Is there a benefit to theism?

[Lyndon]

good post!!

 

[Jeremiahcp]

There is this but again this is in relation to religiosity and not theism.

I am trying to find a study that linked religiosity with increased happiness but I cannot find it. It was fairly significant if I recall and Muslims loved using it a lot.

I am sorry but generalized statistical inferences, such as those, are not even close to being evidence of exclusivity.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

By that wording, I don't think there is any way to know.

Theism, for some (few) people, is a true vocation, and they sure seem to reap benefit from surrendering to it.

There are dangers involved, but people differ in their ability to deal with those.

To be honest, this is not an actual question I have been pondering, this and the sister thread were merely conversation platforms. Both atheist and theist are superficial titles of a subjective division, regardless of those titles a person is still a human and I have felt safe in assuming they both can engage in and experience the full range of what it means to be human. I mean we not talking about a biological difference here; they are not two difference species.

 

[Sha'irullah]

I am sorry but generalized statistical inferences, such as those, are not even close to being evidence of exclusivity.

I am aware, but again it is not the study I wanted. I was debating on another site years ago and we got into this exact same argument and I forgot the research my opponent used. It is seriously bugging me but the research was going into the effects of prayer and it brought up mental well being of theists vs atheists. It was actually pretty good stuff and I was sure it was done by PEW but apparently not.

I apologize if I am nit picking over this but losing things bugs me .

Back to your point though I do not think there is anything exclusive to theism itself that benefits anyone because I can only make generalization about theists vs atheists and I have my hypothesis on the behavior of both groups but theism is tied with religion while oddly enough atheism seems less diverse than theism.

Atheists love bringing up the fact that evolutionary theory is not exclusive to atheism yet finding a non believing evolutionary atheist has led me to believe it is impossible. Theists have a strong diversity in thought yet atheism which as simplistic as it is has far more unity in thought that Christianity and its many denominations.

My only opinions on the "superiority" of theism are all personal and presumptuous so I do not take it as fact that anything I do as a theist is somehow better than an atheist because even being a theist now I still do much if not all the same as I did as an atheist. I personally think my attitude toward atheism was more sincere and honest in how I viewed life but I know most atheists disagreed.

 

[DavidFirth]

I am sorry you feel so worthless and pathetic next to your imaginary friend.

I'm glad He loves me so much that He has made me righteous by His death and resurrection.

And you somehow think you are greater than your mere physical existence, which is weak and pathetic compared to the rest of the universe? Why, you think you're just an animal closely related to monkeys, no better than they are.

You're just a spec on a dust ball in a vast universe with no purpose and only a random event in your view. Now that's pathetic and worthless. No wonder so many people are killing themselves. They think their lives are meaningless and that no one really cares. They're just a random event throughout billions of years of forgotten history.

 

[Jumi]

Well just because we who don't believe Christian religion are small and humble compared to the universe, doesn't mean our lives are meaningless. The world has too much beauty to wallow in comparisons. It's a sobering fact, how small we are in comparison to even the solar system and how small the time we have is compared to the age of even the Earth. But with it, we can put into perspective our struggles and stay calm in face of adversity as well as use effort to secure a better future for us and as many people as possible.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

Oh brother, a hint of bias, after the flood of bias from the atheists!!

Haha... the "hint" part of my reply was ENTIRELY sarcastic. You obviously couldn't contain your own "mini-flood" in that one post. Just had to lay the passive-aggressive on - thick as molasses. You're a funny guy - not that you're necessarily trying to be.

 

[Lyndon]

Attacks by atheists on believers far outnumber attacks by theists on atheists, unless you haven't noticed!!

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Atheists love bringing up the fact that evolutionary theory is not exclusive to atheism yet finding a non believing evolutionary atheist has led me to believe it is impossible.

Finding a non-evolutionary atheist would be irrelevant to demonstrating that acceptance of evolutionary theory is not exclusive to atheists. You need to find a theist that accepts evolution.

