There are people in this world who live the most fantastic, effective lives without ever contemplating god...?

Question

and there are devout religious people who spend their entire lives praying, worshiping and serving an idea whilst being depressed, bitter and miserable.

How is this possible? Doesn't the holy servant deserve happiness more than the non-believer?

The answer is simple. Life is a human experience which requires nothing more than attending to human affairs and concerns with 100% focus, effort and determination. This, in fact, is the only thing that has ever made a positive difference in our world.

If there is a supreme being or creator, you can rest assured this is all it would ever expect of us, and it certainly wouldn't be interested in the minutia of our paltry, individual lives.

If anything awaits us after we are dead, we will learn about it when we are dead, and then we will deal with it, knowing with complete confidence that we did the best possible job with our human existence while we were alive.

Isn't this the true Pascal's wager?

Answer 1

Hate to break it to ya, but there are plenty of religious people living very fulfilling lives. There are also atheists, much like yourself, whose lives seem to be not very fantastic or effective, or they wouldn't be spending their time here just to attempt to bash other's beliefs. Face it, people living fantastic, fulfilling lives aren't gonna be spending their time here bashing others, gotta be something very wrong with a person to spend their time this way. The atheists living those wonderful lives don't become petty little bashers, because they don't feel the need to attack others. You need to take a good long look in the mirror.

Answer 2

Arguably no. See, I think the main problem with your argument is that you assume that if there is a supreme creator, you get to dictate what he/she/it is, and the fact of the matter is, you don't. People don't deserve anything, we haven't done anything worth deserving anything.

God never promised happiness in this life, in fact, he says that this world will persecute you if you follow Him. True, people sometimes get caught up with liturgy and forget to live life, and they're miserable, and people ignore God and do good things and look fulfilled, I'm not going to say whether they are or not, because it's not my place (nor yours at that) to say that they are.

Doing the best possible job in life requires there to be a standard, and if there is no creator there is no standard, humans would never agree on standard, that's been seen over and over, so life can't be just doing human experience because then there's no way you can do "the best possible job". Unless then you're saying that the best philanthropist is equally rewarded as the best murderer, because they both did the "best possible job" in both their cases.

Answer 3

I know what you mean and I pretty much agree with you.

Of course there's not necessarily anything "holy" about the "holy servant." There are rather more examples of the unholy kind. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the more you know about somebody else's religious beliefs, the more he tries to impress upon you the fact of his piety, the more likely it is that he's just a grandstanding hypocrite.

Meanwhile, the "man of the world," practically, if not nominally atheist, who never thinks of "God" in the church-sense, who simply focuses on making his life the perfect expression of his nature, is probably more authentically "spiritual" than 95% of so-called "religious" people.

"By their fruits shall ye know them!"

Answer 4

I don't know anything about Pascal's wager. I do know this was addressed over and over in the bible. Jesus spoke of Lazarus, a beggar who had nothing but poverty and want in his life. He was denied even the crumbs from the rich King's table. Only dogs had compassion on him as they licked his wounds. When both men died, the King lifted up his eyes from hell and asked that Lazarus be allowed to leave the bosom of Abraham and moisten his finger in water to place on the ruler's tongue for he was tormented in the flames!

The prince of this world (the devil) rewards his own! Jesus said, God is merciful and allows the sun to shine on both the just and the unjust! As a Christian, I don't envy anyone. What God has for me is for me! He is my provider and I shall not want!

There will always be those who wish to design a way out of God's plan for salvation. Doubters and deceivers. The word of God still stands. His faithfulness is not contingent on your belief or disbelief. He is God all by himself! He made a way of escape and you may choose or not choose it. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! You can have the whole wide world, but I'll take Jesus for mine!

Answer 5

you have to remember that the ultimate goal is the eternal life heaven...so just because god gives one man wealth and all this doesnt neccesarily mean its something good...look at how many people are rich and have hott husbands and all this and are completly unhappy. it may also be a test, god may give a person all these things to see what he does with it...does he give to charity? does he teach others? does he help people? is he humble? and on the other hand if your a believer and all and have nothing that may be a blessing because God is keeping you away from something that will destroy you such as wealth or whatever. or even maybe he is testing you to see if you will serve him even through hardships

Answer 6

Here it is short and simple: I am a christian. Ya, I may not have the best life, but I know that once judgement day comes, I will end up in a paradise that non believers will never see. Honestly, how can you doubt God?

Answer 7

In the physical world there happy but in the spiritual world they wont be. However the family that prayed will be devout on the Kingdom of Heaven. Eh?

Answer 8

If all you want is what's placed before you, that's all you get. It's good that such people are happy because that's all they're gonna get. But how foolish is someone who is told that he can either have a rotten hot dog now or a filet mingon in an hour, if he chooses the hot dog?

Answer 9

Those who reject God will be judged according to their deeds and will be found wanting. Show me one person other than Christ who is without sin. If I led an exemplary life for 80 years, even saved a drowning man at risk to my own life and then committed murder should they let me go cause I did more good than bad?

This is why God's justice is so perfectly fair, one sin and you are guilty of all.

Answer 10

religion isnt the answer Jesus is
"I am the way the truth and the life, no one cometh to the father but by me."

truely happy is Jesus-if you dont know where your going when you die-you cant truely be happy unless you delude yourself-I know I use to do that too, but it failed

and what is good? no one is perfect-this is what helped me to see the truth and to become truely happy=what helped me first to see through living a life of lust and using others was=learning about Jesus and then now to teach people to live free-, and Jesus can save them gets set free from hate and learns as Jesus says to even love your friends & enemies and share the gospel with them=how I came to have this help in true love -John 3 repented of sin and born again asking Jesus to my heart in to be my best friend. I prayed as he said to "I love you and knock to come into your heart door, to forgive sins and become your friend, if you repent (even of one lie) and ask me in." Revelation 3:19&20 so I prayed "thanks for dying for my sins, Im sorry for my messing up, help me come into my heart and be my friend, amen." And it worked!

have a great day,
-my dad says he accepted Jesus as a young child, but doesnt live for him -my mom is Jewish and hates Jesus-Isaiah 53 He will be despised and rejected and lay down his life to make atonement for our sins. I am an evangelist to the Jew first so I work hard to win Jewish people to Jesus too=Romans 1:16 unashamed of the gospel for all mankind, David prayin for you -good question too