---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote :
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : If you were find out for sure that there is NO God, would you feel a sense of loss, as if your life had been diminished in some way or wasted believing in one? We non-theists wouldn't. It would have no impact on our lives whatsoever. Of course it would have no impact for non-theists! What a dumb comparison. The corresponding question for *non-theists* should be: "If you were to find out for sure that there IS a God, would you feel a sense of loss, as if your life had been diminished in some way or wasted not believing in one?" How would you answer that? I love your line of reasoning, Seraphita. Since I already believe in "God" I will take a stab at what a non-theist might feel if they suddenly found out there was a God after all, just for fun. They might feel chagrined that they berated all of their acquaintances for being believers or they might have to delete all the theist jokes off their FB wall. They might even decide to look around themselves and feel gratitude towards something that was imaginative and strong enough to have made a worm or a thundercloud. They might even decide to say a little "thank you" prayer for the fact that their heart keeps beating and that they can hear a Mozart requiem. If your answer to the question is "Yes," it seems to me that your faith in God is based on habit, neediness and fear, not on any kind of positive belief.
