Where exactly can religious take you that cannot be reached through nonreligious methods?

Yes, that's exactly it. You are the first person to realise that this analogy is in fact the truth of the world, and indisputable evidence that belief is better than non-belief. It's a shame they had to invent bus stations as a prerequisite for this revelation, because otherwise the Greeks might have discovered the true secret to happiness instead of a VGC forum user.

miz1q2w3e said: lol reminds me of this analogy my (semi) religious friend gave me. It went like this: Say you're at the bus station and you wanna go home, but none of the buses has any indication as to its destination. You can either choose to remain at the station (i.e. atheist), or choose one and hope it gets you home (choose a religion). I couldn't help but lol

...Wouldn't the guy who remains at the station be an agnostic? 

By staying at the station you'll keep your money.

I have a brain and the liberty to follow and abolish what i want. I sticked to christian morals because i find them fitting for my life, not because i was born into a christian environment. I was born in many things in my life, and only a small number of those things are still relevant to me today

As for Jesus being a deity or a mortal, i really don't care. It's his teachings and messages what count and what give him the image he has in my mind. Not his deific status.

And i didn't say atheism couldn't possibly be true, we will never know that. Im just saying that i will never be a part of that belief as long as i am alive.

I can agree with you on that people create their own god, but to me it seems like everyone creates their own verison of god. Ok maybe not god but belief system so that they can feel confortable about doing what they think is "right". And when someone else says there's a flaw in their thinking, people become defensive. As if you were attacking them, but no one is and it leads to misunderstanding and then into an argument over nothing. But now that I think about I think make belief systems because they don't know themselves, maybe that's why they get defensive.

'Cause when I think about it no one knows themselve or anything early in life, at least for me, when I was a kid I felt like I had forgotten myself. You're just taught the way and meaning of what other people made up to make sense of the world. So it's like people create a persona but don't know it to fit into society. However after so long some people start to feel like there's something missing or something they're not aware of that they need. So they try to find it in the ways of the belief system but can't 'cause that's how they've been living already and they're unsatisfied with it. Which just leads to more problems I guess.

Wow did not mean for it to go for this long. But that's how I kind of see this whole thing. But I do believe in god but I'm not getting into that right now. 

the easy answer would be "heaven" wouldn't it?  I mean I'm an atheist but that seems to be where this argument is going.  That you don't know that your religion is right, but if you want a chance at a "heaven" then you might as well pick one and see where it leads.  

Personally I think that's all a bunch of bullshit and you wouldn't get into any "heaven" anyway since you wouldn't be a true believer, but it's undeniable that atheism in and of itself is unlikely to get you into heaven.  

Jay520 said: miz1q2w3e said: lol reminds me of this analogy my (semi) religious friend gave me. It went like this: Say you're at the bus station and you wanna go home, but none of the buses has any indication as to its destination. You can either choose to remain at the station (i.e. atheist), or choose one and hope it gets you home (choose a religion). I couldn't help but lol interesting indeed. But I don't see how being "stuck" somewhere equates to being atheist. Also, the person wants to go home. Atheists don't necessarily have any destination to which they want to go. Certainly not one where they need to make guesses.

Not stuck. The atheist would be the one who refused to paly this silly game of chance. The analogy is wrong anyways. See this.

I forgot to mention I don't agree with him.

ha, hadn't thought of that but there's a significant point.  If there's actually nothing it would be an unfortunate waste of money, time, and effort to worship something/someone that wasn't there in the first place.  

Yeah but you'll probably freeze your ass on the station and you'll have to sleep in a box and miss the warmth and comfort of your home.