Do you believe in God? Why/Why not?

[OhNoYouDont]

sales2099 said:

OhNoYouDont said:

That's a bold proclamation that isn't true for most believers.

For instance, does your belief influence other aspects of your life? Church attendance, social circles, confirmation bias, metaethical considerations, etc.

It's very dangerous to believe in things for which there is no evidence, especially when such beliefs are capable of influencing our actions. Even today, people are killed for being gay, atheist, being immodest, or even something as banal as drawing a cartoon of a religious character due to convictions.

But my beliefs don't lead to that

Sure they do. Perhaps not in the extreme examples, but certainly things come into play like abortion, gay marriage, prayer in school, creationism, etc.

Now if you're specifically addressing deism and no other baggage with it, I agree it's benign. Same as a belief in leprechauns.

I am hesitant to bring organized religion in this so I’ll explain further. A belief in a higher power and life after death is preferable to a rather depressing notion that everything is just there just because and when you die it’s the end. 

I gain nothing if I’m an atheist but I have everything to gain by being open minded to the concept. And I can’t stress enough this has no bearing on how I live my life. I live the best life I can and make choices on what I deem to be right and wrong. It literally only applies after I die so I really have nothing to loose. 

It's preferable that I am Superman, but do I believe I am? No, because that's not what the evidence says. Childish fantasies are best abandoned in favor of reality in my opinion, but to each their own I guess.

You're not at all open-minded to being wrong, so as a matter of fact you are closed-minded. This is not the case for myself, nor many atheists who approached the question openly and honestly and found absolutely no evidence for anything supernatural.

You mention right and wrong - what informs this? Religion? Which one? Do you see how you're locked into beliefs leading to actions yet or still missing the boat?