Hansel hit it square. Without action, imagined or otherwise, there is no reason to make a choice. But with action possible, you have a better chance getting a good guy from the Christian pool than you do from the Everyone pool. Your exceptions are irrelevant, maybe Mao was an atheist.
Hitler believed in Wagner, Wotan, and God in that order. He was a nut whose propensity to lunacy showed as the stress of leadership wore him down. We can't take the 'beliefs' of clinically disturbed individuals as exemplary of anything except confusion. We were talking here about somebody who really, really believes in God. Surely such belief would entail the Christian social code personified by Christ himself. The fact that, as I indicated earlier, there are many so-called Christians who don't behave at all in accordance with that code would not be indicative of the behavior we could anticipate from a person who believes in God and all that that entails. Those in prison, those who rape boys, and those who gas millions are obviously either unaware of or indifferent to the Christian moral code. We're working here with a hypothetical someone who adheres to the Christian code. That is what I gathered from Ricter's 1st post.
well since we are making up thought experiments lets change it up a bit. lets suppose you had a choice of a family to be born in. you could choose a loving christian family who believed what the bible said about jesus healing you through prayer without doctors if you get sick or a loving athiest family who scoffed at what was said in the bible about jesus healing through prayer and thought modern medicine was the way to go? which would you choose?
ok i get it now. its kind of like "he cant be a real republican because he once voted for a democrat". still, i will submit that your statement "believing in God carries with it an established moral code " does not pass a smell test based on every bit of evidence available.
No, not "every bit of evidence", that's your bias showing. There are undoubtedly some good Christians.
Fair enough: "Believing in God carries with it an established moral code." is in itself too general. But I was taking it as a given that we were using Ricter's believer who adhered to the Christian moral code. BTW I'd take the atheist family even if their scoffing got on my nerves.
lol . ok i accept that, lets call it a draw. its been fun but its friday and i am out of here for a long weekend.
if you were walking down a dark New York street at 4 am, with some tickets you just bought, some cash and nice watch... and you to walk past 10 homeless guys with knives or guns. Would you rather the guys be on their way to church or have them be be guys who say screw God and his morality, God does not exist.
Im with you, i went to a catholic school in Canada growing up (mostly out of convenience) and all i ever remembered was that the teachers who were extremely religious were very loving, and they were the people you could go to with any problem, no matter what. I think i realised the stories in the bible were fairy tales when i was like 9 years old, but it didnt change the fact that the people who believed in it were some of the nicest people i have ever met. I also ended up becoming friends with alot of Muslims growing up because the area of Toronto i lived in was predominantly comprised of brown people. 2 of my best friends parents were leaders of their mosque at one point, and they were also some of the most loving people i have ever met, it didnt matter that i was not a muslim. Infact when i left my house in highschool because i didnt get along with my parents it was my muslim friends parents, who were the leader of their mosque at one point, who INVITED me to come live with them for a couple months. I am an agnostic and i have been that way since i was young, the only thing i can think for Free Thinker's blind hatred is that he grew up in one of those churches where god was painted as a vengeful son a bitch who would zap you with a lightning bolt, if you didnt go to church seven days of the week and sit properly. Either that or he was molested by a priest, other then that i cant figure out a reason why a person who supposedly grew up in a religious environment would come to the conclusion that truly religious people are the root of all evil.