Surely you jest.Actually, I think there isn't any good explanation on how to believe or why someone believes in something.
You form your beliefs arbitrarily? I'm sure you have some sort of "reason" for believing in one thing over another. If I told you that you should believe that God is an invisible jelly donut you would probably not believe me. Think about why not. The process you use to discard my claim that God is an invisible jelly donut is very similar to the process I use to reject your beliefs.A belief making you feel good is automatically a valid belief? If your answer to this question is "no" then don't you feel a sense of obligation to your own intellectual integrity to now try to weed out the invalid beliefs?That's probably, because I think, it's better to believe in an afterworld than to believe that we just won't exist anymore when we die.
How about my belief in an afterworld where I am given several dozen virgins as a gift if I end my life on this planet by slaughtering some infidels while killing myself. That belief might make me feel good and might make me want to slaughter some infidels, but is it rational to allow myself to believe in things just because they make me feel good? Heck, 70+ virgins for me to play with for all of eternity sounds wonderful! Should I believe? Wait....why not increase it to 197 virgins!? That is an even better and more fantastic belief! Yes, I now believe I'll be rewarded in the afterworld with 197 virgins...wait...make that 547 virgins! This is awesome. I love not knowing how to form my beliefs. The sky is the limit! Actually, the sky isn't the limit at all! There are NO limits to my beliefs.
Who said you have to not believe in anything if you decide that believing in a god is irrational? I made this decision 25 years ago, but my brain didn't become a vacuum completely devoid of all other beliefs. I simply don't believe in things without evidence, but there are a ton of things that there is abundant evidence for in which I believe.And since I already believe in something it would be nearly impossible for me to suddenly start to not believe in anything.
So you don't really care whether or not a god exists as long as believing in a good makes you feel good. What about honesty and truth? Don't these virtues make you feel good?Believing in those things just makes my life easier than it would be otherwise.
Not even remotely true. Maybe this is how you and other theists approach personal beliefs, but freethinkers are willing to change their beliefs when the evidence supports such a change. I can't imagine believing in something despite evidence to the contrary. I have changed my beliefs and stance on many issues as I learned more and more about the relevant facts.If someone believes something, it's not that easy to convince him of something else.
