Blaise Pascal's wager aye? Only really works if you've never heard of it. Otherwise god (being omniscient) would know you only "believe" in him out of greed.

Greed:
excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves

People believe in God for a lot more reasons than greed.

From a Christian point of view, people come to God out of conviction over their own sinfulness.

There are also those that come to God completely overwhelmed by love, due to an understanding of the great love that God has shown to them (by sending Jesus to die on the cross for them.)

Also, Christ said if you become a Christian people will hate you, your family will be split up, and you're going to have a lot of tough trials in life.

I don't think someone like the apostle Paul was motivated out of greed. Nor do I think I am motivated out of greed, nor was my ex-drug-addict friend moved to believe in God out of greed. It was something else.

What?



People believe in God for a lot more reasons than greed. From a Christian point of view, people come to God out of conviction over their own sinfulness. There are also those that come to God completely overwhelmed by love, due to an understanding of the great love that God has shown to them (by sending Jesus to die on the cross for them.)

Also, Christ said if you become a Christian people will hate you, your family will be split up, and you're going to have a lot of tough trials in life.

I don't think someone like the apostle Paul was motivated out of greed. Nor do I think I am motivated out of greed, nor was my ex-drug-addict friend moved to believe in God out of greed. It was something else.

In fact, the whole of Christianity is built on putting your 'self' down and lifting up Christ. To say that people believe in God out of greed seems like a totally absurd misunderstanding, in my opinion.

You did only say "god", which could be any religion in the world, but Pascal's wager deals with Christianity.

“Why do people have different religions?” I asked. “It seems like the best one would win, eventually, and we’d all believe the same thing.”
The old man paused and rocked. He tucked both hands inside his red plaid blanket.
“Imagine that a group of curious bees lands on the outside of a church window. Each bee gazes upon the interior through a different stained glass pane. To one bee, the church’s interior is all red. To another it is all yellow, and so on. The bees cannot experience the inside of the church directly; they can only see it. They can never touch the interior or smell it or interact with it in any way. If bees could talk they might argue over the color of the interior. Each bee would stick to his version, not capable of understanding that the other bees were looking through different pieces of stained glass. Nor would they understand the purpose of the church or how it got there or anything about it. The brain of a bee is not capable of such things. “But these are curious bees. When they don’t understand something, they become unsettled and unhappy. In the long run the bees would have to choose between permanent curiosity—an uncomfortable mental state—and delusion. The bees don’t like those choices. They would prefer to know the true color of the church’s interior and its purpose, but bee brains are not designed for that level of understanding. They must choose from what is possible, either discomfort or self-deception. The bees that choose discomfort will be unpleasant to be around and they will be ostracized. The bees that choose self-deception will band together to reinforce their vision of a red-based interior or yellow-based interior and so on.”
“So you’re saying we’re like dumb bees?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Worse. We are curious.”

Jesus would be good at horoscopes. Do you honestly think Christians have it any tougher than anyone else? Lots of peoples' families split up. Lots of people have tough trials.

That's great. I would say most people are motivated to be religious/Christian by something other than greed. There are those people, however, who are in it just for the heaven insurance policy.

I know a lot of people that, after becoming Christians, the rest of their family wants nothing to do with them.

That's universal. My family shunned me for a while after I left Mormonism. (Fortunately, my entire family except my sister have now left as well).

... I was talking to the OP. Besides, atheism or agnosticism could be seen as a delusion or self-deception as well. People choose the viewpoint/delusion that helps them get through the day.

So it was a sort of "*Shun- wait this really is stupid, thanks for the heads up!" kind of deal?

How is "we don't know" a delusion?

The definition of agnostic is unknowable... ask a devout Christian if he believes in God, and he'll give you an unshakeable yes. How can one person not be sure if it's true, but the other can with no doubt in his mind? I guess I'm saying no one should think their beliefs are concrete fact. Religion (or the lack thereof) is merely a point of view YOU choose to observe, no one else.

Okay, that's merely a point of view YOU choose to to observe, no one else.

How can one person not be sure if it's true, but the other can with no doubt in his mind? I guess I'm saying no one should think their beliefs are concrete fact.