Quote:
So...for a Christian the question must be: Is the drive and ambition in our lives motivated by the recognition you'll receive during your life, or for how you'll be rewarded in the afterlife?~~~
Uh, no that's not what i was trying to say.
You live as you do because you do believe in an afterlife, nu? For whatever reason, i'd assume you have found positive proofs that you accept for Christ, Heaven, The Holy Spook and The Sky Daddy?

My problem is with the assumption that we 'have nothing to lose' if we choose to adopt a belief system that is at odds with the universe as WE know it. That we should pick a belief with a happy outlook so that we won't be depressed and purposeless.
It's not the afterlife per se, as much as the 'Gosh that'd depress me. Why don't you pick a happier philosophy?'

It'd probably be nice to live as if someone were prepared to forgive me for being as He made me, to anticipate eternal paradise, and to think all the wordly suffering had a purpose, a meaning, a justification that wasn't just empty rationalization.
But i don't see it. And i don't choose atheism just because i find the implications attractive, its what i see. Or don't see, more accurately. I don't see any evidence of God. I don't see a reason to adopt a position of positive belief in a supernatural being responsible for the universe, it's creation, operation, destiny and frequent pulsar miles.
I do not conclude that there is no god, anywhere. So, i'm a weak atheist.

When someone with a positive belief enjoins me to choose their belief for no better reason than a move towards comfy, it grates. It's as if they really think it matters no more than choosing a newspaper source because you like the font, or picking a movie because you tend to like the way the director deals with his secondary characters (by the way, have you noticed just how MANY people in Star Wars lose a limb...or more?).

Or, maybe, that while their beliefs are solid, my atheism is just an affectation, to be changed on whim for a more appealing destiny menu.