I believe...

[Satyn]

that makes sense, if you dont believe in anything you cant get punished by it either .. unless it actually exists then youre done for

[Moley:)]

Then you just ask to be forgiven . Thats a good angle on the after life .. maybe

Or just don't do anything bad then your clean .. If that's possible

[Xest]

If a god were to exist, any god that were to send someone to hell just because they didn't beleive in the god, despite said god being the entity that created humans and hence the entity that should understand that humans would doubt him would have to be a pretty evil god. We can therefore safely say that there is no point believing in any religion whatsoever because if god is real he'll either be nice enough to understand the flaw in his creation - us humans and hence forgive us, or god is no better than satan in being so cruel anyway!

Alternatively, what if satan has actually managed to beat god down and trick humans into believing he was god, the spiritual feelings he passes to people who claim to feel them such as Gandelf are just cruel tricks into luring us to want to go to heaven which is actually hell! What if jesus and the bible was just part of his cruel trick to lure us in

So yeah, don't let yourself be told you should believe in religion to be on the safe side, because there's really no guarantee you'll be on the safe side, you could in fact be endangering yourself more, hence I conclude from this that a neutral non-believing standpoint is clearly the best and most safe route to take!

[Gandelf]

in a patriarchal god, a la Judaeism, Christianity, Islam

That's not strictly true. Yes, it tends to be the case that God is looked upon as being male, i.e. a father figure, however, there is also a feminine side to God's nature and you will find many passages of scripture in all three holy books (because they share much of the same material) where God is viewed from a maternal aspect, i.e. in caring for her children.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who sent you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

...and please, refrain from making any jokes about chickens and why they crossed the road!

[OohhoO]

Whilst I would fight to preserve anyones right to believe what they want, my personal opinion is that anyone who chooses to believe in a sadistic autocratic male god needs some serious psychiatric treatment. If I wanted to worship something, Jahweh would be about last on my list.

[<ankh>]

That's not strictly true. Yes, it tends to be the case that God is looked upon as being male, i.e. a father figure, however, there is also a feminine side to God's nature and you will find many passages of scripture in all three holy books (because they share much of the same material) where God is viewed from a maternal aspect, i.e. in caring for her children.

Indeed he has some feminine sides..as his son was said to have too Thats why I can't understand all the fuzz the christians in sweden made when some artist was showing his paintings where he painted Jesus as a homosexual guy with lots of men

/Ankh

[Moley:)]

Watch Dogma that will do if people can't be arsed to read books or form own opinion lol (love that film)

[Lieva]

Watch Dogma that will do if people can't be arsed to read books or form own opinion lol (love that film)

that the one with ben afflick and silent bob?

Thats a kewl film

[Satyn]

that the one with ben afflick and silent bob?

Thats a kewl film

i hate that film

[Moley:)]

you just hate everything i love . meany!