The problem of religions has troubled me since I know my mind. I always looked at religion as superstition, however I had to accept that I can't disprove such beliefs. This annoyed me seriously. No matter how much philosophy I've read I couldn't find any reasonable proof about the non-existence of the supernatural. I was looking at the wrong place and for the wrong question. The solution was in meta-gaming, cheating, playing to win and the question wasn't even about the supernatural.
The "created" World is far from perfect, full of disasters and mass murderers. Why there is imperfection in the World created by a perfect God? Because of free will. If I can't make decisions, there is no "I", free will is necessary to define a person. However if one has free will, he can do evil too. God cannot interfere with our actions without eliminating free will. Can't magically turn the bullets of an evil murderer soft without making the choice to be a murderer impossible.
However for God to matter, he must interfere some time. If he never interferes with us, he may or may not exist, but we have no reason to care. If he doesn't make non-deterministic choices that affect us, we are free to call him "natural laws" and completely stop thinking about him as a being. Actually a non-interfering God would be nature.
The solution to keep both free will and a choice-making God is afterlife: God doesn't interfere with our lives to let us have free will, but will interfere with our afterlife, placing us to Heaven or Hell. This scheme is told by practically every religion, exactly because it's the only way to have both God and free will.
But what is the purpose of the normal world then, if there is a much better version? To allow judgment. The people are free to act good and evil in this world, forming the basis of judgment after death. This actually turns the life into a test. All wrong and suffering in this world is the consequence of someone failing to do the right thing. This person will be judged and punished, while the righteous will be rewarded by heaven. So we have divine perfection (in heaven), perfect justice (by sending the evil to Hell) despite the World we see is evil. The natural disasters and innocent victims are not disproving this: they could be foreseen, prevented or mitigated by people who choose not to. You could have spent money on earthquake research instead of military, you could have moved away from the faultline, you could have built a stronger house. Also, the victim - if lived his life properly - is not harmed as he goes to Heaven anyway.
So life is a game that will be evaluated by the perfect God who will send the "bad players" to Hell, while rewards the righteous with divine love and perfection in Heaven. This scheme resists all atheists ideas and could not be disproved.
It doesn't need to be disproved. The problem of this scheme can be summarized with a question: how would you describe the person who steals from a shop right front of a bunch of cops? The answer is "idiot", and not "immoral". He has no reasonable chance to achieve his goal, even temporarily (he won't drink the stolen booze), and he will be punished. In a world where cops stand everywhere, no one would commit crime except the insane.
If one believes that the world is test by God who will punish the failers and rewards the righteous, he will do good, regardless his moral preferences, just like a non-insane thief will act lawfully front of the policemen. This - again - is preached by religions: the crimes are done by people who turned away from God, while the true God-fearing person is living a righteous life.
However this is a fundamental loophole in the test! Since God sees and knows all, anyone believing in God knows that he is watched and won't do bad to avoid the punishment of Hell. The members of the true church are cheating the test of God! Since these people know that it is just a test, it no longer tests their morality, only their self-control and obedience. To make the test work God must hide from the people, making it impossible for them to figure his existence out. If you would say "God likes self-control and obedience" than you must explain why different religions exist. I mean if there are two preachers, you obviously can't obey both. The perfect God would never create such a faulty test.
One could claim that the test is recognizing the true God (true moral) by picking the true church. However such test would be very unfair. One risen by religious people is usually religious without thinking about it, simply by following what's been told him. So those who born as children of the members of the true church has a huge advantage over those who were born in atheist families. To make it worse, several religions actively punish non-believers. If that is not the true church, your only chance to go to Heaven is to become a martyr. No God would make so unfair test.
Since God would not allow cheating his test and religions do nothing else but help the people cheating, - extremely ironically - the existence of a true religion and the existence of God are mutually exclusive. So there is either no God (therefore all religions are wrong) or all the religions are useless and don't bring you closer to Heaven (that's why God lets them exist).
