To nonbelievers and atheists. May I ask a simple question? I believe in God and that Jesus died to forgive our

Question

sins, affording mankind eternal life in Heaven. You evidently do not believe the same way. Statement: When I die, " I would rather be a Christian and find out that there is no Heaven than be an unbeliever and find out that there IS." I believe, (let me rephrase that) I know there is a Heaven and everlasting life There is also a place called hell and everlasting damnation. When the forgiven believers dies, they have everything to gain, and it will last forever. When an unbeliever dies, they would have everything to loose. So...For this reason alone, why not believe? Re-read this..What do you have to gain and what do you have to loose? Thank You

Answer 1

I totally agree with you. I know that there is a mansion waiting for me in Heaven, that He is preparing for me right now. I am a believer and know that I will be able to spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus.

Answer 2

I'm a non-believer in Christianity, but I still believe in Heaven, or whatever just reward there is. I just have my own set of beliefs, and I have years and years of my own experiences and the culmination of everything I have come to believe in if I just throw it away for Christian belief. I may be wrong, I just don't think I am. I don't think you are, except for the fact that you believe in Hell and that only Christians would reach heaven. There are many ways to get to an answer, why would religion be any different?

So, the religions will still try and get worshippers, the different subsects of those religions will bash the people who are supposed to believe the same thing, and life will go on.

Answer 3

Let's start by getting your communication straight. You were right the first time, you believe, you don't know.

Jennifer Diane Reitz makes the following delineation between believing and knowing.

“To believe in something is not the same as knowing something. Intrinsic to the concept of belief is (the) implication that there is an opposite to belief, disbelief. Not everyone will believe something is true, but all sane and rational people will acknowledge an observable fact.

The only way belief can be experienced is in the mind. Facts can be experienced both in the mind and by the senses...and what is more, unlike a mental hallucination, the sensory experience can be shared with others.

It is a common error of human beings to allow belief, to allow a mental construct accepted on faith, to become so important, so obsessive, that it is taken as the same thing as fact. Indeed, there are many emotional reasons why a person might be driven to do this, but it still remains that any belief is purely mental whatever it's origin, and the mind can be mistaken.

This means that all beliefs have as part of them an implied doubt. Facts cannot be doubted, they are observably real.

When belief is assumed to be fact, when this mistake is made by a mind clouded by a motivation to assume belief as fact, that belief is considered beyond doubt, just as is a fact.

Beliefs beyond doubt are inherently dangerous. They are dangerous because they are often acted upon as though they were facts, and the inherent weakness of this is that a belief is not a fact.

Beliefs can be, and often are, wrong.” (Jennifer Diane Reitz)

All your "evidence" for the existence of a heaven exists in your mind only. You have no observable facts: no spirits that have returned, no window through which we can peek. Therefore, you are left with belief, not knowledge. And please don't quote Bible scripture, I could quote from books about Paul Bunyan, but he wouldn't be any more real.

Since you asked what I have to lose, I'll tell you. The value of life here and now. The putting off of living and experiencing here and now, of improving the lives of others here and now in exchange for an empty promise of a better life after death. Perhaps you can watch people starve and go without shelter, confident that their suffering will be rewarded in heaven. I prefer to help now, to act now, because now is all we have. That's what I have to lose.

If you want to be philosophical, that's fine, but don't masquerade belief as knowledge. Don't masquerade hope as certainty. They aren't the same things and its this kind of shaky logic that has allowed so many atrocities in this world in the name of God.

I have no problem with you holding your beliefs, I simply ask that you acknowledge them for what they are and not try to pass them off as fact or knowledge for they constitute neither.

Answer 4

I've never understood why so many do not see the fallacy and hollow-ness of a pascal's wager belief.

you say: >>"Statement: When I die, " I would rather be a Christian and find out that there is no Heaven than be an unbeliever and find out that there IS.""<<

in response to that I say that When I die, if I found out that Christianity(as most belive it) was in fact true, I would be happy to walk myself to hell, because I would not want to be anywhere near a God that would have an eternal hell.

but with the circumstances as I know them to be, I have nothing to worry about. and interestingly... neither do you. because if I'm right and your wrong, your nearly as good off as you are with your belief.

the fact that I'd be screwed if your right and I'm wrong, is a good enough reason for me to *NOT* believe as you do.

so actually if the jews are right your not screwed...

