If you live your life as if there is no God, or Heaven or Hell, then you die, and you find out you were wrong......then what??
Seeing that no one can provide evidence that it does Not exists, wouldn't it be safer to believe in God, Heaven, and Hell while you're alive and if you die and there is no God, Heaven, or Hell, then fine. You lost nothing. But if there is, and you didn't believe, then you lost everything. I don't think it's worth the gamble to not believe, eternity is a VERY LONG TIME. What do you think??
2007-02-27 04:16:24 · 28 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Yes, because if you die and find out that there is a God, then you will be in trouble.
2007-02-27 04:20:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 7⤋
Sure it's a gamble, but believing in God for the sake of "being on the safe side" is not a display of faith. God would not reward someone who professed to believe in Him knowing that within his heart he only believed because doing so was profitable.
The devil claimed that Job was righteous because of the blessings he received for being so. God, therefore allowed the devil power to remove blessings from Job as part of a wager that Job's righteousness and faith in God would be sustained. If Job had failed this test, proving that he was righteous only for profit, God would have lost the wager, been proved fallible, and all of creation would have been undone.
So the answer is, an athiest cannot assume the role of a believer "just in case" for the sake of saving his soul. God will see beyond this charade.
2007-02-27 04:30:00 · answer #2 · answered by andalorn 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The question (among other things) assumes that there is no morality in the absence of those three beliefs. Or, that a non-believer will go to hell regardless of that person's actions. Otherwise there's no "gamble," right?
What do *I* think? I think that the absence of belief in those things does not ensure an absence of morals, just as the presence of belief in those things does not ensure the presence of morals. And I believe that positing that non-believers will go to hell for eternity regardless of their actions in life is...unpalatable at best. If God exists and is as unjust as that, well, frankly, I'm not sure I'm interested in that God's version of Heaven.
2007-02-27 04:27:39 · answer #3 · answered by ljb 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No more of a gamble than for you to not believe in Pagan gods or our versions of "Heaven" and "Hell". These concepts are not unique to Christianity, Judaism or the Bible. You even first got the word for Hell from Paganism.... Hades is the Greek concept of the Christian Hell and was around a lot longer than Christianity. Egyptian beliefs also have a hell. There is even a Goddess of the Underworld named HEL. (yes, one L there). So, aren't you gambling in not believing in these as well? Eternity is just as long in those hell's as it is in the Christian hell.
2007-02-27 04:56:00 · answer #4 · answered by Kithy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gee, Pascal's Wager rears its head once again.
Since there isn't just one god that exists, those of you who believe in Jeezus(tm) and His Dad(tm) might be taking the same gamble in that you may be believing in the wrong creator.
What if Zeus was actually the real creator? He wouldn't be too happy that you're worshipping other gods.
Or maybe one of the thousands of other gods out there might be the right one.. How do you know your god is the true god? Because it says so in the bible? That was written by man, who was just as misled as you.
So, you're pretty much in the same boat as me.. except that I have a preference to the Japanese Wind God... Or maybe the FSM?? I like pasta.
2007-02-27 04:25:00 · answer #5 · answered by umwut? 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Any god that would create a place to torture his children is a god not worth worshipping.
There is no hell. The Hebrews got the idea from the Babylonians. The Romans who converted to Christianity took some ideas about it from the Greek underworld Hades.
2007-02-27 04:24:22 · answer #6 · answered by Robin W 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
OK, so people should attempt to believe in order to hedge their bet? In all honesty, if there is a God and he is anything close to the God in the Bible, then I want to go to hell, since Satan has more sympathy and I would hedge my bet that Satan would not do the bidding of God and not torture people as indicated. Satan would have no purpose to do God's bidding, would he? He was an angel and only wanted to be more equal to that God of yours. Satan was doing all the work and God was getting all the credit, so it only seems fair for him to want more. In addition, with Adam and Eve, God did not want humans to have more knowledge, but Satan encouraged them to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Do you really think an evil being would want you to eat from that tree? So logically, who is evil?
But to totally answer your question, I would be ashamed of myself to fake a belief in something that I find so offensive.
2007-02-27 04:27:39 · answer #7 · answered by corona001500 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, it's a much bigger gamble TO believe, as if you believe in the wrong one (of thousands of possible Gods), you are screwed, and meanwhile you've wasted your life.
Pascal's Wager was discredited a loooooooooong time ago.
2007-02-27 04:22:54 · answer #8 · answered by Blackacre 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Were all the people Christianity murdered surprised in the afterlife? Or were all the preists who tortured and killed non-believers surprised? Hmm, I'm not taking a chance on a murderous religion. I better play it safe and go with what has actual proof. Athiesm.
2007-02-27 04:22:25 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
By the same reasoning you had better believe in Leprechauns too. What if you come across a Leprechaun in a perfect spot for catching him and you don't believe? You'll be out a pot of gold. Won't you feel silly then?
2007-02-27 04:23:36 · answer #10 · answered by Murazor 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Belief or unbelief is not a question of a gamble. It is a question of finding out the truth.
I don't think to omany people are going to be influenced by the gamble aspect of it.
2007-02-27 04:22:45 · answer #11 · answered by Mr Ed 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