Do you believe in God?

November 1, 1755. It was All Saints Day, in the city of Lisbon, Portugal, which at the time was perhaps the holiest city on the planet. Nearly everyone in the city was of devout Catholic faith, they followed their Bibles, they attended their churches, they built their entire lives around the Catholic faith. So on this holy day, nearly everyone in the entire city was heading to their churches, to continue their holy traditions.
On that day, 9:40 am, when the city was at worship, a massive earthquake came in, and destroyed the city, all these churches, statues, other Catholic architectural structures, destroyed. All these people, who have devoted their entire lives to the faith, dead. A tsunami followed the earthquake, increasing the death toll, it's said up to 100,000 people died from that disaster, making it one of the deadliest earthquakes in history.
Their entire lives, they devoted to God, and this is how he repaid them.

The main question that should be asked about religion is not "is God real", but "is God good?".
Keep in mind, there are thousands of religions out there, that all believe they are righteous, and those that don't follow somehow deserve punishment after death in some way, shape, or form.
Regardless of which religion is right though, at least 5 billion people are wrong. But why do these 5-7 billion people deserve to be punished?
Like, let's say Christianity is the right religion.
So does a Buddhist person, who has lived a humble and honorable life, gave to the poor when he didn't have much to begin with, rejected aggression even when attacked, or even set himself on FIRE (many of them did that during the Vietnam War), that person spent his life to the end suffering to be a better person, perhaps even suffering worse than Jesus did, why does he deserve to go to Hell just for not believing in the religion that somehow got it "right"? How many Christians do you honestly see going the length of suffering like that? Not only that, but why is it someone else's fault they didn't know their religion was wrong? We're all born agnostic, not knowing anything about religion at all, these people likely chose one religion because they grew up where that religion was the status quo. Oh, and what about those that live in harsh theocratic areas where believing in another religion is punished? How were they supposed to know better when their religion was forced upon them?
Why does a Westboro Baptist Church Member who holds "God Hates Fags" signs and beats up homosexuals deserve salvation moreso than a Buddhist monk? Also, no one asked to exist, we were forced here without consent. Why should we be punished for being imperfect in a world we didn't ask to live in?
 
Also, is the reward of heaven really worth it? Keep in mind, heaven is eternal afterlife. That means it goes on forever. "Forever" doesn't mean like 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000 years or something, it means NO end. Yes, indeed I believe that life here on Earth is way too short, and I certainly wish it were longer, like 1000 years going at the pace it's going now. But "forever"? Not only that but most religions believe that there is no pain and suffering in heaven either. But without pain and suffering, there is no thrill of risk, or thrill of strategy, nothing matters since there is no consequence.
I know many people feel that life is useless without an afterlife, but I feel an afterlife is useless without an afterafterlife, or if there were 10 realms you live and die in before you cease to exist. Yet I don't know of any religion that believes in that sort of thing, and if they exist, they're probably more of a cult than a religion.

I was just talking about this with my mom yesterday when I got a new hamster because the other one escaped in my vent. She said “Maybe that was God’s way of saying you weren’t meant to be the owner of Lily” (Lily was the other pets name) I told her that I don’t really believe in God. She said “You better believe in him or else you’ll get bad karma”. And then I said “I respect your beliefs, but I just don’t believe in him.” She said “All my children will believe in God.” And I asked her “Where is the proof that God exists?” then she said “The bible.” Then she said “If there wasn’t a God, there would be no earth or Adam and Eve. There wouldn’t be life.”

In all honesty, I’m not going to follow my moms beliefs. I still don’t really believe in God. I mean, the idea of there being a man in the sky that knows absolutely everything about billions of lives is just crazy and unbelievable to me. The only person who is in control of what I do is me. I don’t believe in God, but my life is still pretty good. I just don’t like how my mom can’t accept the fact that I don’t believe in God. I really don’t care how mad she gets, to be honest. I won’t apologize for it and I won’t regret saying that I don’t believe in God. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter that much.

My beliefs are complicated at best. I am open to there being a higher power, and forces in nature we can't really understand, but I don't believe anything would micromanage all that happens in this world. I get annoyed when people say everything happens for a reason. Humans have a mind of their own, and so do animals like your pet that decided to go awol. Your mom might mean well, but trying to control what someone believes is a losing battle and not her decision to make. 

Yes. When I was little I prayed to God for guidance & advice. I loved the concept of Gods & I know God has many open doors for me in my future!