Is it moral to expect the worst out of humanity and the future of mankind?

Well it depends whether people follow it properly. Theres NO doubt that the world would be a much better palce if everyone in it was 100% religious. but somepeople misunderstand it such as bin laden who uses it to kill innocent people.

You've provided a lot of detail about your beliefs. Thank you.

Christianity is concerned with the personal relationship between Creator and created. I don't see a focus on a "degrading" morality.

However, since 1900, we've had two world wars and an enormous number of lesser wars. We've had massive murders by the USSR and China and Laos and Rwanda and Uganda, etc. I know that we came within a few seconds of a nuclear World War III. For good reason, this has been called the most bloody century in all history. In light of that, your statement "morally the world is a MUCH better place than it once was" is breathtaking.

"The purpose of life is survival". This is terrible science. The word "purpose" implies a plan. Natural processes such as evolution do not have purposes. Evolution doesn't care whether you survive or not. Since 99.9% of all species have gone extinct, why do you not say that extinction is the purpose of life? Look, here is a quote from that brilliant atheist, Bertrand Russell:

“Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.” –Bertrand Russell

Those who reject God and speak of purposes are speaking nonsense. If we reject God, all we can do is to invent pleasant sounding reasons-for-living and pretend, i.e. deceive ourselves, that they are the reason we have come into existence. Self invented reasons-for-living are psychological crutches designed to get us through life until we can die.

Say Cheese, have you examined your current beliefs and implications with the same scrutiny that you have Christianity?

If there was a Creator, wouldn't good be defined as "Doing what God created me to do?" Wouldn't it be linked to "purpose?"

So when you were exploring Christianity, did you discover the reason you are living or would you say you are still searching? If you don't have a reason to live, on what basis do you call yourself "good?" Isn't good defined by the purpose? So if you don't know why on earth you are on this earth, how can you say that what you are doing is good?

If you call what you are doing without any basis for making that determination, the only thing you are doing is expressing your opinion....which is different from morality which understands purpose.

Your purpose would also be described as God's law as that is what you were created to do. God's law can be summarized in two statements:

1. Love God with all your heart, mind and body.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

For your conclusions to be correct about Christianity, means that mankind is loving and the God who created mankind to love is not. This doesn't make sense.

It would make more sense that God would teach us to pray to let God's will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. The Lord's prayer teaches us that the Lord's will is not being done on earth....which makes sense if people can't describe that the reason they were made was to:

1. Love God with all their hearts...

2. Love their neighbor and themselves.

If men would do these two things, the destruction of the earth would be avoid....Biblically and practically speaking.

Edit: ***Religion claims that it (purpose) comes from a creator, which is not supported by empirical evidence at all.*** Can you name ONE creation where the creator did NOT give the creation its purpose. You are the one lacking in empirical evidence.

***I am created by God, God exists because my life has value*** That is correct! The name one creation that doesn't get its value from the Creator. You are the one lacking in empirical evidence.

***The purpose of life is survival, always has been and is reflected in every aspect of life that surrounds us in nature.***

Therefore, morality does not exist as morality requires there to be a right and a wrong that is mandated even if the person doesn't survive. Things like trust, loyality, honor, love, intergrity don't exist if survival is the highest goal. If survival is the highest goal then being a traitor, deceiver, liar having no compassion, tollerance or consideration of another person becomes the valued traits.

***So the idea that atheistic belief provides no purpose to life and therefore is not moral is*** true as ***Survival and an attempt to achieve happiness*** has no logical connection with morality. There is this HUGE gap between survival and morality that atheist can't bridge because they have NOTHING to base right or wrong on besides their personal opinion. There are a 7 billion people with personal opinions, so the atheist way of breaking the 7 billion vote tie is based on power, not intelligence or morality.

Atheist can't escape the fact that regardless of what they do with their life, the outcome always remains the same. Therefore, what Atheists do during their life doesn't make a difference....quite the opposite of acting morally.

***The problem with this statement is that the bible never claims that it is achievable, ***

Obviously, you don't know the Bible OR the God of the Bible as this is a statement of ignorance. Read Jonah. Read the Lk 15 and then talk with me. I would like to have an intelligent discussion rather than simply addressing claims that with study could be understood as baseless.

I never followed a religion and I am slowly coming to the realization that humanity as a whole is messed up. I think maybe religion playes a big part of that.

Not religion... the faith that comes along with religion. The kind of faith that refuses to allow people to think. I have come to find that it is a small portion of people who are like this but that small portion can do a lot of damage. From people killing in the name of god to people betraying the trust of loved ones and everything in between. The worse part is that they do not see what is wrong with what they are doing.

No religion is not good for humanity because everyone thinks god is on there side and if you say differently they declare you a enemy. I hope in my life time we will realize this and work for the betterment of mankind and not just the individual. We prob would have a farther reach into space by now if we could get past the petty squabbling over who is right.

'Religion' is not really 'good' for mankind. It is a part of our evolutionary journey toward greater enlightenment. To everything there is a season. By religion I'm refering directly to your description of one of the negative consequences of organized religion, which is the tendency to make people feel separate from other humans as opposed to being part of a larger whole. Our minds instinctively want to catagorize things. It's part of the way we experience life. We naturally see difference before we see similarity, and the more specialized we become the more separated we feel from everyone else. Our intelect is in direct conflict with our inate compulsion toward self preservation. For some, indeed, for most at one point or a nother in our lives, religion is a necessity, because it allows us to find meaning in what would seem to be meaningless. Many go on to find meaning without religion.

"Reflect the reality of a socially and morally progressing world?" What propaganda are you reading that gives you that impression? Maybe the WORLD is progressing, but the United States certainly isn't.

Anyway, morality has nothing to do with your expectation of others. Expecting the worst from mankind is realistic and being conservative. (Expect the worst and rejoice when those expectations are exceeded.)

I think Christianity definitely has a problem seeing the good in anyone who doesn't share their beliefs. It's sad that so few Christians and Christian organizations are willing to team up with others who are doing compassionate work in the world, because those people happen to not share the exact same views.

I think Christianity leads people to either judge or pity everyone who isn't Christian, instead of valuing them as human beings, not just potential converts.

No, religon is "no longer needed" , religion may have had its use during the infancy of our species , but now that we know more about the world and about our origins , we should throw religion behind us(like a child who ceases to talk to thier invisible friend as he/she matures) and accept that we are alone(for now) in this universe and that we must fend for ourselves.

and yes its not moral to expect the worse out of humanity , i agree.

I consider myself to be a Christian. I beleive that Jesus Christ was given to mankind by God, and was sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sins. But... I also believe there is a difference between faith and religion. To me, faith is something that you feel to be true and right. Religion is the study and practice of a structured belief. Name one war that wasn't faught over religion. But, faith... my faith tells me when something is moral or not, it's my conscience, it's my navigational tool for life. I believe faith is important, and religion should be subjected to questioning anytime.