Well, we don’t know there isn’t a pile of money waiting for us in some Nigerian bank, just waiting for us to send our trustworthy email friend $1000 to free it up for us…
…so clearly we should be telling everybody to hand over their credit card numbers as quickly as possible.
I think it would affect my sense of purpose (as opposed to sense of futility) and deprived of a sense of meaning or purpose to any of my behaviors I would cease to care what I did, to a major extent. That, in turn, would probably have some effect on my actual behaviors, although I can’t give you any specific predictions.
But why is it dumb? As long as you’re not believing that said idea is “real” the way the Arctic Ocean is real, taking the idea into your heart and drawing strength and inspiration from it might just be the smartest thing you ever did.
What kind of “strength” and “inspiration” do you think people are going to take from an evil fictional creature like God ?
I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but I didn’t want you thinking I was ignoring your points and I don’t know a better way of expressing this.
I don’t think I can continue this debate with you, because I think you are too emotionally involved to be objective.
Are you a former theist?
The image of Jesus locked in a trunk in the back of some church somewhere, bound and gagged, and only brought out on special occasions, and NEVER EVER being allowed to speak, keeps springing into my head.
Ok I can play that too, here are the instructions:
Now that is the Word and Wisdom of God, please don’t counter with wisdom of man, it just can’t stand.
That’s your idea of “wisdom” ? A false statement from a book of myths written by primitives ?
And the “wisdom of man” stands up FAR better than the “wisdom” of God. That’s why these days religion has been forced more and more to restructure itself to speak only on matters science can’t yet prove. Because the “wisdom” of God has virtually always been proven wrong when actually looked into. One of the distinguishing features of religion is that it’s relentlessly wrong; it fails, it errs, it outright deceives.
They truly got to you early, didn’t they?
“It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” -I Cor 1:21
I have no reason to think god is anything ***but ***an idea, and it gives me that much more incentive to do the right thing. There’s no one watching over any of us so we need to take care of each other. This is all there is, so we should try to get it right.
Yup. No take-backs, no do-overs, no ctrl-Z on life.
It’s us naked beach apes against a completely apathetic universe.
Huddle close and watch each other’s backs.
Things like honesty and thrift and virtue aren’t real, but are good to believe in. What use is God? The idea gives people moral (or immoral) values to live by without having to think about. It makes them feel the creator of the universe is on their side, either against another country or another football team. It gives them license to do all sorts of stuff, some good and some bad, without worrying if they are the right things to do. Maybe people can get behind the real ideas, and forget the god one, because if they really accept god as just an idea they would have to critically examine what kind of idea it is.
You make assumptions about the content or parameters of this concept “God” which are not applicable to everyone who uses the term, and in fact are probably not applicable to many who use it and would be at all comfortable with the idea that God is an abstraction.
In other words, you’re projecting “Sky God / Santa Claus” notions onto it where they don’t apply.
Conversely, the idea of God might make someone feel more connected with others, through God. It might inspire them to help their fellow humans, as it has done for thousands of people. It might bring them great comfort in times of sorrow.
Not every God is the one the bigots use.
Oh! Well put, better than I did. 
Seriously, I’m not playing anything - I just think it’s good debating manners not to boldly assert something, then boldly run away.
How can it be verified that it really is the word and wisdom of God? If it can only be verified by doing it, what do you say to people who did it, and found it not to work? (I’m pretty sure sure there will be some such people).
If you don’t want a discussion, a sandwich board might suit you better than a message board.
Really? God provided instructions? Sorry, all the annotated maps must have been removed from the various bibles that I have read.
Falling back on the bible is a cop-out. The bible is nothing but product, packaged and sold by religion to the gullible. That argument would be similar to claiming that Peter Pan actually exists because someone wrote a book about him.
And proof is your job. If you are going to make a definitive statement that a god exists, you need to be prepared to show proof of that statement. If you want to say that you believe that a god exists, that’s a different issue altogether.
Maybe the God is on our side bit, but not the other parts. If god does not supply moral values, then why bother? If god does not supply purpose, then why bother? You might as well be worshiping a wad of chewing gum. God gives answers - if not written in holy fire, than by the very fact of his existence. How would an idea give those answers?
Of course not, and I tried to acknowledge that the idea of god has led to good things as well as bad. But would the acceptance as god being an idea and not “real” lead to the good things you mention? How many people are driven to do good by other fictional characters, like Mary Poppins or Obi-wan? Deep down in the heart of anyone doing things inspired by god is the thought that he is real, even if only in the pantheistic sense. If you say that the idea of good has led to more good than evil, I’d say that is because people thought the idea was the reality - even though the many images of god contradict each other. You’d then have a moral imperative to convince people that god is real (some god, not the hairy thunderer) even if you are sure he isn’t. Is that what you want to do?
Well, unfortunately, we get into the sticky issue of the God/Jesus line here. I’ll try to dance around it.
Why bother? Well, you assume that supplying purpose and moral values is the only thing a God can do. What about inspiring people? What about providing comfort and solace when we feel downtrodden?
This role is often, but not always, assigned to Jesus in mainstream Western Christianity. hence the business about “finding Jesus in your heart”. This is a very personal God, a God who is a constant, loyal friend who loves you without conditions, forever, always.
Seems fairly useful, a God like that. Or Jesus.
Think of the story of the Gospels. You don’t have to believe it all literally happened in order to draw wisdom from the story of the life of Jesus, and especially from his words.
Don’t underestimate the power of fictional characters.