and that God will soon step in to fix the resulting mess we live in.

He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment.

God helps those who help themselves

I have frequently found it unproductive to argue religion with a believer, since they will not change their mind

Not to be glib, but a "false belief" is in the eye of the beholder, and I have a belief that those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I'm sorry, but I don't get it. By "false belief" I meant things like sacred water can't be contaguous, or that a devine being will solve our problems over night.

My point is that although we know they are almost certainly wrong, they are inherently not falsifiable. At least, they are not falsifiable within the belief systems of the believers themselves. I can't prove to a Christian that Jesus isn't coming any more than I can prove to a flat earther that the world is round. They are equally sure that they are right as I am that they are wrong.

My second point is that most of us have beliefs that run counter to mainstream consensus. You have posted on this very forum beliefs you have that most people consider "crackpot", I have my own beliefs that run counter to mainstream ideas.

neither of us are going to be dissuaded simply because most people think we are wrong. When it comes to beliefs that cannot be objectively evaluated, "false" is not a useful word to use.

You're probably right. That's why I quoted the Bible as well, because I'm hoping if nothing else, that makes sense to them. Waiting for a deus ex machina to save the day is no good for nobody. Believer or not, we should take matters in our hands if we want to stop this pandemic (the original post was in that topic).

For example I don't think believing that "the Ganges is a sacred water therefore must be free of corona, so it is okay to drink it" helps anyone. Same way we know from Iran's failure that temple or not, licking the bars of sacred places do spread the infection, no matter what believers think about God's place. In times like these blind faith and religion is dangerous and can kill many people.

Cheers,
bzt

pandemic << Hello , this is not pandemic it's only propaganda , in my country only 6 (death) they are more than 60 years old , what is this mean ? this is mean h1n1 was 50 % killable thing than this corona but (we haven't corona antidote but we have h1n1 virus antidote but h1n1 was more killable than covid ), corona was propaganded by media , even sars wars 100 times killable thing than covid-19, corona virus was here but media spreading gossips , this is a ordinary virus , even with ordinary pneumonia in around the world were 3 000 000 deaths in one year , these days we heard only Who died , his died because of corona she's died because of corona , in these days we didn't have cancer / heart attacks and thousand more natural things , these days when someone is dying they said " he died cuz of corona " but corona is a ordinary virus , bill gates wants to depopulation people to 1 billion or more less , bill gates is bastard , don't let anybody vaccined to you ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhxjqAt779A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq8ZC0ow-CY

when they will come to you and force to take vaccines and then you will remember me , what i told to you , like they did in the past they forced to take vaccines (and after that 100 000 000 people died after that when they take those vaccines one hudred years ago with h1n1 ) god bless

You may not realise it, but those same vaccines have been in use in all the rich countries too, and we'd like to eliminate the need for our children to have them, but that can't happen until those diseases have been eliminated worldwide so that they don't keep coming back. Polio is nearly gone, but there are a few places where it clings on because people are avoiding the vaccine. Part of the problem is that the United States has stupidly used some of the doctors as spies on a few occasions, leading to justified suspicion, but the solution for that would be for the people who fear being spied on to take control of the vaccination programs themselves. Gates isn't trying to kill anyone - he's not your enemy.

You may not realise it, but those same vaccines have been in use in all the rich countries too, and we'd like to eliminate the need for our children to have them, but that can't happen until those diseases have been eliminated worldwide so that they don't keep coming back. Polio is nearly gone, but there are a few places where it clings on because people are avoiding the vaccine. Part of the problem is that the United States has stupidly used some of the doctors as spies on a few occasions, leading to justified suspicion, but the solution for that would be for the people who fear being spied on to take control of the vaccination programs themselves. Gates isn't trying to kill anyone - he's not your enemy.