What if I'm wrong and your right?

Question

So lets say, hypotheticaly speaking, there is no God, and that Jesus Christ was just a nice guy, what do I gain by living like you and believing that there is no God?

But what if I'm right? And you lose everything in the end? Is living life 'your way' here on earth, worth lossing out on God's offer of eternal communion with Him in heaven?

I ask this because we all seem to think that we are right, but don't tend to see things from the other guys point of view, so honestly what do I gain by living and believing like you???

Would you rather take your chances or just incase pay it safe???

Opps I mean play it safe, not pay it safe. Sorry!

Answer 1

You continue to live just like you do now.
You will be judged in the next life by what you do in this life.
For Christians, it is what you do with Jesus in this life.
They are the ones trying to draw you from your beliefs, they do not have to pay the consequences if you loose your first love.

If in the extreme case there is no God, I have enjoyed living my life as if there was a God. I can live with me better if I treat everyone with love and kindness. I have missed out on nothing. What being a Christian denies me I do not want anyway.
Who wants STDs, AIDS, a bullet in their heart or head, etc.?

As to the sex, drugs, and alcohol, most of us Christians have been there at one stage of our lives, before we found Christ.
We know what that is like and it is not near the high we get having a relationship with God and Christ.

grace2u

Answer 2

I don't think there's any point in arguing who's wrong and who's right because as long as we're walking this planet, there's no concrete way to know whether or not God exists. And if the Atheists are wrong and there is a God, your God from the Bible, doesn't the Christian faith teach that if you accept him you will be embraced by him and invited into Heaven? Is there a time limit on that? Let's say I don't believe that Christ was the son of God, which I don't, but he really was and I've been living my life in denial, by your standards....does that mean that when I die and come to my judgement day, can I say then "Now, I believe it and I'm sorry that I was living my life on Earth not believing in you"? Will I still be embraced, or do I have to sign up now?

In matters of faith, there is no right and wrong. Live your life how you see fit, and as long as you aren't hurting anyone else or spreading hatred, you've gained plenty.

Answer 3

First, lets turn the table. What does an atheist have to gain by SAYING that he/she believes in God? Nothing, right, since god would know that he/she was just lying...

What do you have to gain by saying that you don't believe in God if you do? Still, nothing. You still would live your life purely on the basis that someone was looking over your shoulder, you would do things still that some priest/preacher/rabbi prescribed for you to do, even if you pretended all the while that you did not believe in god. Silly thing to do, I would think, if you think there is an omnipotent and omniscient being that would know you were denying his/her existence.

Now, you may be a perfectly reasonable person. HOWEVER, if you look at the world today, there is an abundance of completely unreasonable religious fanatics. What would we gain (as a community) if those people were not to believe in God? We would all be free of most of the terrorism from Muslims, Christians and Jews, all of which have perpetrated acts of violence in the name of religion in the last 100 years. We would be rid of these arguments about whether or not to teach our children Science, which is a silly argument, especially if you benefit from any type of modern medicine or technology. There are many many benefits that would be derived from a person NOT Believing in god. But still, no benefit from a person SAYING the opposite of what they actually believe.

Answer 4

I once looked at life the way you did, but then I realized that if there is no God and Jesus, what are we living for? What's the purpose of being a 'good' guy?

God teaches so much more about life. The credit for doing good to others. The access to a greater knowledge about people and life. A love that is always there, and no one can take away from you. A hope for a better existence after we die. Make no mistake about it, we all will die. Wouldn't you find it better to die on a comforter rather than a pile of crap (that the world gives you)? I've never felt as good or as strong as I do now that I turned my life fully to God.

Now, consider the alternation. What if God exist and is calling for you to be with him? What if the only way you can be with him is simply believing in Jesus? Is that too much to ask?

Answer 5

Well for starters, you can live your life without condescending remarks and attitudes from fellow believers. You can be proud of your morals as a contributing part of society rather than afraid that if you slip up then die without repenting you will burn forever. You can have a drink every now and then, trust us its fun. The sex is good too. Also you can learn about the earth and what really happened millions of years ago without your faith being threatened every time a fossil in unearthed with reptilian features and feathers. AKA the missing link
I you are right and I end up in boil and bubble, I think that, even though I would be tormented forever, it would be better than being in paradise knowing that friends and family were eternally suffering. I am kinda weird that way, I would rather suffer than worry about my family or friends. Do Christians think that Heaven is going to be great, even though friends and family members will be suffering down below? I always thought that was a little cruel.

