What if...? (all religions & atheists please answer)?

Question

Well me and my friends were doing something we usually do once a month, and thats we form groups of every religon among us (So far we have christian(7), jewish(5), wiccan(2), atheists(1), and hindu(2)) and we have a religous discusion about all the differeent faiths, in order to keep an open mind. Our topic this week was what if the God you believe is God isn't the true God? What would you do, and, if you believe in heaven do you think you would still be allowed to enter?

I'm christian, btw

also, list ur own personal religion, plz & thank u. As well as, another question we had is, in 4 billion years (or how ever old u think earth is), how do we know the real true God hasn't been lost in time?

to the question about wiccans and athests in the chat, wiccans have a Godess, and the athests keeps things interesting, he actually posed the question.

sorry to those with mutlitple Gods, the question was supposed to read "God or Gods."

oh, nad no, our athesist kept things going, everytime we got anywhere near a conclusion he would jump in with "yea sure, unless there's no God" and then we would be back at it again, the idea of no God really kept things going

i know athestism is not a religion, but he did start the converstation, so why not includ him? and i don't doubt my God, we were just having a disscusion, get off my case

Answer 1

If the God I know to be true turns out to not be true, then I am lost. As a Catholic, I depend on my faith.

The good news, however, is this:
1) If the answer is "Buddhism," then I'm cool. I'm just on one of the many-fold paths.
2) If the answer is "Hindu," then I'm cool. The God I know, and Christ, are just one of the many forms of Vishnu.
3) If the answer is "Judiasm," then I'm kinda cool. The God I know IS God, only Jesus was a rebel. But, as Jews do not believe in Hell, I'm still good.
4) If the answer is "wiccan," then I'm cool. Wiccans do not believe in Hell, only in balance. I do good works, and believe positively about my fellow man. I'm a good person.
5) If the answer is "atheism," then it does not matter what we do.

Answer 2

I don't believe in any god, so I don't have that problem :)

It's a good discussion question, though -- the definition of "god," the rules "he" sets for followers, and what "he" does/doesn't do is so different among various religions that they cannot possibly ALL be right even if god does exist. Even just among christians there is considerable disagreement (the original protestant movement by Martin Luther happened largely over a disagreement with the Roman catholic church over the nature of god as the trinity). So who's right, and how do you know who's right? If you take the various religious sects at their word, most of them claim that if you don't believe their way and follow their rules, you won't go to heaven. Leaving a believer in the position of having to pick one and hope it's the right one, or all the prayer and worship will have been for nothing...

Which is why I find my own position as agnostic much more tenable. I don't think god exists, and if he does I don't believe he has any influence here on earth, so even if he does exist believing in him or not has no bearing on my life. Then I don't have to worry about what definition of god to believe in, or whose rules to follow to get into heaven (which I also don't believe in).
:)

Answer 3

As a worshiper of the true God you are playing a very dangerous game - he says we are to worship him and him alone - when we tempt him with our mixing with others we are putting him to the test and scripture tells we are not to do this. When you already know you are worshiping the only true God and as a Christian you should be fully persuaded of this, then you should not need an open mind for other religions, because you have the Truth. If you are in question, you should seek God and ask him this question and allow his answer to be your guide. When he said we should not forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, he meant within our faith. We are to go out, not bring into our homes, those that we are to mission the gospel too, but it doesn't sound to me like you are trying to spread the gospel to these people at all, but accept all as relative. Reread your New Testament if you're using a King James Version, because if you're not, you're already not using what God gave us to begin with. Does this make narrow-minded and a bigoted Christian - not at all - this makes me a Christian, that will not be swayed by every wind of doctrine and whose house is built upon the solid rock.

Answer 4

I am a Wiccan. I think that if it were proven that Our Gods didn't exist that I would go back to the drawing board and figure out what it was that fit our lifestyle. There are things that I wouldn't do for religion like Kill, convert, preach, or otherwise discriminate against others. If for some odd reason it was proven for example, It would not threaten my integrity as a person or as a spiritualist. I would continue my search for truth.

As for the afterlife, I don't believe that the afterlife is based on belief, but actions.

Answer 5

If you continue to come to a conclusion, whatever it may be, and you have a neutralist factor how will a discussion ever get anywhere except a whole lot of circles around the park. You never reach a definite solution and eventually you allow some subliminal seed to flurish and grow in your mind.

What if homicide investigators carried a process this way, where there was always an individual insisting on radomized suicides; they would never get a killer. And eventually all would come to agree on a lie.

Please don't waste your time running around in circles for the rest of your life in a way that you will never reach real truth. God Bless.

