Having had a few atheists (who I really liked and respected) in my life over the years, I’m curious to learn more about...blah blah

Here is a question: Atheists what would you do differently in your lives if you believed (let’s just restrict belief to God, Son, Holy Spirit...for easier discussion)?

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Nothing except maybe I'd go to church sometimes and try to solve problems in the context of Christianity being useful for that purpose.

It might be different if I was super devout but I'd be a very different person so who knows?

I cant think of anything I would do differently, other than as wereBeer mentions, going to church,possibly.

A belief in god does not give you any information on how to act,unless you also believe that god is a certain way, or requires certain acts.

Perhaps its that my upbringing was already informed by christian beliefs, whilst not being explicitly christian ( having grown up in the UK), and thats why it seems like I wouldnt do anything different

I'm not an atheist (my beliefs are a bit unusual), but I definitely don't believe in the Christian God. The all-powerful and all-knowing part is a deal-breaker for me.

If I did, I'd spend 100% of my efforts into maximizing the probability of getting into heaven after I die. Whatever that would mean.

Interesting comments considering I’m under the impression that atheists associate belief with a “force of change” and therefore avoid the plausibility of it.

I’m not going to get into whether or not there is a force of change btw...because, square 1, square 2, square 3,...you know.

Atheists can't be easily characterised by catch-all descriptions. They come in all shapes, forms and creeds. Many, just like believers, hold contradictory beliefs. Many yet, don't actually know what they believe. I'm confused by the meaning of this thread.

I started this thread to better understand atheism so that my real life relationships with atheists would improve.

It's an odd way to understand atheists and atheism, to ask what they'd do if they weren't that!


If someone held significantly different beliefs to their current beliefs, they'd be a significantly different person, wouldn't they? Here's an answer to your OP:


I would hope that I would spend considerable effort in proselytizing to everyone I knew (assuming what I thought was that belief in God was what got people to heaven, and lack of belief was what condemned them to hell).


But I'm describing actions that are quite alien to who I actually am.


Is there anything in particular wrong with your "real life relationships with atheists"? That might be a better place to start (bearing in mind that the best option ultimately will probably be to talk to those real life atheists!).

If you believed it you would do a slight or even token amount of the stuff prescribed, such as the faithful do now. Part of what makes atheists different is they don't take myths literally, are allowed to apply critical thinking to religions (not just the rest of life), they question indoctrination instead of miming it, they don't believe humanity is evil (which is a devastating charge to level and adversely affects billions, including children) ... for starters. If a believer wants the respect of a non-believer for his or her beliefs, convince the atheist that you are applying the same critical thinking to your religion that you do to all the others (which are just obviously false, right? no real analysis needed). That said, many would agree including me that there is great stuff in most all major religions of the world, all are branches of the same tree, fruit of the "perennial philosophy" impulse, etc. ... it's when they go nuclear about hell and damnation for everyone else and disavow the primitive brutality of their religion that they are in evil territory.

Better understand yourself and you will better understand people. People are people - atheist or not.

As I am an argumentative person, I would probably promote and defend my religion in debate in the same vein that I have promoted and defended atheism in debate.

I could easily see myself hold sermons, as I have always enjoyed teaching and speaking to crowds, but I'm not exactly seeing myself doing it as a professional. A tradition where lay preaching is accepted would likely appeal a great deal to me, but then again... choice vs upbringing is a thing, so who knows.

I do not think I would have become a very conservative religious person and very unlikely to have been a fundamentalist. I'm generally a skeptical person and contradictions really bother me, so I think my beliefs would have been more that the bible was "inspired by" more than "written by" God.

That said, I'm pretty sure I would have pretty fervent in my beliefs. I do feel strongly about things. I would probably be annoyed a great deal by people who flat out rejected my religion without pause.

I’ve come to realize I asked the wrong question.
Thanks for the responses.

Please answer this question instead:

Atheists, what would God do for you if you believed?

I don't follow the question. If you're asking how would believing in God affect my life, that just sounds like your original question slightly reworded.

If you're asking what would I expect God to do for me if I believed in God, in quid pro quo fashion, then it would come down to what specific belief I happened to hold, which is the hypothetical in question.

e.g. if i believed a la Calvinism then I wouldn't expect God to do anything for me, since everything is preordained.

If I believed in a prayer-answering, future-altering God then I'd believe God would answer my prayers.

etc.

Unless I misunderstood, it sounds like another instance of asking <i>"if you held different beliefs, what would those beliefs be?"</i>

Wondering how others will respond...

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Well, this one is a lot easier than my original answer.

Nothing.

I'd believe he'd do for me whatever my beliefs entailed him doing for me.

For the original question, those who believe don't seem to act appreciably different than I do, so probably no appreciable change in my behavior. I'd probably pray and go to church, since those seem somewhat popular past times for believers. I'd murder, rape and pillage about the same amount that I currently do.

Now that you are traveling about more Brian, your opportunities for murder, rape and pillage (and getting away with it) have increased significantly. I'm jealous.

Got it.

Thanks for the responses.

What kind of responses were you expecting?

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Can’t say I spent any time expecting. I just figured this would be the most efficient of 4 ways to figure something out and did it.

What have you concluded from the responses itt?

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You don’t want to know.

And that info helps me...so thanks again to those who responded.

That's a difficult question for an atheist, since being an atheist probably involves the kind of rationality that also makes it difficult to put yourself into another mans shoes.
For me, I can rationalize what drives people to believe in deities, but I just cant imagine myself being able to believe in them if that makes sense :P.

Most people can put themselves in other people's shoes. Some atheists even used to be theists and have what the experts call "memories." They can use these memories to determine what they believed and thought when they were theists.

I don't think most people can, most people may believe they can, but are just conceited.