Answer 6

There is a god....but its not the christain god. God is the eternal energy of the universe in which all life is made from. God did not create the universe, there is no need 4 a creator since time is an illusion. God is everything. God is in the space between us. God is in the table in front of you. God is everything and everywhere and everyone I would suggest meditiation or use of enthegenic substances like san peyote cacti or something likie it...After u do that come back and tell me the universe is meaningless...how about doing that, huh?

Answer 7

I'd like to beleive that there's a god after all there's got to be more than what we see around us. If you think about it some of what's in the bible it was probably originally written in more than one language, one of them being hebrew, possibly egyptian, or latin, probably none of them english, french, italian, spanish, or german so the bible we read is a translation plus just about everything mentioned in the bible happened almost 2000 years ago so the story gets stretched, details get lost in translation, after all parting the red sea may have been tidal activity after all everyone travelled by foot or by horse, so 12 hours for the tide to change would have been enough time for the hebrews to lose the egyptians chasing them, they may have even been in the wrong place, and thought it was the red sea, after all these people were slaves, they had just escaped across the desert from the egyptians, a large number of them were probably suffering from heat exhaustion, malnourishment, and dehydration, so their reference to where they were may not have been accurate, or the egyptians were looking in the wrong place, the ten commandments being Moses interpretation of god's will, which seems like a pretty good interpretation to me, seeing as they bring out the best qualities of people, although I don't completeley agree with the eye for an eye bit, If someone kills someone, killing them may make things worse, matching violence with more senseless violence will only cause more violence and things will get worse from there, my opinion : rules are conditional it i think the eye for an eye just means that actions have their consequences. Aren't all people the children of god, so jesus may have just been proactive about it, helping people wherever he could, showing people that everyone can be a good person, and there is always a chance for redemption, i cant really find an explanation for the walking on water, unless it was a figure of speech lost in translation, or a mistranslation, or a simple exaggeration, the whole bread and wine/Bones and blood may have been Jesus's way of saying remember me and what i stood for, and saying he was dying for a good cause that he beleived in,his prediction of his own death may have been obvious to him after all he had stirred people's beleifs, challenged authority, he was pretty much a good guy who helped the underdog and he was willing to die for his cause, with the empty tomb my guess would be that more time passed between the time jesus was buried and when the tomb was reopened, than the bible says after all quantitative properties like time loose accuracy after so many years and 2000 years is alot more time than so many years possibly a good five years or more than a decade may have passed before the tomb was reopened.

So these examples show how I beleive that religion is subject to interpretation, and nobody's beleifs are wrong, and no single beleif is absolute.

If I could go back in time and find out one thing
The only question i have about jesus is, if he was a carpenter how good was he?

Answer 8

It's about being mature enough to do the right thing without thinking there are repercussions. Example; Bob was raised in a family where everytime he did something wrong he got beaten. Dan was raised in a family where everytime he did something wrong he didn't get in any trouble at all. Bob is more likely to do the right thing, but only because he's scared of what will happen if he doesn't. If Dan does get it right, it's because he understands the difference between right and wrong.

Athiests have an advantage, because they are forced to find their own right and wrong, because ultimately there is no punishment. Your decisions today will effect you tomorrow.

Answer 9

ARe you suggesting Pascal's Wager in clever beat around the bush speak? Tsk tsk... We've been over this already. I have everything to gain by not living a religious lifestyle... namely my time, which is more important to me than living my life around the minute possibility that the Christian god is the right and only god over the thousands of other earthly gods.

Answer 10

all these "Me Too" people saying, "That's Pascal's Wager AGAIN!" - as if that was a proper answer... just goes to show how much people can be so disensitized by suppposedly witty repartees and goes to show how much they do not really think a question through.

Very disappointing.
Like C.S. Lewis, I think the smarter thik to do is gamble on the side of caution. He said something like this: "If I am wrong (that there is a God) ... then I'd just have given the universe the highest compliment."