Answer 5

God doesn't just make up rules and do anything He pleases. He's holy and good, and the rules for what is and is not good could never have been otherwise. God told the early humans that their only happiness lies in Him, and any other choice would lead them to death and misery. That's not something God could have made otherwise if He felt like it- it's just a simple description of the nature of reality. . . sort of like telling someone that if they jump off a tall building they'll die. But, they chose to go their own way and do their own thing anyway, and, just as He told them, they suffered the consequences for that. God wouldn't be righteous or holy if he simply overlooked that sin and let them do anything they pleased. The penalty for sin is death, and if God is to be just, then that debt must be paid, somehow. But God, being the loving creator that He is, wasn't willing to let that be the end of it. He was willing to pay that price Himself, so that we could be saved from hell. Because if we don't pay the price, then somebody surely must do it in our place. Jesus could do that for us because He never sinned, and therefore he didn't owe a sin debt at all. It's sort of like if you commit a crime and get thrown in jail. The other prisoners are not going to be able to help you post bail. Only somebody who hasn't commited a crime and is therefore not in jail himself will be able to come bail you out. So our sin-debt was paid by Jesus' death, and because of that, we can be right with God again. The righteousness of God is satisfied, and His love for us is proved at the same time.

Answer 6

First, not all non-believers are atheists. In fact, that term, atheist applies to only a very small proportion of "non-believers". So, please get your facts straight.

For the rest of this, I can only answer for myself. I prefer to use my own brain and my own logic than to blindly believe what I've been told to believe. That, in fact, is my biggest single argument against the very concept of organized religions - that they discourage critical thought.

Further, and again for myself, christianity encourages a lack of personal responsibilty, Yes, you read that correctly. If you can be "accepted into heaven" for simply proclaiming your belief in jesus, or if you can be forgiven for any and all wrongdoing by going to confession and performing an act or acts or absolution, then there is no need for personal responsibility.

I found it very interesting, and in many ways, equally horrifying, that at the public memorial for the victims of the Columbine shootings, almost every clergyperson chose to speak of life everlasting, of love and of forgiveness, and ignoring the fact that these were the acts of individuals who made a choice. The only clergy member who spoke at all of personal responsibility and of taking responsibility for your own actions and for raising and guiding your children, was not christian but jewish.

What do I have to lose? My own personal integrity.

Further, heaven and hell are man-made constructs.

Answer 7

First of all, it's "lose". "Loose" is the opposite of "tight".

I live without fear, and I live without being psychologically manipulated. Such is the freedom that my worldview affords.

I refuse to adopt religion in an effort to "hedge my bets". If I die, and I find out I was wrong, then that's the price I'll pay for being wrong, but somehow I doubt that this is what will happen. I don't profess to "know" anything for a fact, there is only what I believe and what I don't believe, and unless I see some incontrovertible proof of what you are saying, I will continue to not believe that it is true.

Answer 8

You know...it isn't exactly as easy as all that. Sometimes people can't help what they believe and don't believe. It's not like it's something that can be turned on and off like a switch. An atheist can't just say, "Oh, OK. I guess I'll start believing today!" I personally think that if there is a God, then He doesn't really care as much about whether or not we "believe" in Him, as he does that we live lives as good people. Then again, that's just what I believe. I know that if I was a loving God, all I'd want is for my children to be good to each other. I wouldn't care whether or not they're spending time "worshiping" me.

Answer 9

Pascal's wager, aye? but the thing to it is, what if you're worshiping the wrong god? Let's put it another way. Would you rather be a non-believer in the Christian faith and find out there was christ and god? or would you rather be of the christian faith to find out that there was a god that was much different than the one you worshiped, and he was angry at you for not worshiping him and instead worshiping this false idol? Either way, you're in hot water.

Also, you don't KNOW anything about the afterlife. You can only believe. To believe is to take something unproven and lean toward the side of existence with it. To know is to have hard proof that it exists. Since you don't have proof of a heaven, then you don't know there is one.

Answer 10

I still don't understand the need in this day and age of everyone still believing in something after death. Does this life means nothing to you? Without the afterlife, when we die and if this the only chance we get at life of any kind. Doesn't that give life MORE meaning? It certainly does to me.

Does your life really suck that bad so you imagine something after this life that is so much better than this one? Maybe that is a problem with our planet. People not carrying about each other and our planet and say to themselves "hey, who cares about this life, I have eternity to feel better about myself"

Religion is a mind virus.

Answer 11

That's Pascal's wager. I don't feel like explaining it today, but you're not the first to think about it.

The verb to believe makes no sense in the imperative. I don't get to choose what I believe. If I say to you: Believe the sky is purple! You can't obey me. You can humor me and SAY you believe it, but you can't actually believe it.

Second, your God is childish. According to you, he's going around telling people: This is my last offer. Believe or perish. You believe in a God that created the world in order to have the world worship it. Kind of a vain God, don't you think? You also believe that God will punish well-meaning people if they don't believe the right thing. You're God is also a fascist.

Third, you seem to assume there are only two possibilities: What if the Jews are right? What if it's the Muslims? Or the Hindus? Then you're also in trouble.

Fourth, your God has an appalling lack of imagination. You're telling me there exists an infinite being of infinite intelligence and wisdom, and that that infinite being only could think of one way for you to be saved? I figure he would have at least imagined two!