Theism and atheism are useless.

[Omac]

richardhutnik said:

sethnintendo said:

hmm not sure where you want to go with this thread. I was trying to bring up valid points but I am not entirely sure what point you are trying to make. I understand that the main point is in the thread title. I just don't know how to approach it. Are you saying that it is more important what a person does than what they believe in? If so then I believe that one's actions are definitely stronger/more important than their faith.   You can believe in anything but if you take zero action then that belief is pretty much worthless.

Merely saying one believes in God is fairly useless.  I see the net sum of belief in God now ends up being a question of whether or not someone believe God exists.  This belief alone is useless.  MAYBE it can serve as a starting point, but beyond this, it really isn't of much value.  What a faith produces is what counts, not the fact it is and people believe in it.  Part of the motivation for this thread is the prison population thread, and I ended up getting into discussing atheism there.  In that, I had said atheism, by itself, isn't anything.  I said it is a negation of something, so it didn't really do anything.  I decided, to extend this idea to also the concept of theism also, and get into how it alone is useless.

From a religious perspective, I could end up quoting from the Book of James, how faith without works is dead also, in line with this.  But would say also, would rather this thread end up discussing the relevance of belief vs not belief.  I also think, in light of current problems, if an object of faith is to be relevant, it needs to be much more merely than some little shrine someone has up, that fills in discontents they have in the gaps in their life.

One who merely believes in God is not useless.  It could give a person inner peace.