From a theist to an athiest, answer me this?

Question

If Christians are wrong, they have lost nothing.

If you (in your current spiritual condition) are wrong, well, you know.

So why not, just to be safe, join us?

I said a prayer for you, and we'll see what happens.

Answer 1

"If Christians are wrong, they have lost nothing."

Aww, how sad! You've fallen for the false dichotomy scam, brother. Do you actually believe it's only a choice between Atheism and Christianity? You couldn't be more wrong. According to David B. Barrett, the researcher who compiles religious population estimates for the Encyclopedia Britannica and World Almanac, there are about 10,000 distinct religions in the world today. Sure, not all of these are theistic, but most are! They all have their very own creation myths, just like yours! They all have their own version of how many gods and goddesses there are, just like yours! They all have their version of what the afterlife is, just like yours! How can one possibly choose between all of them?

What if you die and end up in Islamic Hell? Is this losing nothing? I don't think so. Have you read the Qur'an? It paints Hell as much more brutal than anything the Christians ever came up with! I'm pretty sure that Allah wouldn't be pleased that you've been preaching against him and worshipping a false god!

What if the Egyptians were right? Their afterlife was only to be reached after completing a treacherous journey which included monsters, poison-spitting snakes, fire and boiling lakes. Apparently, even though you were dead, you could be killed again, this time for good. If you survived all the dangers there that meant you had made it to the Hall of Two Truths. Here your heart was weighed on a scale against the Feather of Truth -- this feather containing everything bad you had done in your life. If your heart outweighed it, then Osiris, Anubis and Thoth, the gods judging the weighing, let you pass and onto Yaru you went. If the feather was heavier, then your heart was tossed into the waiting mouth of the Devourer, a beast that was part crocodile, part hippopotamus and part lion. At this point, just like the previous scenario, you were dead for good. Is this losing nothing? I don't think so.

"so why not, just to be safe, join us?"

you sure your safe?...how?...because your story book told you?...you can't be real with that.


"If you (in your current spiritual condition) are wrong, well, you know."

Hell mythology? I'm so scared. Really I am. The question is, why are you afraid? Why does this mythology scare you while all the thousands of other don't? Oh yeah. You don't believe in them -- just like me. Well, at least you know exactly how I feel about your religion.

You, just like I, can't believe in them because they're not convincing. Beliefs are not choices. You can't simply believe something that you believe to be fictional. You must be convinced first.

"I said a prayer for you, and we'll see what happens."

You can request that your imaginary friend do something all day. It never works. After all, nothing fails like prayer! Maybe one day you'll realize it. I know that some of the Christians I've debated certainly must have felt this way about me. They've been praying their little minds out for the last 20 years.

All have failed!

I've only become a stronger, smarter and more aggressive Atheist. It's a beautiful thing!

How long will it take you, to see your folly?

Answer 2

You might try googling "Pascals Wager" and you'll get some very in-depth refutations.

I would give you "why" in my own words tho, rather than just pasting a definition. Because...lets say I took you up on that. I believe in god, accept Jesus, because I have "nothing to lose and everything to gain." When I stand before the Throne of Judgement, God who sees all, will know WHY I decided. That I was hedging my bets, bascially. I was taking a gamble that he was real. And I was doing it out of FEAR (on the chance of avoiding hell). What kind of god would reward this bet-hedging. I would think He'd rather honor an honest skeptic.

Also, believing isn't a choice like that. If someone held a gun to your head and said "Believe in Rayna as god or I'll blow your head off." You might SAY "I believe in Rayna!!!" But actually really believing, isn't choice. With all due respect, it's like losing belief in Santa. If you deep-down do NOT believe, no amount of "really super-dooper wanting to believe" is going to cut it.

I hope that helps explain.

Answer 3

Spell check is your friend. You love spell check. *jedi hand wave*
You spelled 'theist', and then put an 'a' in front of it, somehow thinking that it transposed the order of the 'ei' within that word.

Yoda Green is correct. This is Pascal's Wager, and it is not an argument for the existence of God, but an argument for belief. You're wrong, anyway... if Christians are wrong, you've lost a whole lifetime of freethought and freedom from religious dogma.
You could also be wrong about what God you're worshipping, but of course you will not accept that... you believe that you are worshipping the One True God™.

