gabriel12

Just curious, and it may have been answered in the 1000 plus posts that I don't feel like reading, but why is everyone trying to convince people that there is a God, when no matter what you say, the non-believers just want to twist it around to saying that there isn't...? In fact, how in the world can an agnostic or atheist prove that there is not a God?

So, I think it comes down to faith for the non-believer or uncertain that they will continue their life not believing and not end up in Hell. It comes down to faith that the believers will continue believing and end up in Heaven. Either way, non-believers and believers are basically using the same theory of Faith, just in opposite directions. Blaise Pascal, a mathematician, physicist, and philosopher, had a theory on belief called Pascal's Wager. "Wager posits that it is a better "bet" to believe that God exists than not to believe, because the expected value of believing (which Pascal assessed as infinite) is always greater than the expected value of not believing." Either way, believing or non-believing is based on Faith alone because according to this thread, you can't prove either way.

And, yes, mutual respect should be given to everyone, but you don't have to respect anyone and everyone's beliefs....just their right to have them. Everyone is entitled to what they would like to believe, but someone shouldn't be forced to respect what they feel is morally wrong.