Take for example my amazing thoughts about God, and atheists. Seems some dude or group has taken out billboard ads saying that people can be good, or have hope, or lead meaningful lives, without believing in God. Isn't it interesting, finding out what people think is worth spending money on?
It's said not infrequently by religionists that believing in God makes people better. I suppose it's true, since God implies judgment. But everyone, almost, has a conscience, and that's punishment enough, almost. And society has been known in the past to punish wrong conduct. So there are two layers of punishment, before we get to God. But none of that says a lot about believing in God. Because it's not so much about belief, as reality.
If there is a God, it is secondary whether or not we believe in him, or whether such belief affects our conduct. Primary is that we agree with reality. Good things should ultimately follow from that. Take for example gravity. Believing in gravity doesn't make me a better person. It makes me fit better into the physical universe. Believing in God, if there is a God, is sane. Not believing in what does exist is the equivalent to believing in what does not exist. Both are inconsonant with reality.
And of course there's the uneasy question of, which god? Does belief in a god that does not exist make a person better? Gandhi was a good man, as men go, but which of the countless Hindu gods was his particular favorite? And how does having a false god make one better than having a true conscience? Nazis most assuredly had a god.
It isn't God who makes us good. It's following moral teaching. Whence does that come? Well, God, and in diluted form, from sane teachers. But sanity comes from recognizing and agreeing with reality.
Just thought I'd share that, a few minor observations that my magnificent brain so easily makes, and casually. Brilliance radiates from me as light flows from supernovas. Ah.
J
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