your religion

[Alcon]

Agnostic.

[Alcon]

Life is so short, so if there is a possibility of the afterlife, wouldn't you want to be part of it? Eternity is forever; life is temporary.

If there is an afterlife, most of us believe that God would not punishing us for not being absolutely certain of his existence, and that the odds are probably against us for picking the right religion anyway.

[Alcon]

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I honestly can't say what God thinks, but God certainly doesn't punish us, but we get attached to material things, not into the eternal things. If we attach ourselves to material things we will die a material death; but if we attach ourselves to eternal things, we will have eternal life.

If you at least seek the truth, honestly, and don't pick a religion based on your preconcieved views, but on the logic of it, then you will find it, and if you don't, you sought truth; you sought the eternal.

Nobody can be absolutely certain God exists, that's why we have faith. But reason helps us in gaining faith.

God certainly does not want to punish us, but he is forced by whom if we do not believe in Him?

It seems a little bit ridiculous to me, I'm afraid.

[Alcon]

God isn't forced to punish us. God, if he exists, wouldn't be forced to do anything because that would deny his very essence in being all powerful and being the "unmovable mover". I'm telling you that we choose our fate, not God.

I do not know about you, but I cannot choose what I do and do not believe.  If my fate involves doing so, I am unable to choose my fate.

Besides, when there are ten different significant religions saying all of the others will suffer for not choosing their fate correctly, it seems that it's rather a dart's throw.

[Alcon]

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So because it's hard, you're just going to give up? Seek the faith that seeks truth. Read some Socrates. He wanted to seek truth; he was completely open minded, and in every dialogue was simply trying to find the truth of the matter.

No.  But why should I try?  I have no reason to resist the truth.  I have no qualms if I am wrong.  However, there are a huge number of religions that to me seem equally plausible, and the individual details seem impossible to determine.

My general belief is that I am unsure if God exists, I do not believe I can ever objectively know that God exists, and I can never be certain of something for which there is no objective proof.  If God sends me to hell for that, I suppose there's not much I can do about it.

[Alcon]

And after you showed me the definition I agree with that as well.

Kids, see what happens when people use logic?

Nym, I just want to tell you how much we've all missed you.

I'm an annoying argumentative SOB, and even I sometimes get tired of the dogmatic nature of debate here.  It's always nice to see a post like this that doesn't contain "but."