Quote:
Originally Posted by bryantm3
i think if everyone knew G-d existed, the purpose of this life, which is to learn right from wrong and to help other people, and whatnot, our values would be totally different. if everyone knew there was a G-d, they would say, "why doesn't he help the poor/sick/etc.?" or "it doesn't matter, i'm going to live forever anyway". all questions, inquiries, conflict, etc. would all be directed towards G-d to get him to solve all of our problems, and we wouldn't learn anything from each other or have any purpose in anything you do— why work all your life, find a husband/wife, become president, anything when you know that what awaits you afterwards is going to be better and in comparison this life is pointless?
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I guess my biggest question in response to this would be if faith in a god as it currently exists shares similar shortcomings. As you pointed out, there are suicide bombers who kill themselves and others because they're certain based on their faith that they'll be off to an afterlife filled with virgins. There are Christians who already ask why God doesn't help the poor/sick/etc. There are countless people who depend on prayer to solve their problems, and who attribute their successes and failures to God's response to their prayers. And how do people with extremely strong convictions about their faith today motivate themselves to do anything when the promise of the afterlife is so much better than their mortal life?
In short, what you described is a partial list of problems that I already have with religion in general, even when it's based on faith and not conclusive knowledge. I'm a little confused as to how these would be significant problems with conclusive evidence of God, but they're not problems now even though they already exist based on faith.