Scott H.,

"As a follow up, what is it you believe you lose by believing in God"

Why do you believe in the ancient ethnocentric Middle Eastern Jewish deity called Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews and the God of the armies? There are thousands of other ethnocentric deities, why don't you believe in one of them? Not any of them has ever done anything godly since the first con man created his favorite deity in his image.

BTW, all deities have their own names. God is just a title. It can refer to any of the thousands of gods. So how about being specific?
http://www.graveyardofthegods.org/deadgods/listofgods.html

The loss is in your possibilities. If you believe in stagnation and glory later you won't work to make all better here and now for yourself and everyone else. Mom Theresa believed and all the money she got that she could have used to save the lives of those around her sent it all to papa. Of course when she got sick no money was spared on trying to save her. So the problem is that the betterment, praise and devotion to an invisible friend is to say fuck you to yourself and everyone now alive and to later be born.
If you want to believe, believe in yourself and your evolved ability to make change and don't wish on jebus to take notice of your shitty life.
That is why belief is a problem. Now if there was a church who worked to educate and enrich the lives of all those around them regardless of gender, color, infirmity or belief with nothing but a goal of helping in the best way possible I would never have spit out the wafer. Unfortunately the only way to feel good on that path is to have power. For the religious this is the chosen, the lottery winners in the god fearing. All you got to do is stand up and say god told me not to eat bacon for breakfast and I fed it to my dog and it died. I AM CHOSEN!!! And they could immortalize you. Keep you alive forever. A story like that gives you power.
So to believe or not to believe make a conscious effort to find your own path. Make it as capable of change as you can, nothing concrete. Remember a fact is only what you believe. If I tell you that the sun is a god and I give you a good back story if it sounds better than your facts your facts become new facts.
Walk as positive a path as you can.
Good luck

Excellent ZeffD,
But to believe and voila you believe is absolutely true. You utilize your critical with everything you believe, every superstition, every fact is a construct of your experiences manifested via critical thinking. Your pic says reason, equality, liberty and peace which is excellent, but though those are great things to work towards you are kind of missing the point. If it said that all be "ok" it would be better. R.E.L.P. are what you believe they are and that is only a fact for you. Take liberty, perhaps freedom from harm from stating opinions. Let's use that as a definition. Everyone should have the freedom of speech. But that isn't liberty for if I believe that the shit I took two years ago is god, you saying it isn't is actually infringing on my liberty to believe in my shit god. So saying liberty, a beautiful and powerful word it is absolutely subjective as is peace, reason and even equality.
Every fact that sits within that fantastic brain box of yours for you is fact and it will only change when you are ready for it to change. Every fact inside of my cranial vault is equally and absolutely fact based on my critical thinking.
As for your statement that a post life party is a requirement no, I may be wrong but I think the Janes believe that god only gave them what is here within his blessings. Either way yes in someway every set of facts can be followed to a conclusion and until I saw death and realized that it was just a release of all the pain, strife, trouble, problems, etc, with that last breath that I became comfortable of my afterlife fear.
Fear is a huge driver and every fear as well as the answer you fit into your fact box is 100% a result of your critical thinking.
Even if I say what is 2 plus 2? The answer of 4 is as close to an absolute fact as we can rely on but there are people who see information as color or smell and that's how they process it, I forget the name of the condition, anyway to that person 2 and 2 is green or lemon. To them the fact is a lie and so though it is 4 it is not as solid as it needs to be seen.
Keep up the good work

How so? Please elaborate.

I do not think you just suddenly believe because you tell yourself to do so. If you keep your mind open, and don't be arrogant, I bieve you will see threw your life, things happen without explanation. If you have never asked, you may never know. If you ask, sometimes something amazing happens! Call it chance if you like. I find it somewhat comforting to think otherwise. I was athiest, then agnostict, then I came to believe. Life happened. Smart, has nothing to do with it .having an open mind can change us for the better. I am trying to understand your relictance to believe, that is all.

Yes good absolutely each word means something to you and it is absolutely different for me. Way to see beyond the choices given! And to look for the more complete question to gain the answer.
Remember 42!!!

Excellent

@ Scott H

"I am trying to understand your reason to disbelieve, while believing in other theories so strongly. All just theories."

The reason to have no belief in a god or gods is that there s not scrap or skerrick of credible evidence for the existence of any of them.

The arguments you put forward are the same as the greeks, Romans, Egyptians,Norse, Britons, in fact every religion that has ever existed including the moonies.

