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Yes, although I don’t think it’s as strong as one would think. I think religious beliefs are lot like clothes for most religious people. They cover themselves in these ideas, sometimes in several layers, but deep down they’re wearing the same thing as non-believers. Nothing. Which is why they can’t just shrug off a death in the family or pretend that prayer takes the place of going to the doctor when that lump pops up.
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No. But perhaps I’d feel differently if my life was harder and I lacked ways to cope with stresses using other techniques. As it stands, I’m relieved that I don’t believe in religion because I don’t have to worry about waking up one day and realizing that I’d wasted so much time and energy on what amounts to fairy tale fears.
I wonder if the OP is surprised or not at the answers. Mean Mr. Mustard, how do these responses make you feel?
Do you envy our general lack of envy? 
I often think that most people don’t really believe in God, not really. Like, when you see a preacher in a gay sex scandal. I mean, they wouldn’t have fucked another man in public, where everyone could see, right? Except they claim to believe God sees everything. So why weren’t they scared that God would see what they did, and punish them?
They sure didn’t act as though they believed that God would see what they did. So they don’t really believe in God, do they?
I guess, as long as we’re clear that there is no outside source of power that their faith is tapping into. They might feel an emotional rush or emotional solace or whatever from other believers around them providing positive reinforcement (much like someone at a sporting event getting a rush from the excitement of the crowd), but I see no evidence that any connection of any kind is being made with the supernatural.
The question’s a bit loaded. I have no such feelings of envy, and thus no need of willingness to acknowledge them.
Well, everybody’s a sinner. Love the sinner and not the sin, and all that. Even if you believe that God is seeing you, you can’t always find the strength to abstain from sinning. I’m sure you don’t always act according to your moral code.
Haven’t read anybody else’s responses, so:
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Yes, of course. Just as many consumer of homeopathic medicine receive some degree of comfort or solace from the medicine they believe works.
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Not really, but then I’ve never felt a personal lack of the kind of strength, comfort, or solace that faith seems to provide others. Unlike some people, the idea of non-existence after death doesn’t bother me any more than does the idea of non-existence before birth. The idea that my existence has no external purpose also doesn’t bother me. I seem to be able to resist doing bad things without fear of a supernatural being somehow punishing me. I get community and social bonds through other channels.
I’ve thought this through for over 50 years . . . but I really don’t have the time now for a lengthy discussion of epistemology, especially the issue of free will.
Yes, of course.
Nggg. There are circumstances in which I think it would be nice to have that sort of comfort to fall back on - for example, it would be wonderful to believe that I will meet again loved ones who have passed away. But the rest of the baggage and the idea of having a “safety blanket” of irrational certitude - it doesn’t appeal.
And anyway, knowing my own personal foibles and neuroses, were I a believer I’d probably be even more of a miserable grump than I am now in that I’d constantly feel like I was failing to live up the standards God (assuming a standard Judeo-Christian belief system) sets for us. So no comfort for me in any case.
The idea of dying scares me more than the idea of being dead, to be honest. It can be a difficult transition to go through.
Nah. Feeling free to sleep in on the weekends and eat what I want means a net negative balance in the envy account.
Yup. Look at, say, those Heaven’s Gate followers. Their religion gave them enough comfort and security to cut their balls off and later commit suicide.
Um, no. Those Heaven’s Gate folks cut their balls off and committed suicide. :eek:
Yes.
Sort of. I can’t get over the fact that it’s just not true, but I do sometimes wish that there was an afterlife.
+10
Yes.
No. I would rather be sure of my information than be comfortable in a lie.
- I have always held that people need and seek forms, structures and ideals that help support their sense of self. Taking these away destroys people. So clearly, for many people, their religion forms a significant part of their sense of self, and thus provides a clear underpinning of their happiness - no matter how miserable they might actually be. But that isn’t so say that there are not equal things in life that do not involve religion.
I have only ever met two or three people who I could consider to be genuinely totally clearly centred in their faith to the point where it was clear that they really did draw some exeptional strength from it. Buddists do better than most.
- Only in the sense that occasionally, when things go very bad in life, one might envy a child’s naiveness and simplicity of understanding. But beyond that, it would be like desiring a lobotomy to ease the pain of life.
I can’t speak to “strength” without being more certain what you mean by it, but religion is certainly a source of comfort and solace to many of its adherents.
At times - in some ways it would be awesome to have complete unfailing blind belief that I was awesome and guaranteed ‘saved’ and everyone I didn’t like was going to suffer and that all my hatreds were justified and that all my evils were forgiven and that even when the law came after me I could just think of their justice system as a flawed evil system and that I was still innocent and saved and perfect and awesome even as they put me to the chair.
I mean, seriously, religion (or other blind dogmatism) is an extremely efficient way to justify evil and dismiss morality and guilt. And who hasn’t toyed with the idea of being evil now and then?
Of course, you were probably thinking more of religion’s vaunted ability to make you feel less bad when bad things happen, due to pretending there’s a purpose for the bad things and somebody really important that loves you. That part of it doesn’t do much for me; I already have people who love me, including myself, and I don’t see the need to pretend that bad things aren’t happenstance. Also I’ve heard of few afterlives that do anything for me.
Yeah, I might not always act in accordance with my moral code, but that’s because I think I can get away with it. But shoplifters, even compulsive shoplifters, don’t steal stuff from the store when the salesclerk is looking right at them, they wait until the clerk is somewhere else.
If you believe in God, then the storeclerk is always watching. If you act as though the storeclerk isn’t watching, that’s evidence that you don’t really think the storeclerk is really watching, not down deep where it counts. A guy who cheats on his wife doesn’t do it in front of his wife, does he?
God makes crappy wages and has a bad attitude?
This explains much.
Sure.
No. I want to believe as many true things as possible, and the feeling I get from being correct* gives me strength, comfort and solace - with the added the feeling of being right. I have all they have and more IMHO so I don’t envy them.
(* or as close to correct as I can personally be with the info given to me and my ability to process it at any given time. YMMV. I don’t claim absolute knowledge. Offer valid in 49 states while supplies last.)
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Yes
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Is your question whether I have hidden envy and are willing to acknowledge it, or whether there is any envy to begin with?
Like Dio, I find such strength delusional. One can derive strength from lies, drugs, or insanity; it doesn’t mean its enviable.