Please note that I did not disprove the existence of God. That probably can't be done as you can't make measurements on the supernatural. Atheists are doing it all wrong, trying to defeat the idea of God. The usefulness of Earthly religions can be disproved. People shouldn't be convinced to stop believing in God, they should be convinced to stop going to church.
The "created" World is far from perfect, full of disasters and mass murderers. Why there is imperfection in the World created by a perfect God? Because of free will. If I can't make decisions, there is no "I", free will is necessary to define a person. However if one has free will, he can do evil too. God cannot interfere with our actions without eliminating free will. Can't magically turn the bullets of an evil murderer soft without making the choice to be a murderer impossible.
However for God to matter, he must interfere some time. If he never interferes with us, he may or may not exist, but we have no reason to care. If he doesn't make non-deterministic choices that affect us, we are free to call him "natural laws" and completely stop thinking about him as a being. Actually a non-interfering God would be nature.
The solution to keep both free will and a choice-making God is afterlife: God doesn't interfere with our lives to let us have free will, but will interfere with our afterlife, placing us to Heaven or Hell. This scheme is told by practically every religion, exactly because it's the only way to have both God and free will.
But what is the purpose of the normal world then, if there is a much better version? To allow judgment. The people are free to act good and evil in this world, forming the basis of judgment after death. This actually turns the life into a test. All wrong and suffering in this world is the consequence of someone failing to do the right thing. This person will be judged and punished, while the righteous will be rewarded by heaven. So we have divine perfection (in heaven), perfect justice (by sending the evil to Hell) despite the World we see is evil. The natural disasters and innocent victims are not disproving this: they could be foreseen, prevented or mitigated by people who choose not to. You could have spent money on earthquake research instead of military, you could have moved away from the faultline, you could have built a stronger house. Also, the victim - if lived his life properly - is not harmed as he goes to Heaven anyway.
So life is a game that will be evaluated by the perfect God who will send the "bad players" to Hell, while rewards the righteous with divine love and perfection in Heaven. This scheme resists all atheists ideas and could not be disproved.
It doesn't need to be disproved. The problem of this scheme can be summarized with a question: how would you describe the person who steals from a shop right front of a bunch of cops? The answer is "idiot", and not "immoral". He has no reasonable chance to achieve his goal, even temporarily (he won't drink the stolen booze), and he will be punished. In a world where cops stand everywhere, no one would commit crime except the insane.
If one believes that the world is test by God who will punish the failers and rewards the righteous, he will do good, regardless his moral preferences, just like a non-insane thief will act lawfully front of the policemen. This - again - is preached by religions: the crimes are done by people who turned away from God, while the true God-fearing person is living a righteous life.
However this is a fundamental loophole in the test! Since God sees and knows all, anyone believing in God knows that he is watched and won't do bad to avoid the punishment of Hell. The members of the true church are cheating the test of God! Since these people know that it is just a test, it no longer tests their morality, only their self-control and obedience. To make the test work God must hide from the people, making it impossible for them to figure his existence out. If you would say "God likes self-control and obedience" than you must explain why different religions exist. I mean if there are two preachers, you obviously can't obey both. The perfect God would never create such a faulty test.
One could claim that the test is recognizing the true God (true moral) by picking the true church. However such test would be very unfair. One risen by religious people is usually religious without thinking about it, simply by following what's been told him. So those who born as children of the members of the true church has a huge advantage over those who were born in atheist families. To make it worse, several religions actively punish non-believers. If that is not the true church, your only chance to go to Heaven is to become a martyr. No God would make so unfair test.
Since God would not allow cheating his test and religions do nothing else but help the people cheating, - extremely ironically - the existence of a true religion and the existence of God are mutually exclusive. So there is either no God (therefore all religions are wrong) or all the religions are useless and don't bring you closer to Heaven (that's why God lets them exist).
Please note that I did not disprove the existence of God. That probably can't be done as you can't make measurements on the supernatural. Atheists are doing it all wrong, trying to defeat the idea of God. The usefulness of Earthly religions can be disproved. People shouldn't be convinced to stop believing in God, they should be convinced to stop going to church.
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