Is there ANY ethical reason to believe in God?

No. Religion is a superstitious belief, not an ethical stance.

Although religions like to claim authorship of morality, it really just follows the morals that society has evolved over the years, except that it usually lags a few years to a few centuries depending on the issue.

While unchecked self-interest is not a good thing, you have to ask yourself whether or not all selfishness is unethical. According to the Dali Lama, pursuing happiness is admirable because happy people tend to regard the world with a more open and caring heart. I think that you need to redefine what being personally better off actually means. Are you referring to material wealth? If you are, most monotheistic faiths are about living generously (This is not to say that this actually happens, but if you just go by the text this is the case).

I do agree with you 100% that belief in and of itself does not make one moral. I'm not sure what exactly makes certain individuals moral creatures, but I do believe that happiness and deeply rooted contentment are key. Does belief in God contribute to these? I think yes which is my reason for believing that belief in God can lead to ethcial behavior. This does not mean that I think those that do not believe in God are necessarily unethical though. Contentment and happiness need to come from somewhere though.

Yep. It makes sense too. A person believes in God and belongs to a religion, but looks at all the injustice, poverty, cruelty, pain in the world and sees that God is apparently either not giving a crap about it or is asleep. That person is often a better parent and has better morals and ethics than God. That person goes and helps the homeless (who shouldn't even be homeless if God was doing his job), volunteers in a hospital (there would be no illness, no innocent children dying if God was doing his job). The person ends up wondering what we even need God for. Sure, he's there, but apparently useless and impotent.

The statements of Jesus are the basis of ALL ethical theories.

That has nothing to do with whether every Christian behaves ethically or not - obviously they do not (or any other group for that matter).

Jesus said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" which was far different than the obsessive, legalistic religion of Judaism of the day, which continues as Islam to this day.

Also, "Love your neighbor with all your heart, soul and mind" goes way beyond normal ethics. I call it "Commando ethics"! Not only not doing wrong, but placing the well being of others and even your enemies before you own well-being!!!

Show me anybody who ever said a more ethically evolved statement than that one.

Well, let's totally discount the parts about suffering badly, alienation, and death for the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and go to the "better off" part.

Well, if you do a good thing, and I assume you are atheist? Why would you do it? For personal satisfaction (selfish) to help others and only help others? But why do that? Why do you have reason to do that?

And what are we to do? Believe in God because we want to suffer for all eternity in fire and brimstone? Doesn't make sense. Thus, you can call it selfish that we don't want to spend eternity in pain, but I doubt you do either. And, further, once we have believed in God, it is a gate to doing good. And it doesn't "magically" make you moral. You do it out of the love you may have after realizing God's love. You help others to believe in God, and be moral themselves, for their benefit, not yours.

Let me close by asking this question: Would you do it for eternal bliss, and against eternal punishment?

I do not believe in any god and do not believe there is a reason for believing in it in the first place. the only reason people believe that stuff is it makes them feel better about death. When people talk about themselves and others and they say well I'm/he/ she is a good church going person. Well that has nothing to do with who they are. as a matter of fact the majority of people that attend church are the phychos and molesters. I think that most people who believe in god and going to church brainwashed. Churches are the largest non-profit organizations in the world! They just steal your money and your sanity. But anyways I don't believe there is an ethical reason for it.

THIS IS NOT MEANT TO OFFEND ANYBODY. I'm just voicing my opinion and do not judge people based on thier religious beliefs.

That, to me, makes as much sense as asking:

Is there any ethical reason to believe in gravity?

Yes, there is, but it just sounds kind of silly to say!

If those are the only two reasons you can come up with after spending time pondering, then I guess you have no good reason. If I were you, I would go back to pondering, even though it is good for a person to know their limitations.

Beliefs dictate who we are and how we live our lives. To believe in something is to have faith in it. Though it may seem feeble to accept something on faith rather than fact, we all believe many things on different levels without being experts through experience or knowledge.

No, I don't even think you'll personally be better off. Being unable to agree with reality for emotional reasons is a good way to get a psychosis. People who don't think the entire world is enough to make them happy are grossly unappreciative of 'God's' creation.