Answer 6

Wow, you've got quite the rainbow coalition of religions going, don't you? Although, you're missing A LOT of other religions.

Your current topic is a loaded question. It assumes that the respondent believes in a god. I'm sure your group atheist would have pointed this out to you. However, in the spirit of the "Answers", here's my 2 cents worth;

Believing in a higher being is a craps shoot. Say you, as a christian, die only to find Buddha waiting for you. What would YOU do? Would you accept him?

Religion, in heaven (or afterlife) or on earth, is about acceptance of a common belief. Beliefs are as varied as the people in the world. Who is to say who is right?

Sounds to me that you're too preoccupied with the afterlife rather than this life. Believe in your personal truth(s), respect the beliefs (or non-beliefs) of others and live your life. Religion is only one aspect of life, not your entire life -unless you're a monk or something.

Religious respect of others (or lack thereof) is the reason I do not support organized religion. It serves only to destroy what others hold to be true. Missionaries 'converting' others is a plague among mankind because it supposes that every other belief is wrong.

Now there's something to mull over!

Answer 7

Personally, I'm Jewish, but it would be interesting to take the Baha'i train of thought, of how all the prophets of all world religions are actually prophets sent by G-d, intending to form one religion, such as Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Krishna, etc. I believe that G-d exists (which is basically the only fundamental belief in Judaism, with the exception of Reconstructionist and Secular Judaism), and that He watches over all of us at all moments, as He is omnipotent and omnipresent. I don't believe He has a body, but that He is a spirt or a soul, because if He had a body, whether His body was a mile wide or five-hundred miles wide, it would end, and thus ending His omnipresence. Our prayers to Him don't necessarily influence His decisions, but prayers are more meant to give thanks to Him, and praise Him for His creations and blessings He gives us. If Christianity is the true religion, then i'm sort of out of luck (the whole rejection of Jesus thing), but any other religion that requires you to live a good life in order to get into Heaven, I think I live a good life. If it turns out G-d doesn't exist (a concept so horrible to myself), then I feel we as humans don't have a purpose in life anymore, if our theist purpose is to serve the L-rd. If he wasn't the true G-d, I'm hoping the true G-d is a loving, forgiving one.

Answer 8

Well, I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in any God, but I have thought about what would happen if there was a God, and I got to the Pearly Gates or whatever, what would happen. I believe that if there was a Christian-style God, casting people down to hell or taking them up to heaven, he would not send me to Hell. Even though I don't believe in him, I try to live a good life, to be honest and respectful of other people and to always do what I think it right. I don't think that if there was a God he would send good people to hell, even if they didn't believe in him or believed in some other sort of God. I suppose if Christians are really right, I'm screwed, but I really don't think they are! I don't know much about any other sorts of Gods, so I can't really speculate further.

Answer 9

I take it the atheist went out for a beer while all this was going on.

Actually, this is a part of Pascal's wager that isn't usually looked at by those who use it. What if you accept the wager, but pick the wrong religion? You would have to hope that the right one is not a fear/punishment based religion, and that the God, god, or gods that run things aren't going to discriminate based on what you did while alive. For me, I choose to live my life as if there is nothing waiting for me and do my best while I'm here. I'll let gods do their thing after I'm dead and accept the consequences of my non-belief in them, if they exist.

Answer 10

Okay, to draw the bottom line & get right down to it. There's only ONE God, it depends on how you believe in him & how you use him as a crutch. Between Christianity & Muslimism, there is God as to Allah & Jesus as to Mohammed. Sorry if I spelled the Muslim super beings names wrong. Also, there are problems with cults too. One of them is Mormon’s, there believe when they die they get their own planet, they didn't believe in Heaven & Hell, but there are two different sides to Mormonism. I THINK some do believe in going to Heaven or Hell when they pass on, but if I'm not mistaken about the word Modern Day Lasseris, they believe in owning a planet. There is a small town cult group in a small town in Colorado & this guy who started this made a false prediction that they would have fight (war) with me outside world. The population is like, 50 - 100 or 100 - 200. These people are very crazy, avoid this place in Colorado if you can, beside they wont let outsiders come in unless if they're related to some one there, which is a good thing, don't go around there, I think it was around Colorado Springs, not sure though... Then there's Jehovah’s Witnesses, their churches are called "Kingdom Hall" of Jehovah’s Witnesses, these people believe that people who don't go to THEIR church goes to hell. These are not united kingdom halls, they mean THEIR specific church, you will go to hell. They also go door to door asking people to join their church, & they have to do this weekly in order to get into heaven.