To Atheists:why don't you be on the safe side and believe in god?

Question

If it appeared that there is no god,then you won't lose anything.

Answer 1

Pascal's Wager.

Pascal's Wager states just that. This idea just makes a mockery out of "God" because it's saying you can make God look like an idiot by just playing along with the little game and get into heaven, instead of truly believing like all the good children.

Answer 2

What safe side? Even if there is a god, there are an infinite number of possible gods. Believing in one is just as "unsafe" as believing in any other one.

Besides, let's say I decide now to believe in god. Just how do I go about doing that? I am currently not convinced that there are any gods. I can pretend that I believe one or more exists, but deep down I still won't be convinced. Given the weak arguments for the existence of god, like this one, I doubt I'll be convinced any time in the foreseeable future.

Answer 3

If there is a god, I'd bet that he is smart enough to tell the difference between a true believer and a charlatan who just wants to be on the safe side. Moreover, I may not have anything to gain in death by being a non-believer, but in life I think being a non-believer enables me to look at things rationally and causally, and I don't want to lose that.

Answer 4

LMAO we can't get through a week without a Pascal's Wager question, can we?
Your theory is flawed.
1) Which god? Given that there are over 2500 known gods in history, which one should the atheist choose?
2) what if the true god isn't one known yet?
3) what if god will reward the atheist for going by the evidence?
4) what if god is evil and only rewards those who are evil?
By your wager, they now have a less than 1 in 2500 chance of getting it right.
Try again..NEXT!

Answer 5

For me, "just believing" is not something I can do. I can't "just believe" in Santa Claus either. From a child of about 5 years of age, I found most of the things I heard in Sunday School to be too far fetched to believe. Since I don't believe in God, I don't believe in Satan or Hell, either. So I'm not afraid to die, because I'm pretty sure it going to be sort of like when I had an operation a couple weeks ago, and got an infusion of Fentanyl - lights out! - only permanently.

Answer 6

The short answer:

Atheists do not believe in hell, therefore they do not fear anything happening to them when they die.

The Long Answer:

Absence of religion is not absence of morality. I live life trying to be a good person. I have no intent to get into heaven, I merely have compassion for all things around me.

I do not judge others, but accept them for who they are.

So what if I hold no god in favor, and do not wish to follow some religious doctrine. It is not a choice of pride. I merely believe in what is presented to me factually, and attempt to form my own opinions based on my experiences.

Should I die and come face to face with an ultimate creator, then yes I would kneel to it as my master. I would expect nothing from it, and should I be judged, then I am sure it would be by my actions and intent in life and not by whether or not I went to church on sundays.

If I die and end up in hell because I did not follow a religion, then I would simply suffer there, and know in my heart that this God is a egotistical, self absorbed diety and not worthy of worship anyways. I would tell Lucifer I loved him and forgave him, even if God would not. Because the true greater good is have a purity of love, understanding and forgiveness.

So you see in my mind there is no reason for me to follow a religion, because I simply follow the path of greater good based on morality. Should I be judged I fear I may be taken in higher regard than those who are merely good out of fear.

Any of my actions of charity, and goodness a purely selfless. I don't know that there are many christians that can say the same. If you do it out of fear, then it is by no means selfless. If you do it to get into heaven, again that is a selfish act.

I fear no no judgement, and I will retain my absence of religion. There is no need for it in my life.

Answer 7

I'm no atheist, but this isn't a good reason to believe in God. It's opportunism. Besides it's unclear whose God you should believe in. Many religion teach that believing the wrong things about God leads to damnation just as much as not believing in God. There's a Sufi teaching that if you believe in God because of the threat of hell you deserve hell, and if you believe for the bribe of heaven then you don't deserve heaven. You should believe in God for being God.

Answer 8

Your argument supports an atheistic view because your argument is based on belief to get reward (or as an insurance mechanism). It also posits the existence of a deity that rewards and punishes based on belief (exactly the kind of projected deities that people have been conjuring up for millenia -- e.g. sacrificing to the volcano god, etc.). These small-minded, ego-based gods are silly. Those who experience god experience something that is nothing like these silly, ego projections that people cling on to.

Answer 9

Because

a) It's impossible to force oneself to believe in something. You either believe it or you don't, or your lying to yourself.

b) Yes, we would lose all our intellectual and moral freedoms, and live life under stifling unchanging doctrine "Just in case."

Either way, I doubt that (if he does exist) god would be impressed by such arguements as "I didn't believe in your, but I pretended too, to be on the safe side."

Answer 10

If the risk of going to hell is small, but the suffering is infinite....wouldn't you be safer sending me $5,000 to learn how not to go to hell?

$5,000 is a finite number. The chance, no matter how small, of going to hell if you DON'T give me $5,000, and recieving infinite pain as a consequence, results in the possibility of infinite pain. Infinity multiplied by ANY number, no matter how small (your chance of going to hell) is still infinity.

Therefore......isn't it worth a finite sacrifice of $5,000 to ensure that you don't risk inifnity in hell?

E-mail me for mailing instructions, and learn how to avoid eternal damnation in hell. It's so simple even a child could do it, and it takes only 8 minutes a day.....

LEARN MORE...and SAVE YOUR ETERNAL SOUL for a mere $5,000.

Please note....that if you were in hell for only 100 years of punishment.....that would come to $50 a year, in other words about 4 dollars a month.

Isn't a 4 dollar a month investment worth not going to hell????

You'll be glad you did!!!