Question The Existence of God

[Perny]

If God exists, he's a little kid with a magnifying glass... And we're his ants.

Seriously. I doubt God's there. If he is, he's one evil bastard to let the world end up like thà­s. If he wanted to punish people, punish ONLY the bad guys. Put them in a giant jam jar or something.

 

[InsaneMystic]

I really can't imagine myself ever being an Atheist and survive for even a day, so that would cloud my decision heavily. 😉

If you're anything like me, going with the fact that belief in God is pretty much the main thing that makes me function socially (I've had a major brush with solipsism in puberty... if God doesn't exist, why should anyone but me - me being the only one I know to exist - have any rights?) the utilitarian argument will, of course, be that it doesn't matter much how you yourself feel about the revelation, it's infinitely better for the people around you if you live your life as a believer and then go into oblivion than to have a deathbed conversion from Atheism as the latter won't help the people you've hurt and exploited over the years jack squat, while the former would only be "dang, think of all the 'fun' I missed" personal psychopathic disappointment. 😉

 

[Washburne]

Where will the atheist end up if there is a God?

Since believing in God is faith and not knowledge I doubt there is anything that would convince them that God don't exist just before they die. Not like God will talk to them and tell them that he/she don't exist...


So in ranking order, worst to best.

Being an atheist finding out God exists and end up in hell.
Believe in God even though he/she don't exisit.
Being an atheiest finding out God exists and end up in heaven.

 

[Bluebird]

I don't get religion. So you can be a good person, look after your family, give money to charity, live an overall good life. But if you're an atheist, and it turns out there was a God, then you'll burn in hell? That's harsh. 😛

 

[JCC]

I don't get religion. So you can be a good person, look after your family, give money to charity, live an overall good life. But if you're an atheist, and it turns out there was a God, then you'll burn in hell? That's harsh. 😛

I see it as a marketing scheme. Who'd buy into Christianity without any evidence without the two extreme afterlives at the end as an incentive?

 

[Kemy]

"Don't try to be a great man, just be a man, and let history make its own judgements." - Zefram Cochrane

I choose to live without believing in some "god" or "afterlife" or any other ludicrous or outrageous claim of millenia old superstitions that should not rule ones life.

If I'm wrong, then there will be some deity or continued different existence that I didn't know of, fair enough, but I will not sacrifice every moment of this life waiting for it to happen when I do not believe in such things.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

Where will the atheist end up if there is a God?

My initial question was

Is it better to live a life as an atheist and find out God exists or to live life as a believer and find out he doesn't?

Addition: assume that it it revealed to both just before death.

What really interests me in discussions like this is the fact that a simple question gets expanded on and expanded on with other questions brought in, certain things suggested (like the fact that if you don't believe in God and find out he exists, you go to Hell) and then people run with it.

Blondie was the first to bring in the idea that Atheism would lead to Hell - I just prodded because I was interested to see where that went.

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

My initial question was



What really interests me in discussions like this is the fact that a simple question gets expanded on and expanded on with other questions brought in, certain things suggested (like the fact that if you don't believe in God and find out he exists, you go to Hell) and then people run with it.

Blondie was the first to bring in the idea that Atheism would lead to Hell - I just prodded because I was interested to see where that went.

Well, to most people on the boards, Christianity is the predominant religion in the country they live in, so it's no big leap to answer the question in that regard. Blondie even pointed out it was Christianity she was talking about.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

Well, to most people on the boards, Christianity is the predominant religion in the country they live in, so it's no big leap to answer the question in that regard. Blondie even pointed out it was Christianity she was talking about.

Does that make it right or wrong, or indeed neither?
My point is that it interested me that people went down one route and have, for the most part, stuck with it.

There are even comments on the thread saying 'what kind of God would...' well the original post wasn't about one particular God or belief, it was simply about which is 'better'.

I find it amusing that people have expanded the discussion but at the same time limited it.

 

[Bob]

Blondie Bear : Well, if the atheist is wrong, there's Hell to deal with. If the Christian is wrong, they'll never actually realize it (being dead and all).

I dont think its a sin to not believe in god... if it is then its better to believe in god and find out he doesnt exist, cuz as you said Bear, there's hell to pay for 🙂

 

[Jill_Valentine]

Then again, say there is a God, and say, for the sake of argument, that he's malevolent, incapable or insane. The kind of guy who punishes a family unto the seventh generation for stuff, or flings plagues around like they're going out of fashion. In that case, maybe committing yourself to his Holy Hell is the morally right thing to do - sticking to your guns, rather than deferring to a demented incompetent tyrant.

Just, y'know, something to consider.

 

[Mommatis]

Is it better to live a life as an atheist and find out God exists or to live life as a believer and find out he doesn't?

Addition: assume that it it revealed to both just before death.

Many seem to assume that living life as a believer is more burdensome than living life as an atheist. Would on that note one assume that the root cause of atheism is apathy... hmmm

For myself I would find life with no God pretty hollow but it's all I have ever known. Ingrained Catholic guilt prevents me from even toying with the notion that God doesn't exist. It makes me sad to think we are of no more consequence to anything larger than ourselves in this whole ginormous universe.

