It's hard to say for sure if it would have been different, but I'm guessing my family wouldn't have had the same morals and values which wouldn't have been passed to me
Do you believe that morality is objective or subjective? It sounds like you think that you would consider a given action to be different morally depending on your upbringing and experiences.
Church just makes me question things more, it helps me think about my actions. I've done a lot of charity work through the church, things I wouldn't have done off my own back
But did that need to be a church which caused you to do those things or was it merely because you were part of a community which did those things? I have done charity work which I wouldn't have done off my own back because it was organised through my place of work. What does it make you question?
However morally, I don't think 'oh I better not do that because...'
I'm not suggesting that you do things because of a fear of god. Sorry if I've given you the impression that that's what I think. But it does sound like the church has provided you with guidance towards a moral framework, either directly or indirectly.
I conceived out of wedlock, I've used contraception all which go against the churches teachings and are seen as morally wrong
Do you agree with that view on morality (is this a Catholic church)? If not, then how do you determine which messages from the church to follow and which to ignore?
It doesn't make the church unnecessary because there is more to church than it's morals and values.
I was referring to its necessity in providing a moral guidance specifically.
It certainly is a harrowing story, and very interesting point.
However is it purely down to the consequences of irrational hope or belief? Or in this particular story are there underlining issues?
It's a good question. But do you think that the child would have committed suicide to be with her father if she did not believe that that was where she was going?
In the many religious people around the world I would say this is an uncommon story, one that's unlikely to happen.
Then how do you explain the religious suicide bombers who believe they are martyring themselves for their religion and will spend their afterlife in heaven as a result? It's not at all uncommon for a belief in an afterlife to have significant effects on how someone chooses to value the life which they know they have.
It isn't just religious people who protect their children from talking about death.
If you don't believe in an afterlife, you might choose not to discuss death with your children, but I personally think that this is a poor option. I freely discuss death with my son, partly through necessity as I've lost both my mother and my grandmother in the last two years and my wife has lost her uncle, grandmother and grandfather since he was born, so we've had to cover it, but I would hate to offer the promise of an afterlife to him when I clearly have no way of knowing whether one exists or not. My personal feeling is that by cushioning yourself in this way, you can make yourself thoroughly unprepared for dealing with things that world can throw at you.
I would also say it's that same irrational hope, faith and belief which have kept people alive. Sometimes that's all people have left, and that's all that gets them through their darkness.
Perhaps that's true. But wanting something to be true doesn't make it true and I would argue that if it wasn't for their belief in the supernatural in the first place, they may not be in a position where it's also the only thing which can help them. Religion creates a problem which doesn't exist and then offers you the solution. That's how they get you.
So you think it's important to know what people believe because you think it does impact others. Is this because you think that people who believe in an afterlife are more likely to commit suicide because they want to go there? And therefore it impacts their family and friends who get left behind?
Not exactly, although it's one element of it. I used to take the position that people are free to believe in whatever they want and I didn't care as long as it doesn't impact me. Whilst I still subscribe to people being free to believe whatever they want, I now find that I do care what they think. This is based on my position that I want to believe as many true things as possible and as few false things as possible. I know we've already ascertained that you don't really care whether the things you believe are true or not, but anyone who believes things without having sufficient evidence, can potentially believe anything at all (based on faith) and that means that they can make poor decisions in life based on what they believe.