to evolve and progressively become more efficient as society’s viewpoints and perspectives on various aspects of life have also changed. However, the one aspect of life that has stayed constant has been religion. The impact of a constant religious opinion on a changing society has detrimental and benign effects on the populace of such a society.
Modern debates over religion, more specifically God, focus primarily on whether or not sufficient evidence exists to either prove or disprove the existence of a God. Disbelievers such as biologist Richard Hawkins tend to point to the indisputable facts of evolution and the abundance of scientific evidence which seem to contradict many aspects of religion. Conversely, believers such as Dr. A. E. Wilder-Smith describe the controversial aspects of science, and how the only possible solution to everything is a supreme being. However, mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal refused to make either type of argument; he believed that it was impossible to determine God’s existence for certainty through reason. Instead, he suggested that rational individuals should wager as though God does indeed exist, because doing so offers these individuals everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Unfortunately, Pascal’s Wager contains numerous fallacies, and in-depth analysis of each one of his arguments proves that Pascal’s Wager is incorrect.
Religion is the biggest killer of all time, with many countries being destroyed. The reason is simple. A religion that allows its faithful to "stray...