Topics Religion

Question Assuming that one's death means the end of one's consciousness. What purpose does a belief in God serve that a non-belief in God cannot?

Accepted:
November 21, 2005

Comments

I’ll leave it to others to say what a belief in the existence of God can promise besides belief in one’s own immortality. Yesterday morning, in the “This I Believe” series on NPR, the magician/comedian Penn Jillette reminded me of some of the things that belief in the non-existence of God promises. You can listen to him here.

I guess I find the question strange, because I don't think of beliefs as "serving purposes". One might simply say that, if God exists, then the belief that God exists is true, and that's quite good enough.

Then again, there is an interesting question what "belief in" something is. Zoltan Gendler Szabo has written a paper "Believing in Things" on this question.

Question Assuming that one's death means the end of one's consciousness. What purpose does a belief in God serve that a non-belief in God cannot? Accepted:November 21, 2005

Question Assuming that one's death means the end of one's consciousness. What purpose does a belief in God serve that a non-belief in God cannot?

Accepted:
November 21, 2005