I need to blow a little steam.

Why do ordinary, everyday people ask me if I believe in God? I mean, how incredibly insensitive can someone be to ask that question?

Now, I don't have a firm stance on the subject. Does God exist? I dunno. I've never given it much thought. To me, it doesn't matter if you do or not. Just like I don't care if someone is gay or not. You're still a person, and I'll judge you on the quality of your character. So....WHY ASK?!?

So here's what got me enraged enough to create this topic. I'm playing in the arcade, and some teenager asks me for a quarter. Not feeling particulary giving, I told her I didn't. But she must have seen me putting more quarters into the machine, because later she came back to ask me the God question. It's just an incredible turn-off for me.

Maybe she was just trying to make conversation, and I was blowing her off. Or maybe she was trying to mooch money off of me. If it was the latter, then why try and play the religion card to try and beg for money? That's just absolutely low, using someone's beliefs and trying to manipulate them.

Anyway, I'm just blowing off some steam.

Why tell a lie? It leads to crummy situations like that, and it doesn't really do any good. You could've definitely handled that better by just being honest and saying that you had some more but you weren't feeling all too chummy to give her one. If she gets pissed, she gets pissed. If she had pulled the religion card then, it'd be easy to turn the tables on her.

Anyway, to the topic at hand. Religion is a very fickle matter for many. There a variety of reasons people throw it out there: they use it as a means to justify people not giving them what they want, to feel better about bad choices they make, to use as a cop out (or a crutch) in times of desperation and defeat, because they really feel the will to seek people's religious identities, and on and on.

My opinion on the matter? Does God exist? In my mind, He does. Does it matter? It definitely does to me. However, will it affect my friendships with people? Not in the slightest. The idea of freedom of/from religion is a special one. It allows people to walk the path they much desire, believer or not. So, I'm gonna spend time expanding on certain points.

1) Does God exist? I say yes, but that answer is for me alone. Why do I say God exists? Because there are just some phenomena in this world that can't be explained by anything that is within human grasp. Science can't explain it, words can't... you get the idea. The idea of how life can come to being, how life can start from nothing... it is such an interesting subject and fun to theorize, but in my mind, the only explanation can be that there is an omniscient creator who made it come to life. I'm not saying anybody else here has to believe it. I was on the other side a while back (about 3-4 years ago, actually), so I'm not too far removed from understanding the other points of view. And how things work in our lives, sometimes when the chips are down and things don't look like they'll turn out, everything reverses and things begin to work out. I believe it's God's way of rewarding, though the person has to earn it. God works on the large and small scales of people's lives, I think. The small things to the big things... God will help you if you try and have faith that He will be behind you. But God will not help those who don't try to help themselves... that's what I believe anyway. I see it as those who don't try to help themselves just look to God as a creator who serves everyone and helps them just because they ask and they don't have to do anything. Why should He help people who don't want to improve themselves and their own lives? That's just my opinion on it.

2) Does it matter? Well, it does matter, definitely. Why? Those who believe in Him can make their way to Heaven. If one does not believe in God, they do not believe in Heaven, so their afterlife does not belong with Him. This can go on into a big long debate, and I rather not debate this subject as all religious debates are circular because no one knows a definite answer about what happens after death. It's not all about the afterlife either, but I'm not really able to explain it at the moment, sowe'll cut from there.

3) Why don't I care about other people's religious affiliations? Easy. I want to surround myself with people who generally do the (morally) right thing, and because they feel that is how things should be done. I want to be surrounded by people that care about who I am as a person and eventually respect the man I am. I don't need respect from everyone, nor do I care to be liked by everyone. Religious affiliation does not define how a person is. There are those who are atheist and agnostic that are just as good of people as there are Christians. What matters is who fits into your way of life. Not religiously, but humanly. It also matters for you, who has your back and who will be there when the rest of the world isn't. That's what really determines the people I'm around.

One thing you need to remember, though is to keep an open mind to other's opinions or beliefs or choices. You don't have to like them, but keep your mind open to them. The more you close your mind, the more ignorant you become. That's what I think anyway. I don't even know if my post makes any sense. Try and figure it out, I guess.

I myself am just curious whether Bo could come up with a response longer than ShadowFox's.

I know you're not looking for a debate, so I'll keep my response simple.

Bull.

Double-post, sorry, but this seems relevant:
http://www.jaynaylor.com/originallife/a ... 0/041.html

The answer, is yes. However, suprisingly I will not do so here.


Personally, I disagree with some conclusions maintained by ShadowFox1001's but I fully respect the essential merit of everything he said regarding his approach toward his belief system and for those who believe similarly as he does.

@1ce
First, she was probably hitting on you. Second, if she wasn't, you could have probably used it as an opportunity to hit on her.

At any rate, here is the thing about religion or any belief system that is strongly held personally. Many people have strongly held beliefs, my agnostic self included as well as many Christians, that religion is not something best treated only personally. This is our personal belief. So if we base our actions on the content of our beliefs, we either feel justified in approaching someone or even (moreso within my own belief system) that there is no need to justify approching someone (i.e. that it is not inherently morally "wrong" to appproach someone) regarding their religious beliefs.

If on the other hand, you say don't go with content, but instead everyone should just treat religion in their own personal way, well then our personal way IS to socially communicate with others about their religion.

But then if we can't do it that way, the only way left (not talking to others about their religion) is simply your way or others way.

Nevertheless, I myself do not value doing that at all to make someone feel guilty out of anger. My personal belief is that one should always work at never being vengeant. I try to monastically discipline against such abuse.

If this girl was intending to be vengeant then I would not respect her approach personally. But I agree with ShadowFox1001 that the best thing is open and honest communication. (Personally if I didn't want to give her money I would have just said, "Sorry I can't help you"...I do this all the time in the city when I don't feel like giving money away that I do have).

My concern is that you don't really know for sure why she acted the way she did and you apparently did not confirm it before getting upset with her.

Just remember, all people are people, including Christians. It would not be wise to expect them to behave any particular way, or if you are going to expect them to behave a certain way, then why not expect them to behave as most people do...most people react negatively to things they don't want to hear.

Who uses "Do you believe in God" as a pickup line? It's like one of the worst possible, and brings out all sorts of awkwardness.

Well, for pick up line use, it could used as such:

Girl: "Do you believe in God?"
Guy: "No."
Girl: "Well, after tonight, you will. ;D"

Well, she looked like she was still in high school. Not so much of a turn on for me, anyway.

Yes, I could have handled the situation better. But when I'm in a noisy arcade trying to stay alive and save the world in a virtual setting, I couldn't be bothered with anything except a quick response.

I suppose the question bothers me because I have no straight answer to the question, and I don't know why the question is getting shot at me. Whether a god made the world or not, or whatever happens in the afterlife, nobody knows. You can't really prove the existance of a God, yet I admit life events play out in a strange way. Whenever I hit a low point, I find some way to climb out of it. It could be coincidence, but it occurs far too often to be just that. So I really don't know. I always feel like I'm being put in the spotlight.

Now if you asked me if I'm religious, I could flat out say no. But then, is that the same question?

Shadowfox, that is easily the most awesome thing I have ever heard you say, ... and now I am hoping against hope that this exact scenario is how I will find the woman I am destined to marry. ^_^