When it comes to your 'christian beliefs' there is not one bit of credible contemporary evidence for your christ figure. Not.One.
The synoptic gospels were written some 200 - 300 years after the events. All of the authors are anonymous. All the gospels based on stories from Mark. John was written from about 150CE to 320 CE by several different authors.
Acts is a blatant forgery, as is at least six of the letters of Paul.

It isn't faith that makes me say this, it is the results of diligent historical research by hundreds of scholars over many years. .

You seem to use the word 'theory' in its lay sense, not in an academic or scientific sense. Please define which you mean.

Although I can respect unjustified private belief, using it to push an agenda of world domination followed by eternal punishment for those unable to swallow the wholesale 'compromises' and cruelties demanded by your god is anathema. One more reason to have no belief in your 'buy one get three' deity.

Ok in your own well chosen words you have capitulated and conceded your defeat.
If I tell you Hawking said there is a super-massive black-hole in the center of the universe and I see Hawking as god and so his word is gospel to say that I don't follow the words and instead interpret their meanings for myself is very strong of you but you are saying you believe that the control of your life is being given to a fallible being, let's face it MAN.
To say Hawking is god but fallible means Hawking isn't truth (which he absolute isn't all he has ever stated is his educated guess and opinion filling in the gaps, close to fact yes, but not fact) is to say you are willing to praise and give your life and afterlife to something not even competent enough to write the truth, fact, when, again HE, writes attempts to communicate with you, just one in 7 plus billion.
Why not chose at least an infallible god. Someone to actually look up to enough to see what they tell you as the right way and the gospel truth.
As for your comparitive point about the "THEORY" of Relativity, it is a theory and in science there are not facts saw written by the hand of god to follow. You are attempting a good attack but you shot yourself in the fucking foot with the attempt.
Again it is not the fact of or the word of Einstein, it is his THEORY which is by intelligent design non-static and if next week or a hundred thousand years from now it is proven as fact or fiction it will still be subject to change.
See you have hedged your bets with a group who by nature strives only to know the word of god and you say it is shit, great for you but it must be severely confusing as you try to take your next breath. Your side kills people for suggesting exactly what you beat your chest and professed that the word of god is subject to interpretation. You are a heretic and per your own standards you should kill yourself and allow god to judge you.
Now as a person who doesn't buy into a stagnant world view I want to congratulate you for having views that differ from those around you even from your own god. You are very strong.
Now a positive next step is to ponder this question "Why do I not believe in what I am supposed to believe?" and perhaps you can continue to go against the parts of the church that don't fit into your view point.
See you on the other side.

So then your Liberal? You spout nonsense while avoiding a direct question. He is not simply my God, he is God, not juzt mine, not one of many. He is God, period. There is no other. That's not the point. I asked a single question, gave you the facts of a hypoghetpecific question which you avoided. I gave you a specific scenario, the facts of a hypothetical situation. You are avoiding answering that question. I ask again, given the situation, considering those outcomes to be true, which game do you play?

So then your Liberal? You spout nonsense while avoiding a direct question. He is not simply my God, he is God, not juzt mine, not one of many. He is God, period. There is no other. That's not the point. I asked a single question, gave you the facts of a hypoghetpecific question which you avoided. I gave you a specific scenario, the facts of a hypothetical situation. You are avoiding answering that question. I ask again, given the situation, considering those outcomes to be true, which game do you play?

You have completely ignored what I said to try to make a point. Without quoting scripture, i'll try to explain to you what I already said. The Bible states that God created man, it does not state how, yes it zYs he spoke the words and it came to be, that does not mean he spoke the words and "poof"! There was man. The Bible states, as interpreted by man from a vision sent by God that this what happened. . Maybe the order does not agree with what science suggests, but that does not mean God did not do it, doesn't mean he did, but maybe man didn't get it straight. Let's be honest, you are tryong, very poorley I might add, to make it look as if I do not have a point. If you do not understand the very basic statement I made, then that reflecf on you. Fact is, I asked a specific question about a very well defined hypothetical question. You are avoiding answering it because you know I have a point. So answer the question.which game should you play? Quit trying to avoid it, it was a straight on question. It is starting to look like this is not a discussion group. It is a support group. You avoid discussion, you just want people to support your position. Sort of a safe place? Good luck with that! Have a good sleep. I hope we can continue this "discussion".