Assuming you picked the absolute specific religion correctly, and whatever power upstairs prefers blind loyalty over actually being a good person and living a good life Pascal's wager is ass.
I was raised Lutheran. I went to a Lutheran school through 8th grade, which included daily religion class and memorizing scripture and questions from the Small Catechism. Other than the odd baptism or marriage the last time I set foot in that church was when the Pastor ever so subtley worked me into the sermon about 6 years ago. I was living with my boyfriend (living in sin!) and my aunt was kind enough to speak to Pastor about it. I was not allowed to take communion even though this same pastor allowed another girl my age who was pregnant out of wedlock to take communion, apparently that's not as bad. Who knew? I've since frequented a Baptist church but I don't care for the whole fire and brimstone thing. There are a lot of great things that can be taken out of Christianity, banishing everyone to hell isn't one of them. I still go from time to time to appease family but I'm not sure what I believe in anymore. I would probably consider myself agnostic. I think everyone should be kind and that's it. Don't be an asshole and you're all good in my book. To quote Vonnegut, "There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."
See, I'm not really the argumentative type, and comments like that don't really bother me. I put in my two cents, and like I said I have zero interest in trying to push my beliefs on anyone else. Duh...
I consider myself a Christian. Flawed, fallible, and conflicted, but a Christian. And, speaking as a Christian - not for every Christian, mind you - not all Christians believe the type of paraphrasing Sack and Dmix described. John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life." Hell is not mentioned there, and not every Christian believes that the opposite of eternal life is eternal damnation; it may just be death. Dante did more promoting Hell and the Devil than the Bible ever did.
If only God would come down and tell us the truth we could figure this all out. I wonder if he is reading this thread?
I'm an atheist, but hate identifying myself as such. Why, you ask? Because the only people more annoying than the bible thumping self-proclaimed missionaries are the people on the other side who act all superior because they don't believe in god. One of my major gripes with religion is the natural inclination of SOME (not all, just SOME) to try and convert others to their way of thinking. But the atheists who run around calling themselves "secular humanists" and preaching about the evils of religion and god in general tend to be far worse than any Grand Central Station Soap Box Preacher. My knowledge of the lack of god is my own, and I don't give a fuck what you do or do not believe, so don't insist on sharing it with me. Thank you all.
I believe in God, but not religion. I see it as no coincidence that all religions really only give power to the priests and never actually worship god, but the man on the altar.
Oh. Great. This is all my fault. Focus: I was raised Lutheran (specifically, WELS Lutheran, though I've honestly never understood the difference), but in the last few years, I've grown into something that more closely resembles this. It's basically all of the practical teachings of religion that most sane people would agree with, without any of the stories, bullshit speculation, and various agendas which may or may not hold merit. Did Jesus really pull a weekend stunt that would have David Blaine green with envy? Did Mohammad really talk to Allah in a cave? Did Joseph Smith really have visions from a supernatural source? Who knows, and more importantly, who fucking cares? If these various schools of thought encourage people, above all else, to be good people, then have at it. Obviously, religion isn't a prerequisite to being a good person, so a lack thereof isn't a bad thing, either. Where it starts to get messy is when people on either end of the spectrum, like Richard Dawkins or those Westboro nutjobs, begin slinging shit at each other and cease to play nicely in the sandbox. The whole debate is rife with hypocrisy, and lacking in agreement to disagree, on both sides. Case in point: why is "as long as I'm not pushing my agenda on to you, it shouldn't be a problem" universally considered an acceptable stance for gay rights, but not for a topic that's more profound, such as religion/agnosticism? Religion or no religion, I cannot figure out why people's various beliefs and disbeliefs are so highly scrutinized by others, as if it makes a fucking difference to the latter. Read the two quotes posted by Nom Chompsky again, because they're invaluable to this discussion. With that, I'll leave you with this quote from the end of South Park's All About Mormons episode. Seems appropriate here:
This is pretty close to my viewpoint. I was raised Catholic, but turned my back on that many years ago. The Misanthropics aren't are churchgoing family.
Being raised Catholic, I have an intense fear of not believing in God. That's the only way I know how to explain it. I have no proof that he exists, except for the fact that I have had one too many near-death experiences and more people believe in God than super heroes. I believe because I'm afraid, if I don't, the afterlife will be horrible for me.
Well, while I am sure much popcorn has been consumed waiting for this thread to turn into the inevitable shitshow, do we really need to actually see the calamity? As usual, a thread in violation of the rules demonstrates exactly why we have those rules. Shegirl even reiterated the no religion rule for the contest, but it was ignored. Son, I am disappoint. By even deigning to run this thread, I risk the Wrath of Shegirl, which is more real and terrible than that of any angry God, I assure you. I have taken note of all the happenings here, and all will be rectified in the final act. Of judgment.