It Better to Have Lived a Christian, Than to have Lived an Atheist.

Introduction Thank you for your response. My opponent seems to miss the point I was making in my opening argument on the life of the Christian. I have already admitted that the life of a Christian can be very difficult, if I had not known that prior to my opponent’s response I would not have specifically used that quote from David Plat talking about the following Christ isn’t easy. The point I made was that despite the many risks and suffering being a follower of Christ might have, they are still achieving happiness by following God, whom they believe the ultimate source of happiness to be. This puts Christians at an inherent advantage over atheists in happiness. The atheist defines their happiness by successful they have been with their worldly desires. The Christian’s happiness can be found not only in worldly desires (Some worldly desires seeing that Christians are actually taught to leave many things of this world behind to follow Christ) but also in their desires in God. Even without their worldly desires they are still achieving happiness because they believe they are following the will of God, who is the ultimate source of happiness (if not in ideology.) The Win-Win Situation “If God doesn't end up existing than Atheist all the same could have still lived just as great life. They also would have gotten through their life's darkest times without the "emotional crutch" that so many refer to God as.” He is where you are wrong, you see even though both Atheists and Christians have the same opportunity to live a good life, Christians inherently have more dedication and a higher will to act upon living a good life because they have a goal in doing so, which is uniting with God in Heaven. In addition, an emotional crutch is not bad at all, but actually advantageous to have. It allows Christians to get through their sufferings far easier. Then if the Christian God does end up existing, they are rewarded for depending on God when they were in need. In response to me talking about how Atheists have no ultimate source of happiness: “Anything can be a source of happiness. No where in round one did you show evidence that God was the "ultimate source" of happiness. With as much evidence as you have provided: God, money, sex, ect are all equal sources of happiness.” I apologize; I thought that it was rather clear that God is only the ultimate source of happiness. I will clarify. It’s quite simple, you see if God exists, and God created everything, then God created all things good and all things that make us happy. It would only be logical to believe that God is the ultimate source of happiness since all good things derive from him, and humans naturally seek what good. Love, is what humans desire most, and as stated in the Bible, God is love in itself. Money, sex, ect. are not equal sources of happiness because they do not provide an eternal happiness, only a temporary happiness. God being the ultimate source of happiness means that the happiness that derives from him is eternal, and not temporary like that of worldly things. In response to my statement that if the Christian God exists then Atheists will go to Hell: “This is assuming the Christian God exists, which we obviously can't do for this debate. I could just as easily say what if the Christian dies and learns that there is actually a god who exists who punishes Christians. That would be a real lose-lose situation. Giving up your whole life for the God you believe existed only to learn that there was actually a god who punished Christians.” However, even if the Christian God exists the Christian is still at an inherently better position at living a better life because of their desire to be with God and follow him. In terms of a worldly life (which is really all we can debate since we don’t know what is after this life), Christians are still at an inherently better position to live a good life. In fact, even though I will admit that the “lose-lose” part of that argument was weak, it is actually over all irrelevant to the debate, seeing that the only thing we can actually argue in terms of living a better life is by judging the Atheists and Christians worldly life. This being said, right now the most relevant argument of this debate is the argument I made in my opening Introduction. I would like to note that my opponent completely dropped my argument on the “Win-Win Situation”. He attempted to look like he argued against it by arguing about ultimate happiness, but that hardly appropriately contended to my arguments at all. Morality and Dedication to Good “The next argument my opponent makes is a morality problem for the atheist supposedly. This, however, is under the false pretenses that an Atheist cannot do just as much moral good in the world as a theist. I don't think anyone actually believes that, but pro even goes on to say, "Christians inherently have this kind of dedication to spreading good throughout the world." which is not true. Christians are called to help others, yes, but Christians are not born with some inherent will to help others more than atheist.” Never did I argue that the atheist cannot do as much good in the world as a Christian. However, it is undeniable that Christians have an inherent advantage to the dedication to do what is morally right do to their belief in God. It’s logically to believe that Christians will be keener to do what is morally right because it is how they achieve eternal life and ultimate happiness. Atheists do not believe in eternal life, ultimate happiness in God, ect. ect. therefore they will not feel as obliged to do what is morally correct. This is logically reasoning, and my opponent does nothing to refute it except say “that’s not true”. Long Term Happiness vs. Short Term Happiness I would like to note that this argument was not something that was optional for my opponent to contend to or not, and that this was actually a legitimate argument I have put forth in this debate. My opponent has chosen to drop the majority of this argument except for one statement that I will defend now. “He(Me) said, "for as long as they believe that God is with them and watching over them, and that they will have eternal life, they will always be happier than any Atheist could ever be." Yet pro has not shown that to be true. Certainly, thinking you will have eternal life is comforting and will make you happy, but so will so many other things that the atheist can be a part of.” I have shown this to be true through the arguments I presented earlier, ranging from the emotional crutch that God is, to how Christians can suffer in this worldly life and still be happy people in terms of their spiritual life, to how Christians value long term happiness over short term happiness, and that long term happiness in generally better. Christians are happy though, because they believe that evil will ultimately be destroyed, because they will share a life of ultimate happiness with God for eternity, and that they will see their loved ones again after death. It is these things that make the Christian truly happy, and it is these things that allow Christians to live an overall better life than atheists. I look forward to your response.