I will not force myself to believe a lie because of fear of going to your god's hell. For all you know, we're ALL worshipping or not worshipping a completely foreign god that's going to send everyone to hell anyway.

Answer 4

Ho hum, Pascals wager. I've only answered this about 50 times.

Why don't you worship RA? If you don't there will be penalties in the afterlife. How about Thor, Zeus, Jupiter, Odin or any of the other thousand other made up deities? It is really easy to see how absurd it is that way. I just included one God you didn't. There is exactly the same evidence and arguments for any of them. How did you chose?

I feel as safe as you do.

Answer 5

Are all Christians going to hell?

The Koran says so.

How can a billion+ people be wrong?
Who would die for a lie?
What about all the prophecies in the Koran?
There is not one error or contradiction in the Koran.
There is more evidence for Muhammad than Julius Caesar.

What if you are wrong Christians? Think about it! Do you really want to go to hell? You will have your skin boiled off and then it regrows and this happens over and over. Please Christians don't make Allah, who loves us all, do this to you...

Ok seriously now. Will you Christians stop using Pascal's Wager? I seriously doubt there is an atheist on the planet who hasn't thought about "What if I am wrong?" And when you bring up Pascal's Wager it just shows us that your religion is based on fear. And it really makes Christianity look even worse to us.

Answer 6

Wow you are trying to sell your religion by saying I don't have to actually believe it, I just have to pretend.

Excuse me but I spent enough time in church to know that, according to the bible, you have to really believe it in order to get to heaven. Your logic is a disgrace to your religion. At least have some respect for your fellow theists who actually believe the bible!

Furthermore I don't consider it safe to throw all logic out the window and believe in that bible business.

Answer 7

That is like choosing your beliefs on who offers the best deal. 72 virgins? Eternal Life? What if another religion offers Eternal Life + two weeks, wouldn't you be a fool not to jump to that religion?

Answer 8

Have you ever heard of the term "attrition"? As defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, "attrition" is defined as "repentance for sin motivated by fear of punishment rather than by love of God." If you come to know God, I have to imagine that it's much less favorable to Him/Her as someone who comes from fear and fear alone, as opposed to a genuine faith in, love for, and respect for. Honestly, that type of belief (if you want to call it that) isn't actual faith, because not only is it operating under the wrong motivations, but it's more than likely not valid because the person is only feigning the belief in order to escape the potential consequences of disbelief.

In my particular situation, I would love to believe in God. I was raised Catholic, fell into the Baptist denomination, and proceeded into Messianic Judaism by the time I was 16-years-old. I'd always grasped Theological concepts more than adeptly and was greatly fascinated by all components of Judeo-Christian doctrine. Around that time, I had a death in the family, of a very great man. My spiritual mentor actually, and the pastor of his local church. When he died, I began truly questioning every aspect of Religion and Theology in general. Initially I fell out of faith emotionally, but as the years went on, I began to analyze things much more logically and rationally, eventually coming to the conclusion that although I couldn't deny it entirely, that it's very improbable that God exists. Though, because of my upbrining and religious background, I'm still drawn to it, and still drawn to the intellectual discourse.

I don't believe that there is substantial evidence to prove the existence of God. Conversely, I don't think that there's substantial evidence to say that there most certainly isn't one either. As a result, I don't define myself as an Atheist or a Theist because both positions equally ignore the potentiality of their beliefs being wrong. I think it's much more likely that there isn't a God, but who am I to say? Until He/She makes some sort of a bold statement or direct connection to me, I'll forever defend my position as an Atheistically-leaning Agnostic. You can't force yourself to believe in something, no matter how badly you may want to, no matter how intently aware you are of the consequences.

Answer 9

This is known as "Pascal's wager" and it's been tossed aside so many times I can't begin to understand why someone would be so stupid as to use it again.
The basic problem is this; you assume that there is a god. This assumption is utterly false.
There is NO evidence (much less proof) that such a being exists. None.
Making Pascal and his wager, just another foolish attempt to use semantics, in place of actual logic.
Try, try again...

Answer 10

I don't agree with anyone just pretending to be of a religion to play it safe. I'm Catholic, and I think your reasoning is too full of holes. Pray all you want, but don't ever tell them to pretend just to make you happy. Believe me, God would not like fake worshippers.