The most convincing argument against the existence of God

> So dreadful that for 2000+ years people have waged wars in order to avoid confronting it.

The more I study history, the less plausible the “religious war” narrative looks. For example, in Macaulay’s history of England, he describes how when Puritans were in the political ascendancy, everyone with political aspirations pretended to be Puritan. When the Puritans lost power and were persecuted, all those fair-weather “converts” left for whatever religious profession would give them the best chance at political power.

Similarly, in Gibbons’ account of Roman ecclesiastical policy, he describes how many of the elites didn’t really believe any of the religions practiced in the Empire, but they tolerated most of them, and while giving public respect to the religions, used them as a tool to manipulate the population.

In short, people who are greedy for power will use anything available, including violence and pretense of religion. Trying to imply that that greed is somehow a unique product of religious belief, and that if only people would stop believing in religion, the lust for power would go away, well, let’s just say I find that absurd. :) (Even the Bible points out that the Pharisees crucified Christ for political reasons, while religion was merely the excuse they used.)

What seems more likely to me is that elitists don’t want people believing in anything greater than the elites, like Fauci claiming “I am the science”. While Rome may have been pragmatic about religion, it’s evident that in more recent history there’s a trend among tyrannies to treat religious belief as competition.

@ Vknid “That is not true in the least. If it was we would not need laws to provide consequences for breaking morality because it would be universal and everyone would follow it. Sure, some of the most egregious things are widely agreed on but even then you can find places that think differently and do differently. And again, if this was true morality would not morph over time and sometimes dramatically. ”

Whether or not individuals adhere to universal morality is irrelevant to the fact that it exists and manifests itself through natural law. Human laws can either be in accordance to natural law or not. If they’re not, sooner or later that society will collapse. This is what we see in the US and the West currently (as well as most of the world).
Universal morality has never morphed over time, nor can it. Humans can decide to adhere to it, or come up with their own morality. Maybe we’ll get it right on the 100.000th attempt. Spoiler: we won’t.

“That is the question for the atheist and one I assume they fear quite often. If I am wrong, I go to sleep and I have lived a good life while doing good for others and never trying only to please myself. If the atheist is wrong, they possibly suffer for eternity.”

How do you know your religion is right and not Islam? Or one of the tens of thousands of forms of Christianity who consider you a heretic? Or Hinduism? If Islam is right, you won’t be spared eternal suffering either. Belief in god is no get out of jail free card either. You have to believe in the right god, and you can’t know which one that is, since not one religion has so far offered any evidence that they’re peddling anything more plausible than the tooth fairy.

An olive branch to atheists, from my 2nd favorite atheist (Christopher Hitchens was first).  It’s 14 minutes you won’t regret (and a recommended subscribe to boot).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbqLXsTeTQ4

@Wisdom

Outside God, universal morality is meaningless. Entropy may grind slowly, but it grinds small, and in the long run it renders the universe into maximum uniformity.

We can’t change that outcome, and thus within the bounds of entropy, morality and choice are an illusion. No matter how “good” or how “evil” one might be, the final result will be exactly the same.

That’s why the Bible defines the knowledge of good and evil as death, and contrasts that knowledge with Life.

–How do you know your religion is right and not Islam? Or one of the tens of thousands of forms of Christianity who consider you a heretic? Or Hinduism?

Simple questions to answer.

In all other religions, the responsibility to save oneself, however that may be defined, is on oneself. You, whoever “you” might be, have to improve yourself or do some great good works, in order to win the approval of your god or gods–die gloriously in battle against the infidels, numb your desires, give your newborn children to the flames, go through zillions of reincarnations, chants the right mantras, or whatever else might be imagined.

In Christianity, it is God who does the work. Right at the first, man cannot save himself. Man is the sinner, man has broken God’s laws, and if man gets what he has earned, he will be the object of God’s just judgment, and he will end up in Hell. Salvation, then, must be the work of God. God is the one whose laws we have broken, and God is the one who has provided the way for law-breakers to be forgiven. God is the one who has established the penalty for breaking His laws, and God has Himself paid the penalty for breaking the laws, so that through repentance and faith in Christ men who are lawbreakers may be washed clean of their sins.

Christianity is the only religion that looks at man rightly. All others, even your atheism, are just ego-manipulating claptrap. Christianity paints man in the darkest colors because man’s soul really is as black as night, and it offers man the brightest hope because that hope is a gift God gives, not a wage man can never earn

I love Hillsong Worship.  King of Kings is the most perfectly triumphant telling of The Gospel I have ever come across (outside The Bible, obviously).