Isint it illogical to be an atheist?

Question

Situation 1: Say that God does exist and God has instituted realms of heaven and hell. Say also that all disbelievers of him will go to hell.
Putting aside all the other sins that a person can commit to determine eligibility to either realm, that would mean an atheist will go to hell while a believer will go to heaven.

Situation 2: God doesent exist, there is no afterlife to worry about.
Nothing will happen to atheist in death, nothing will happen to believers in death.

Consequence: In our world, if u do believe in god, there is no conseqence if god dosent exist. However if you dont believe in God and he does exist, the consequence is that you will go to hell.

reasoning : Therefore (to atheists) isint it a good idea just to believe in God as a precaution in case he does exist (which i believe fully that he does) since there is no consequence if it turns out to be otherwise?

Answer 1

Pascals Wager is stupid.

Answer 2

It is only illogical if you are concerned solely with your own fate, rather than the pursuit of truth and possibly using your knowledge for the betterment of humanity to shape the future by determining if there is a god rather than relying only on faith. This requires a free and open mind to all possibilities. Do you realize we wouldn't be living in this technological wonder world with things like the Internet if people never questioned their surroundings? We'd still think the Earth was the center of the universe and that ships would fall off the edge when they crossed the Eastern Hemisphere. If you were to seek knowledge and understanding in the world and pursue every avenue of possibilities of whether there exists a god or whether there is no god, then whether you believe in a god should be of no real consequence. It's as simple as that.

Also, if you think logically outside-the-box there are more options than just the 1 or 2 you stated. Here's 3, 4, and 5 for instance.

3. There is the possibility that a god does exist but humans have twisted his words to serve their own needs and therefore those who believe may also be punished if it is God's will to punish nonbelievers even if they think they're believers. Or maybe what he really wants to do is test the smart people who can think and make up their own minds and is determining whether you will be better suited for scrubbing toilets in the afterlife (which means you'll be working in Hell) or living the good life on Cloud Nine where the rest of the innovative, creative people who can come up with good ideas to make Heaven better are.

4. If he is genuinely good, then he probably will understand that humans aren't perfect, but they are his creation and so is the ability to think and adapt to make the world better suited for our their own selfish reasons... So if a good, upstanding, atheist comes up with a cure for cancer or AIDS, then why should that person be punished in the eyes of God?

5. Maybe God could care less about humans in general and thinks they need to be wiped off the Earth because they are the biggest mistake he ever made and need to be eradicated like termites or ants before they screw up his planet. Maybe he didn't care much for the dinosaurs either and we're just another failed experiment waiting to happen.

I'm sure there are more examples out there, but anyways if you don't look at everything so black and white, then you can see that it's not so illogical when you think about it.

Answer 3

Situation 1: God is a vindictive and vain jerk who will take revenge on everyone who doesn't bend to say what a helluva... oops... what a great being he is. Is that the image of god you'd like to give out to non-believers? You need some lesson in marketing, I'm afraid.

Situation 2: Nothing is lost by believing but nothing is lost by not believing, either. Actually, something IS lost by believing. You've wasted your entire life living for a dream that didn't come true, instead of taking advantage of the only chance you're ever going to have to live a real and full life.

BTW, for all I hear from most believers, God would be a loving pal who cares for us all, even for those of us who don't care for him, and who is willing to wait for us for as long as it takes. So, I'd say that "Situation 1" (in which there is a god) would rather go like this:

Situation 1: God does exist, and he's a loving being who only cares for you to be good. I'm a non-believer who has never stepped in a church, except to see some friends getting married. But I have lived a life of solidarity and in accordance with high values, though I have made some mistakes, too, of course. But I have commited none of the sins that really matter (i.e.: those that are likely or sure to hurt others. I have never killed, robbed, etc.) My greatest sins have been not worshipping any god, and then mostly sins of a sexual nature, which anyway have hurt nobody (I'm not a rapist, a child abuser or a child pornographer, besides I don't cheat my present or past girlfriend). In this situation, when I die, God will see that I was a good person, and he won't send me to hell, because he would not punish me just for not believing (remember he's not a vindictive vain jerk). And if there is divine justice, my afterlife would have to be good to be fair to the kind of life I've had.

