Atheists: What would you loose by giving God a chance for just a month?

Question

It seems to me as if all you guys ever do is Jesus bash. So here is a challenge. For a month, read the Bible, pray, try to get in touch with others who are godly and see how it makes you feel. But to do it, you need to do so earnestly, not just to find more reasons to bash the Lord.

Come on, you already believe that when you die thats it, what would be the problem with trying to see if there really is an afterlife, just in case :)

Just to make a point about a recurring point: No one who genuinely gives God a chance will resort to atheism

Answer 1

Great idea. They would have nothing to lose and so much to gain! I love your idea!!! to acid zebra, that doesn't answer the question. She asked what would you have to lose? I think they are afraid to try because it would be life changing and then they would have to take back a lot of words previously spoken.

Answer 2

I was raised a devout christian. I wasted years believing in a fairytale because that was what my parents wanted me to believe. Once I became an adult, I began to question that belief. I read the bible MANY times from beginning to end. I prayed to god to help me to believe the way he wanted.

What did I get out of it? A lot of unanswered prayers and a decreasing belief with each time I read the bible. The more I read the bible the more I relized how much contradicting information and how many lies were held within that book. If it were edited for blatent errors and contridicting information today it would be a fraction of the size it currently is.

What would I be losing if I did this again. My time. I have wasted enough time reading "the book" and praying to "the god" I have woken up and opened my eyes to the truth and beauty that was alway right in front of me. Why would I want to bury my head in the sand again?

Answer 3

When my Christian faith started slipping, I did that for nearly three years. I prayed. I read the bible, stem to stern, in different translations. I spent time in tears in the minister's office in two different churches. I fellowshipped with other women like my soul depended on it. I begged god. I pleaded with god. I clung to my Christian faith like a dying remora. I became an atheist anyway. The only thing my wholehearted immersion in the lord did for me was highlight how wrong the religion was.

I think you'll find many atheists here that Jesus bash are just like me. They started out Christian, had a crisis of faith, found no answers that were acceptable in Christianity, and became atheist. There are just as many that were never Christian, but read the bible anyway, along with historical works about the people who were major figures in the religion, and discovered the same thing. Christianity is not reasonable.

Because many don't seem to understand just how much Ex-Xtians think about the "Hell Consequence": if the Christian version of an afterlife actually managed to happen, I'd still rather burn in hell. If the Holy Spirit somehow existed and stood before me right now, proved beyond any doubt that Christianity is true, I'd still spit in its face. I'm sorry, but I don't find Christianity as wonderful as you do. You have your choice to make. I have mine. I have accepted your choice to be Christian and I'm glad for you. Why can you not extend the same courtesy?

Answer 4

I suppose it possible it would "loosen" my grip on reality. Seemingly, my spelling would also suffer.

I would have nothing to "lose" in taking your challenge, but then I would have nothing to gain.

I've already read the bible (amung other religious works) and in my youth I spent a great deal of time praying, at church, etc. I've been down that road before and what it did for me then pales in comparison to what life does for me now.

It's not that your stories of an ever-loving God and eternal life aren't nice or sweet. It is simply that they are not true. I also have a strong enough sense of self that I do not need those things in my life.

If I did take your challenge and after a month came back to you and said I was still an atheist, would you at all be inclined to take a look at your own beliefs in a critical manner?

Answer 5

Pascals wager with time limits; I've seen it all now. Don't you realize that a good deal, though not all, atheists grew up around christianity so they know the bible and they have their own opinions on it and what it portrays and they have that right just like you have the right to believe. You personally gain nothing by proselytizing unless it's brownie points with your deity.

Your deity is not a proved entity and your religion is not the only one and some people prefer no religion at all. I thought christians were supposed to be tolerant: I guess I thought wrong.

Answer 6

I'd lose the fact that I can think for myself and end up relying too much on what everyone else tells me I should think and act.

I have morals, despite that fact that I don't attend church. I'm not an idiot and know the difference between a good heart and bad. I know what's right and wrong. I don't have to pray or read a bible to know this and to change myself from a great non religous person to a person that follows the herd no matter where they head to would turn me into a hypocrite.

so I suppose that's what I'd be losing . . .my sense of self.

Answer 7

How?

I've already read the Bible. I used to pray when I was a Christian. My in-law is a Methodist minister, and many of my friends are Christian.

Sorry, but belief is not something you just "try". Either you are convinced or you aren't convinced. I'm not convinced there are any gods.

There is just too much evidence against there being a god.

If you want to learn about atheism, read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris and "God is Not Great" by Hitchens. You have nothing to lose, right?

And concerning your "point", I did genuinely give Christianity a chance, and I'm an atheist. I can't see how anybody can read the Bible honestly and not be an atheist.

Answer 8

People who wouldn't live their lives any differently and aren't in desperate need of fear or guilt to control them, don't really concentrate on the existence of a "God," as they have more important and factual based matters to be concerned with. Nobody knows anything, so why make up answers? Live your life the right way you know how and in due time, you may find out your answers.

Answer 9

think u should give aethists some space and their right to existence. it's not jus a matter of getting saved but the entire duration of life that counts. u really dun need to keep trying....
and since u r a christian, "jesus bash" is not a very appropriate term for u to use as well.... (tho u r only citing)

Answer 10

Like a vast majority of atheists I god a chance for a lot longer than a month.I have read the bible on more than one occasion.
Why don't you try reading it and instead of just accepting,think about it,then tell me you can't see the hypocrisy inside it

Answer 11

not all athiests god-bash. Mature people that do not belive in religion, it is the immature ones who go around bashing. Why not try dis-believing in God for a month? Forgetting the bible for a month? You would say no. Why? Because It is what you believe in.