does faith make you a better person?

[stevofthahill]

Fighting over religion is like fighting over who has the better imaginary friend.

[Farbin Kaiber]

It's wonderful to see everyones opinion on this topic. I will, however sit this thread out.

[z31maniac]

Greatest story ever written.

It's beyond hysterical to me, that modern man still buys into this shit.

[ck_taft325is]

energy can not be destroyed only transfered.

we are beings of energy.

when we die we do not cease to exist.

we are part of the huge ever expanding explosion called the big bang--

your faith should come from the knowledge that you know whats real and right--

your morality should come from the fact that every decision will lead to another decision and that you make the choices.

karma is real as is entropy

happy sunday

The "Big Bang" has been disproved. So if you have a problem with "Faith in things unseen or unproven such as a "God"", then you may want to re-think that stance.

I urge you to see "Expelled" by Ben Stein. Talks with and lets the biggest proponents of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory share their view points, reasoning and evidence. Very telling movie all in all.

[Scotaku]

Faith is not praying to Jesus and thanking him for everything. Faith is not going to church on Sunday. Having faith doesn't even mean being a moral person all the time.

I believe that to have faith is to believe that there is a fundamental order underlying everything in the universe. At some point in the distant past this order was set into motion by what can only be described as God. No amount of religion or science will unlock all the secrets of this order and explain it in terms that can be understood by our feeble minds. No matter what you do, whether you bring world peace, or murder 6 million Jews, this was all determined by forces that are much greater than yourself. Once you realize this and also that there is no possible way to avoid any of it, you can have faith and give yourself up to God so to speak.

I would also like to point out that I considered myself an atheist in the past but have since renewed my faith in God. I also believe in Jesus. He is an archetype upon which all humans should model themselves. Once you get down to the basics, the message of Christianity is to treat others as you would like to be treated and to love everybody. If everybody would follow this simple message and be more like Jesus then the human race would stop destroying itself.

As for heaven, I think that it is just the mark you make upon the universe and humanity. If you did positive things in your life, the mark you make upon the universe and humanity will be good and you will be remembered well. If you did bad things, the mark you make will be a negative one and you will be remembered negatively. Up until your dying breath you will have the power to do good but once you die, your ultimate fate is sealed.

With that one word, flipped, we largely agree. Astonishing, I know. I believe Heaven and Hell are "places" our souls end up after our mortal lives end and the decision to believe or not is made final.

For ben312, the only thing that makes you a better person is your behavior; what you chose to do in Life. And that too is relative because you might be pulling the wings off butterflies today and you'd be a better person for not continuing to do so, tomorrow.

I think you want to ask if faith makes you a happier person. That seems to be the point your ex was trying to make. Judge your own happiness in her terms and you'll contiually be asking her if you are happy. Ask yourself.

I believe in God. I have faith. I've acted in faith. I've prayed for stronger faith when Life got hard (cancer anyone?). And I've realized that faith is only proven when tested... which made me pray for less faith when shit got worse. I've not always been happy, but that's an emotion. Faith is a choice.

I too have been through periods where I put my faith on a shelf and forgot about it. Fortunately, dusting it off found it just as good as ever. And choosing that was a behavior that made me both a better and happier person.

[Nic01101011]

energy can not be destroyed only transfered.

we are beings of energy.

when we die we do not cease to exist.

we are part of the huge ever expanding explosion called the big bang--

your faith should come from the knowledge that you know whats real and right--

your morality should come from the fact that every decision will lead to another decision and that you make the choices.

karma is real as is entropy

happy sunday

high much?

[pbr87]

Religion is for people that can't think for themselves. You can only make yourself a better person.

That is untrue.
Think of religion as sort of a moral guide. I know some religious people who are very independent thinkers; my GF's father, for example. He always says: "work like everything depends on you, pray like everything depends on God".
He is one of the hardest working people I have met, and he is a very independent thinker.

[OrganicMechanic]

energy can not be destroyed only transfered.

we are beings of energy.

when we die we do not cease to exist.

we are part of the huge ever expanding explosion called the big bang--

your faith should come from the knowledge that you know whats real and right--

your morality should come from the fact that every decision will lead to another decision and that you make the choices.

karma is real as is entropy

happy sunday

[ck_taft325is]

I hope I didn't come across like a butt hole with the " ". I had just woken up and not had my little coffee.

Well, from my experience, Christian's in particular stress too much their "roll" in everything as does everyone in any belief or lack there of. Heh, I have nothing against not believing in God or just in an "energy" as you said. It's not my belief but I can't look down on it. No where in the Bible does it say, "Treat people as if they where ignorant or stupid if they don't believe what you do!!". In fact, it says love those around you and over all preaches the love of your neighbor. Not just your "Christian" neighbor, but all those around you.

I would hope that the core messege of the Bible is not lost upon bigotry and overt hatred of what should be people, not the Bible. It's the same as someone bombing a building of toddlers in the name of "ben312" then everyone hating you because well, the bomber did say you're name before doing so therefore you MUST have done something to warrant blind hatred.

Even if you don't believe in the Christ, you can believe in what he spoke on. He spoke pointedly against religion and every major religious leader of the time. He spoke openly about hanging out with what the "Religious" types counted as the most undesirable of undesirables. When asked what the highest calling of a person is, Christ responded with: "Love thy neighbor as thyself". That's something every man, of every religion or faith can embrace and if they did, this world would undoubtingly be a better place.