Reasoning: be a good person, don't hurt others intentionally, and make sure you help as much as you can. As for the rest, feel free to do as you please. If there is a god, it's a loving god who will forgive you for anything you do. And you'll die happy for a full life, respectful of everybody else.

Answer 4

As someone who was an agnostic for almost all of my adult life I used to look down on and call people who were atheists stupid. I didn't believe in God or anything. But I was proud of my intellect and I would point out that believing that God doesn't exist makes no more sense than believing that He does since you cannot prove either proposition.

Since then I've learned that being proud and calling other people stupid is a behavior that a child of God needs to repent of on the double. You know, I'll bet if one of my old unbelieving friends met me now and saw the difference in my behavior and attitudes they might very well remark "It's a miracle how much nicer and different he is!" :o)

Answer 5

The problem with your premise is that you assume that an atheist - someone who actually doesnt believe in God - can find belief in God just to avoid punishment. Faith is belief in what one can not see or know.
I don't believe someone can believe in something just to avoid bad consequences. They can say or act like they believe - but faith must come from the heart - wanting to accept something because they believe its true - and most likely all an atheist would do is fake belief.

Probably the most you can hope for from an atheist - without a leap of faith - is agnosticism - which opens the possibility that God exists.

Answer 6

Situation 3: An evil God is going to send all believers to hell and all non-believers to heaven.

Without proper evidence, there is no more reason to believe situation 1 or 2 over situation 3.

I'm not an Atheist, but Atheism is not illogical.

Answer 7

Say you are an atheist and I am a Christian - you believe that when you die that is it - no Heaven, no Hell, no nothing. I believe in the precious blood of Jesus that has washed away my sins and forgiven me because I accepted His payment - Heaven exists and Hell exists.

Now say, we both die tomorrow and you are right - we both end up nowhere.

Now say, we both die tomorrow and I am right - you will go to Hell (fire pit) and I will go to Heaven (paradise).

Makes sense to me to believe in God - either way - I win but if I am right, you lose too much. If you are not a betting man, choose God and live.

Thank you for your question.

Answer 8

No, it's not illogical. Let me point out a couple of things...

One, what if the Hindus/Greeks/Romans/Egyptians/etc. are right? Then all the Christians have to put up with whatever punishment the gods have got lined up for non-believers, right beside the atheists.

Two, believers DO lose something if they spend their entire lives worshipping the imaginary. They end up having lived as sheep, following lies blindly and not developing on their own. Their morals would be hand-fed from false prophets. Is that really "nothing"?


-Ammerz

"If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would chose not to worship him anyway." - Douglas Adams

Answer 9

Omg I hate Pascal's Wager. How do you know that your god is the right one. There's atleast a thousand religions world-wide so the chance of picking the right religion is very low.

Maybe God would rather have honest people in heaven; therefore, letting the atheists in for being true to themselves but keeping people who lie to themselves about their beliefs and believe in God for a selfish reason out of heaven.

Maybe God gets annoyed at the Christians for bothering him non-stop so he sends them to hell and keeps the atheists in heaven because they never bothered him.

There's atleast a million other arguments against this.

Answer 10

Ah, but you missed something rather important: there are more gods than the christian god to choose from. In fact, given what we know for fact about the existence of a god (nothing, basically), the number of gods to choose from is infinite.

Therefore, the highest statistical likelihood, regardless of which religion you pick, is that you'll pick the wrong one, and burn in hell. In fact, since you have an infinite number of gods to choose from, you're actually certain to pick the wrong one and burn in hell.

Pascal's wager is a logical fallacy; specifically, it's a "false dichotomy" - it attempts to make an argument logical by ignoring one or more of the options involved in it.

Therefore, since we atheists know we're probably doomed no matter what, we just decide to be honest with ourselves.

Answer 11

What if the real God will accepts anyone who deosn't believe in a false God? That means atheists, agnostics, and followers of that religion will go to heaven, and believers of every other faith will go to hell. for your scenario to work, they would have to choose the "true" god, whcih nobody really knows. And any good God would let everyone into heaven, perhaps a temporary bit of punishment in hell