That was not the message at all. Priests and ministers never said “Your child is with God, and you’re going to be psychologically stronger after this!” What a pile of garbage that would be. And in any case it doesn’t address the original question. You’re asserting God has chosen to make people suffer so they’ll have the strength to survive the suffering he created (unless they die). What’s the point?
I don’t think most religious people believe that. As you’re about to note, it defeats the entire point of praying.
Right. God doesn’t intervene in human affairs and has a divine plan, but answers prayers.
That’s not a problem! It’s a tremendous benefit!
Life becomes dull and dreary unless you either believe you will get an eternal reward for being nice or tortured forever for being naughty? How does that work? I think the belief that life is just a prologue to something else makes life seem much more dull and dreary than atheism does. Atheism strongly emphasizes the life we’re already living.
Agreed. Atheism is a luxury. Let’s put it this way if you belonged to an Australian aborigine tribe somewhere far removed from civilization, you would be focused solely on agriculture and hunting for your survival. You’d be so busy working you wouldn’t have time to sit back and enjoy yourself.
Atheism is a luxury. Religious people don’t have that kind of time. Generally, they are God-fearing and responsible people. They are responsible to God, to their Country and to their community. They fear that the Devil will tempt them to take alcohol and drugs so they avoid them like the plague. They want to avoid anything that will possibly make them less responsible.
Agreed. Waffles are delicious. (What does this have to do with what I said? You can’t agree with me via non sequitur.)
I didn’t say anything about enjoying yourself. I said it places more emphasis on this life. If you believe in an afterlife, whatever you do on earth is a prologue to something that lasts infinitely longer. If you don’t, this is what you get and you have to make the most of it.
The kind of time for what? The time to enjoy things? Of course they do. Time to think about things? Yes, they do.
None of this has even the vaguest relationship to anything I said, and it’s also garbage. Some religious people are abstemious and responsible, and many aren’t. Many don’t believe in the Devil, many don’t avoid alcohol and drugs, many are not responsible. And anyway, you appear to have completely misunderstood what I was talking about - that or you’re indulging in some stereotypes about the virtues of religious people.
It’s not true of every atheist, so I won’t attempt to speak for them all. Atheists are self-centered and see themselves as the center of the Universe. Also, I won’t say that all religious people are God-centered, but that is the goal. We believe that we are responsible to God and that we are on earth to do His work. And for most of us He is a loving and merciful God.
You have a very interesting way of not attempting to speak for people. Some atheists are self-centered for sure and I will grant that on average they are probably less community-oriented that religious believers. But that’s not universally true. And anyway, in case you missed this somehow, what you are writing bears zero relation to what I was talking about.