The most important thing in life is will one be a theist or an atheist.
Blaise Pascal thought a theist had a much better chance of a good outcome compared to an atheist. I think that’s true.
Sure, but it isn’t about whether you label yourself either theist or atheist. It is about the content of one’s being, what you ARE fundamentally in your self, your spirit, your mind, your consciousness, your understanding; your connection to truth, all of that… which will end up determining whether or not you happen to call yourself a theist or an atheist.
Atheists generally are very lacking in all of the above. Self, spirit, mind, consciousness, understanding, connection to truth (philosophy). Their relative lack within themselves prompts them toward atheism, which reflects the more fundamental disengagement with those things listed above. Mainly, this is a disconnect with truth and a regression-collapse into the ‘merely able to be physic-ally known’. The physical body, its senses, becomes the only worshiped icon and meaning in life. I would feel bad for these sad types abandoning their proper human destiny and inheritance, but I realize everyone is at a different stage in their life. Some will wake up in time, others will double down in their pride and ego and never wake up. That is just fine. Since none of us really knows what happens after we die or precisely how our lives here on earth will impact whatever happens afterwards. Whatever it is, is what it is, and we don’t know, so we can just speculate and otherwise just not worry about it.
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Plus there is always the saying, “there are no atheists in foxholes”. In the end, if they have enough time seeing the end coming, even diehard atheists will reach out to God in one way or another.
“Blaise Pascal thought a theist had a much better chance of a good outcome compared to an atheist. I think that’s true.”
Only because we can’t know if there is some kind of continuity if the eternal recurrence is true.
If the ER is true and i could be sure i wouldn’t just feel like a new person the next time around and somehow remember myself instead, I’d go full retard on the world and do anything i wanted because that would be the most reasonable thing to do: an endless repetition of lives in a brutal and meaningless universe. Fuck yeah I’m goin’ ham on it.
Pascal’s Wager is for people who have not thought carefully about the ER theory and/or people who have not been through enough hell to not want to have anything to do with a god (if this god does exist).
It’s like a hairbrained bet made by someone who’s never left the house or gone far from it if they have.
You’re like Phil was on Groundhog Day, at least initially.
Using Pascal’s Wager, it’s also worth noting that atheism is the worst wager.
Its better to be in the wrong religion than to wager on atheism, I think.
God knows theists are trying, at least.
What makes you think that theists have the right religion? You need to balance things out.Belief or Unbelief in a God on their own are of no use to anyone.
Belief and Unbelief is binary.
Even a devil god can believe in a God.
Religion, ether way, is of no use to anyone.
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Yes, but consider this: there is a possibility that a deity does exist, or at least some overarching intelligence/mind that created this world and us, and based on its super-intelligence it knows that believing in religions is irrational because we actually have no proof or even evidence either way for any religion AND we should be smart enough to realize that 99% of religious belief occurs merely because of which religion people happen to be primarily exposed to as a consequence of the random time and place of their birth. THEREFORE, such a deity rationalizes, only the atheists or agnostics would avoid this irrationality, therefore in the afterlife this deity might reward them for not falling into the silliness of believing in religions… Even though this deity exists, it knows that humans have no knowledge of it and no reason to believe in it, so it would reward those humans who do NOT believe in it.
And of course if we are Wagering we also need to consider things like the AI Basilisk…
Yep.
That can be factored into the Wager.
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“it’s also worth noting that atheism is the worst wager”
Provided the ER isn’t true. If the ER is true, the atheist was halfway to the endzone, but he hesitated.
If at any moment he stopped short of something and said to himself, “i shouldn’t do this because it is wrong, immoral, despite how i might benefit from doing it,” he blew it. He just sacrificed his own gain, pleasure, and power for a reason that isn’t.
There are joys in this life that are exponentially increased when you respect consent.
When you violate consent, you disrespect yourself as well as the other and emotionally die a little (or a lot) more every time you do it.
You’re settling for less joy (on earth as it is in heaven) and increased dissonance (or deadening) (on earth as it is in hell) if the “gain, pleasure, and power” of which you speak (@promethean75) violate consent (self=other).
Remember LIES exist in the universe because you need to exist to claim that you don’t exist.
You need to exist to claim you do exist, too. Lies don’t have to exist, in order for you to exist, in order for you to claim you exist. Only the possibility of lies has to exist, in order for you to exist, in order for you to claim you do or don’t exist. You never have to claim you don’t exist in order for lies to be possible.
How dare you. You probably exist to lie.
Lying is not life, you mixed up weirdo.
I have one more thing to say. Divine hiddenness is mercy, not lying. Imagine if it was always up in your face like a helicopter God or a freaking dictator. He has left breadcrumbs for those who would follow them and seek out more.
You want the whole thing? You can’t handle the whole thing.
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You need to exist to claim that you don’t exist.How can you claim that you don’t exist if you don’t first exist to be able to claim it?
So,the claim I don’t exist is a LIE.
Even a binary processing biological machine which doesn’t possess life exists if it claims that it doesn’t exist because it needs to exist to claim that it doesn’t exist.
You are philosophically naive just like Rene Descartes was.
You have nothing to offer philosophically and neither did he.You know nothing about a balanced and unbiased reality philosophy.
Agreed.
What if you’re looking and pointing at a picture of the past, at a time before you were born?
Unless … say … it’s looking and pointing at a picture of the past, at a time before it was born.
I’m not sure of the meaning of naïve in this context, but any likeness to Descartes is a compliment in my eyes.
Them’re fighting words.
draws blanks
spins ‘em around every which way
reholsters
stares you down
I’m gonna make you disappear off all the pictures. Be prepared to be unalived.
spits on the ground
jk lol I don’t even exist.
You exist because you need to exist to claim that you don’t exist.
Binary processing biological machines which don’t have life exist and claim that they don’t exist which is true.
You are trapped on the hamsters wheel.
Separate yourself from binary logic reasoning software.
Stop contradicting yourself.
I know you’re trying to Bugs Bunny me, and it’s not going to work.
Ok I’m bored now trying to explain it to you…go away…