 

[columbus]

Attacks by atheists on believers far outnumber attacks by theists on atheists, unless you haven't noticed!!

You can't possibly be serious, can you?
Tom

 

[Lyndon]

I was speaking from the example of this forum, are you in denial of that??

 

[Jeremiahcp]

I was speaking from the example of this forum, are you in denial of that??

I'll refute it. Show me the proof.

 

[Lyndon]

You're posts have been constantly attacking Theists, and now you're denying it???

 

[Jeremiahcp]

You're posts have been constantly attacking Theists, and now you're denying it???

I attack everyone atheist and theist alike.

 

[columbus]

I was speaking from the example of this forum, are you in denial of that??

You didn't say that.
But yeah, even there, I will deny that atheists are noticeably more likely to attack theists than vice versa.
Tom

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

You're just a spec on a dust ball in a vast universe with no purpose and only a random event in your view.

That's an incomplete description of what we are. We are not just that. We are much more.

Our senses give us a view of reality at the scale of everyday experience where the objects that we can experience around us with the unaided eye vary in size from items about the size of a flea or grain of sand to mountain ranges, and where experiences occur over seconds to tens of years. That's the scale we live on, and the one at which life manifests and meaning and purpose arise. If you strip that away, what remains is pretty meaningless regarding daily life.

Science informs us of much smaller and much larger scales, the scales at which we are a hive of buzzing subatomic particles interacting at the scale of nanoseconds, with no evidence of life or meaning in a human sense, and the scale of the very large, clusters of galaxies and billions of years, which is also outside of direct experience, offers no evidence of life, and as you suggest, is devoid of purpose. At that scale, earth is a mote with no sign of life as you suggest.

There is a common expression, "In the grand scheme of things, we are nothing but [add your own ending]." Well, we don't live at that scale. A holistic understanding of man and his place in the universe entails an awareness of all three scales, with only the normoscopic one (my word, to distinguish it from the larger macropscopic and the smaller microscopic realms) relating to daily life and what we call the meaning or purpose of our lives. It's a fallacy to reduce life to one of the less relevant scales and define man by that alone.

The microscopic counterpart of the fallacy of scale would be some variation of "If all we are is a soup of chemicals (or atoms in a void) ..." which is the logical equivalent of saying that the works of Shakespeare are nothing but letters, punctuation, and spaces.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

I'm glad He loves me so much that He has made me righteous by His death and resurrection.

And you somehow think you are greater than your mere physical existence, which is weak and pathetic compared to the rest of the universe? Why, you think you're just an animal closely related to monkeys, no better than they are.

You're just a spec on a dust ball in a vast universe with no purpose and only a random event in your view. Now that's pathetic and worthless. No wonder so many people are killing themselves. They think their lives are meaningless and that no one really cares. They're just a random event throughout billions of years of forgotten history.

I don't know if the universe has a purpose and there are no naturally occurring random events. Randomness requires equal probability, something that just does not happen "naturally." Btw, most of those people killing each other believe in gods, and a good portion of them are Christians.

 

[Sanzbir]

Well I didn't answer the last one seriously, so no reason to start now:

The hats. I mean look at the kind of hats that the religious get: skullcaps, mitres, keffiyehs, turbans. So many wonderful hats in theism!!

What do atheists get?? Trilbies. Trilbies that they insist are "fedoras" for some reason.

Face it, theists just have better hats.

 

[MonkeyFire]

Skepticism has got to be one of a handful of the best ideas man ever had. Without it, we would still be offering Thor sacrifices to appease his rage.

Justice and empiricism were also great ideas.

Skepticism is bound to pain and hopelessness.

 

[DavidFirth]

I don't know if the universe has a purpose and there are no naturally occurring random events. Randomness requires equal probability, something that just does not happen "naturally." Btw, most of those people killing each other believe in gods, and a good portion of them are Christians.

All those who wrongfully kill you speak of will get repaid in full for what they've done, regardless of how they refer to themselves or how others refer to them. Labels will clear no one of sin.