See think about it. Isn't it nicer knowing there is a larger than the world entity out there that cares for you and yours than to live life for the sake of life alone.

So for me the simple answer is it is better to live life as a believer and find out he doesn't, because it comforts me to know he is there and I am not some random mass of oxygen sucking cells.

 

[Blondie Bear]

Sorry, EB, didn't mean to limit the discussion. I was coming at it from a viewpoint I'm familiar with, i.e. Christianity, and that seems to have funneled the discussion. If I were a Muslim or lived in a predominantly Muslim area, I probably would have said "Allah" and/or "Infidel" and we'd see where it went from there.

Most gods whose followers make value judgments (which is almost all of them) have some form of punishment or reward. I think you could replace "God" with "Zeus" and "Hell" with "Hades" and still end up with the same ideas. As far as God/s go, I firmly believe that Allah, God, Jehovah, and the Great Spirit are really all the same thing, but whether she/he/it actually exists is another thing entirely.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

Sorry, EB, didn't mean to limit the discussion. I was coming at it from a viewpoint I'm familiar with, i.e. Christianity, and that seems to have funneled the discussion. If I were a Muslim or lived in a predominantly Muslim area, I probably would have said "Allah" and/or "Infidel" and we'd see where it went from there.

Most gods whose followers make value judgments (which is almost all of them) have some form of punishment or reward. I think you could replace "God" with "Zeus" and "Hell" with "Hades" and still end up with the same ideas. As far as God/s go, I firmly believe that Allah, God, Jehovah, and the Great Spirit are really all the same thing, but whether she/he/it actually exists is another thing entirely.

I didn't mean that to sound negative, I just meant I expected it - if it hadn't been you, it would've been someone else.

 

[Jill_Valentine]

Would on that note one assume that the root cause of atheism is apathy... hmmm.

This is a common perception, and an immensely frustrating one. Agnosticism, perhaps, but not atheism.

 

[Blondie Bear]

This is a common perception, and an immensely frustrating one. Agnosticism, perhaps, but not atheism.

I used to agree with you, until I found that the best word to describe myself (and let's NOT let this go into another discussion about labels!) was agnostic. I was raised to be such a passionate Christian that I can't really completely dismiss the idea of God. But I also can't 100% believe in one, either. As much as I know about biology, psychology, sociology, and physics (which, for physics, isn't really a lot, but still), it seems that God is a construct of our society/psychology and not an actual being. So I don't know. I can't dismiss it entirely out of hand, but I can't say for certain there is one, either. It's not a comfortable position to be in, so it's definitely not laziness.

 

[Mommatis]

I used to agree with you, until I found that the best word to describe myself (and let's NOT let this go into another discussion about labels!) was agnostic. I was raised to be such a passionate Christian that I can't really completely dismiss the idea of God. But I also can't 100% believe in one, either. As much as I know about biology, psychology, sociology, and physics (which, for physics, isn't really a lot, but still), it seems that God is a construct of our society/psychology and not an actual being. So I don't know. I can't dismiss it entirely out of hand, but I can't say for certain there is one, either. It's not a comfortable position to be in, so it's definitely not laziness.

There is a reason I didn't use the term lazy. I didn't want to offend nor do I necessarily think the statement is true it was just a thought that fluttered through my head.

To argue myself one could easily construe the rest of my comment as it is "lazy" to believe in God and not dig deeper into your own beliefs just because one was raised that way. ~ I am cool with that too. Don't mind being lazy in that case.

The real crap of it would come if - as you and Al have been commenting on non-christian gods - we find we have been believing in the "wrong" god. That would be far worse than having not believed in any god at all.

 

[freakydorky]

I believe in God.. several of them. Goddesses too .... forgetting what the point of my post was...

 

[Airam]

I consider myself to be agnostic. I grew up catholic, church every Sunday and all that. But as I started becoming my own person, seperate from what my family told me I should believe, I just couldn't help but question it all. Religion baffles me, especially those who are so devoutly religious, so blindly believe and base their entire lives on the mandates of their religion. I just don't get it how some are so able to blindly believe in a God but can't aknowledge the possibility of alien life or psychics or any other thing that there is no tangible proof of, but God? duh! Of course he exists! I just don't get it. I believe anything is possible. And from all the religious education I've had, it seems to me that if God were to really exist, he is the one that empowered us with free will and thus it would make no sense for him to fault anyone for making up their own minds, logically, to believe or not. So if I were to die still with doubt about his existence and he stood right over me like, "hi, I'm here, I'm real," I don't think I'd be in any kind of trouble. Heaven is a lovely possibility and if it does exist and this God guy (or gal) exists and I've been a good person overall, I think I'd be let in.

 

[Jill_Valentine]

we find we have been believing in the "wrong" god. That would be far worse than having not believed in any god at all.

To a very large extent, that's an accident of birth - most people are born into their religions.

In that case, the game would be rigged.