Christianity is not about annoying the hell and pushing your views on everyone. Within Christianity there are a very wide variety of views and opinions. The iron fist of Religion will hopefully lose it's hold on the views of Christianity, but unlikely.

Does faith in God make you a better person? Adherence to a set of moral "guide lines" if you will, likely help in living ones life to better themselves in a productive manner and in the wake help others along the way? Sure, that helps make them a "better" person.

Happier? Life has it's up's and down's. Any "Christian" that tells you with a smile on their face that they never feel sad is just another shining example of the liars and cheats in the world you have to be wary of. It's a hoax. A falsehood.

Christ himself had bad days and good. To not acknowledge that this life is hard, and sometimes depressing is ignorant. To tell me it's all terrible and horrible is naive. It is what it is and you make what you want out of what it gives you.

[ben312]

Does "Faith" make you a better person? Well, you can answer that for yourself, "ben312". You've been participating in a "Faith" on both sides of the spectrum. Christianity (I'm assuming since that's who you're beef is with) and Atheism. Both of which require an enormous amount of Faith. I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for in this thread. You've never lost your "faith". Simply what you put it in.

Or is your question, "Does Religion make you a better person?"

Well in my post I did state that I don't think faith makes you any different. I would also like to make it clear that I have no beef with anyone or anything, I have just made the choice at this point in my life to not believe in a god. I believe there is something out there, not a god, but something. I do believe that if matter is at rest then it will stay at rest, so something had to set everything into movement at one point. I'm not sure what started everything, but I don't think it is a god or anything worth worshiping. IMO there is a great energy out there, but not a god, or anything I would worship.

The "point" of this thread was to find out if you guys think that having faith in a god makes you a better/happier person. And no, the question was does faith make you a better person. Faith in a god, you do not have to be religious to believe in a god.

I know what I believe, and I'm glad no one came into this thread trying to convert me the likes.

[ck_taft325is]

These type's of threads will only aggravate the numerous sides any one person can stand on at any given time. To stay on point and not stray into the familiar string of, "Faith and religion are for ignorant stupid people that are sheep and worthless in life" pissing contests that everyone who preaches about how intolerant Christians are (ironic?) is a fine line. I'll attempt it.

Does "Faith" make you a better person? Well, you can answer that for yourself, "ben312". You've been participating in a "Faith" on both sides of the spectrum. Christianity (I'm assuming since that's who you're beef is with) and Atheism. Both of which require an enormous amount of Faith. I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for in this thread. You've never lost your "faith". Simply what you put it in.

Or is your question, "Does Religion make you a better person?"

And let's clarify something, Faith and Religion are obviously not the same thing. If they were, then when is the first Church of Atheism going to be starting up? I have seen, and as I have read in the dreaded, feared and most hated "Bible", that Religion is, as many would have you believe, complete and utter crap. It brings out the worst in a great deal of people. It will tell you not to think, not to question, not to change and grow as "God" would have you since "He" made everyone an individual and quite unique. Religion will and does tell you to stop growing, not press the edges, don't ask the hard questions of your "leaders". Because many of these religious leaders are deifying themselves and not pointing anyone to "God", as is the tendency with nearly all of Man. So instead you have people that don't attend church and bitch and moan about how "judgmental" Christians are, yet turn around and assume that if someone believes in "God" they are and must be a judgmental, naive, stupid, ignorant, sheepish, kool-aid drinking, slack jawed, idiot, retard that should be cast away from all society in a hope to reach some Utopia where no one believes in a "God" and solve all the worlds problems, because that there Religion must be the center of all our woes. Never once did anyone point the finger at People. It's not so much even Religion. It's the People. People are bad. People CAN be good. But overtly, in all of my experience, people are ugly, small minded, self centered and far to soft spoken. Personally, this is my experiences. It's easy to point the finger but if it truly doesn't matter to you, then you would not say it doesn't. The St. Bernard does not say to the Terrier "I'm bigger than you" because it doesn't have to. A Beautiful person doesn't say to the homely how much prettier they are if they really believe it.

To the OP, I suggest watching Ben Stein's movie "Expelled". Very, very interesting and as someone non-Religious, I'm sure everyone that's in this thread wont find it "intolerable". He asks some hard questions to those that preach no-faith, only science and other main stream leaders of Atheism along with a few other "theisms". Interesting stuff if you believe in God or don't. If you're religious, or not.

[mar1t1me]

Religion is for people that can't think for themselves. You can only make yourself a better person.

The more fundamental types believe thinking (and therefore questioning) itself is a bad thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

[kishg]

faith in what? have faith in yourself. i don't need to believe in god to have faith.

what i've observed is that many people who "believe" do so blindly, just because some religion or it's text says so. they do not question and they do not analyze. that sort of "blind faith" is anathema to me.

[emoshun]

"does faith make you a better person"

No it does not, what you do with that faith, and how strong it is makes all the difference in the world.

You have PM! ;)

[Aptyp]

It's only my opinion, but yes. Faith makes people better. It's not necessary belief in God, that is faith, though. Everyone needs something to believe in, simply because no one know what will happen next. Hope is faith. Wishes, goals, ambitions, desires, they're all faith-based.

So yes, faith makes people better. Whichever way people can find comfort in their day-to-day lives makes society better. There's nothing worse than people, who have nothing to live and die for.