I don't want to post about whether god exists since it's pretty pointless to think about, especially as it ties in with what happens after death which is completely mysterious.
I do want to answer the other questions though because they're interesting.
Benign religion is good for society. A faith gives simple answers to so many tough questions about life that can freak people out eg what happens after death. More importantly a faith gives purpose which I feel is crucial to happiness. The community aspect is great too, you meet a lot of people etc. It doesn't matter if it's bolIocks or not, religion contains so many components to happiness. I said benign religion though, some "religion" is clearly detrimental to society. A lot of things are done in the name of "religion" which are clearly against the codes upon which these regions were founded. Isis and it's extremism is a notable example of this.
I think that people who believe in god are irrational though. As much as I praise religion for the non religious bits, the actual believing stuff has always confused me. Each to their own.
At the end of our lives I think we'll just have "eternal sleep", nothing basically. It's mildly depressing since it means that nothing matters in the end. I like to feel that the journey is the important part and we shouldn't focus on what happens after.
I'm a Christian and I believe in God. A few years ago a lady introduced God to us. Before that, the only things we did was go to church and that's all. When I was introduced to God by the lady and her daughter I felt a happy sensation in which I cannot describe. I felt that my future was there and that nothing will ever go wrong. Even though, there were Downs I was still happy. Looking back at it now, I wish I stayed the same. Now, I strayed from God somehow. And received some dipleasing things. My family WAS falling apart. But through my faithful mother we got our grip together. And we're fine now. Sometimes I think that those were tests from God. To see if we are really faithful. I'm not the same as before but I still believe. :3 xxDolphinz
semi-true post and exactly why i don't specifically believe in any religion, because even if i can ponder up some non-contradictory set of beliefs about God based on Chrisitianity or any other such religion, i would have to wonder why this God failed so miserably at getting their message across to the point where their teachings were contorted, abused, and used for mind-boggling manipulation throughout said teachings' bizarrely short history (relative to human's existence on earth).
"Why do you believe in God or why don't you believe in God?"
I believe in God because of personal reasons. It is nothing I can explain and is based wholly on faith. If you asked me for proof ore evidence I could not answer, same as you could not disprove the existence of God with our current understandings of the world. I know I'm outnumbered here, and I don't want to start a religious argument on here because they only serve to frustrate.
"Do you think religion in general is good or bad for a single society? Humanity?"
Here's where I'm going to differ from a lot of Christians. The way we glorify God and create our churches seems extremely vain to me. We glorify God, but do we do it wholly for our own sake or do we do it because we actually, truly believe in God? The way the Catholic Church is, it seems to be a place of greed and sin. And I think that is part of the human condition. But the way we built the churches, to be large gothic cathedrals that vainly represent how we picture Heaven to be, I strongly dislike.
Not that I'm saying God shouldn't be praised, I just think we do it in all the wrong ways.
"Do you find people who believe in God to be hopeful? Misinformed?"
Yes, it is very hard to be truthfully Christian and faithful. So people live two separate lives, they live a life where they are faithful to God, and then they live their own lives separate from God. I do the same, but lately I've been thinking over many of the things I do and want to do.
To me, a problem that comes up when people call themselves Christian is this. It lacks meaning. Many people say that they are Christian, but only say this because there are MANY Christians in the world. You see they label themselves as Christian only to look good. Again, I'm talking about the vanity that exists in the church. I pray for these people the same way I pray for myself.
I think that to question whether God is fair or not is useless. It sounds as if some atheists were frightened of the possibility of God's existence. And I understand that, it's hard to reject the beliefs we were raised with. But, if we forget about the thousands of millions of believers we live among, it becomes clear that the probabilities of the existence of the muslim, christian, greek God is quite insignificant.
