How can people reject God all their lives and then expect him to welcome them into heaven?

Question

Most people seem to have the view that "If God exists he'll forgive me and let me into heaven!" Where did that come from? Do you know that the second of the ten commandments warns against creating a false image of God to suite yourself? When you do that -- when you say "My God wouldn't send anyone to hell", or "My God says gay marriage is right" -- you're fabricating your own god out of thin air. These "gods" are fake, they don't exist. We can't just decide for ourselves what the real God is like. He has to tell us, or else we'll never know. And because he wants to be known, he gave us a Bible that is 100% historically, scientifically, and prophetically accurate. It alone can tell us who God is, and it does. So how can someone who rejects God and the Bible put so much faith in the hope that God will basically force them to go to heaven anyway? He won't force you into heaven if you don't want to go. You're free to choose hell. Ball's in your court.

Answer 1

“These ‘gods’ are fake, they don't exist.”
----I hate to burst you bubble sweetheart, but your god is just as fabricated. He does not exist.

I am well aware that if your hateful, evil god existed he would send me strait to hell, but I’m really pretty confident that he doesn’t. I hope I’m right, because if he exists, then I’m burning in hell, aren’t I? I also do NOT believe that the boogie man is going to kill me in my sleep if I don’t believe in him. I simply don’t believe in monsters (including the one you like to call god).

Answer 2

Short answer: They don't.

You wrote "You know the 2nd of the 10 commandments..." Do you realize that that's only 1/12 of the world's population? That's hardly "most people." Another 1/4 are the Catholics and Eastern Christians, but they don't number the commandments the same way that you do. The remaining 2/3 of the world are not Christians and do not hold Christian ideas about divine forgiveness.

I think that the legendary "deathbed conversion" is mostly a wishful fantasy of Christians. Most such conversions i've heard about (Voltaire, Darwin, etc.) are baseless lies.

And there's an obvious reason why such turnarounds should be uncommon. People do not "reject God all their lives." They either believe differently about God or gods than Christians do, or they don't believe that any such entity exists at all. The people who think that they can just ask for forgiveness at the last moment are ALREADY BELIEVERS.

P.S. If you think that the Bible is anywhere near 100% accurate at ANYTHING, then you *seriously* need to expand your learning resources. Here is something to get you started:

- The people who know the most about history are (a) Christian apologists (b) historians.

- The people who know the most about science are (a) Christian apologists (b) scientists.

- The people who know the most about Old Testament prophecies are (a) Christian apologists (b) Jews, who wrote them.

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@sonfai81 - Please, don't project your world view into our heads. By definition, we atheists believe that God is completely imaginary. Most of us also believe that the next life is just as imaginary. Now, how do you suppose an atheist can *possibly* expect to be with a non-existent God in a non-existent next life?

I think that it's safe to say that none of us believe that your hideous Christian hell exists. If we recoil in horror, it is at the *idea* of hell, and that there are people who can believe in such a monstrosity. And don't try bouncing the ball back into our court; we don't see any ball, and in the extremely unlikely event that your god truly exists, he'd know that. (N.B. The atheists who wrote about chosing God or hell wrote hypothetically.)

Answer 3

"Do you know that the second of the ten commandments warns against creating a false image of God to suite yourself?"

No, I didn't, but that's because I base my set of morals and values on common sense and not on commandments made up by someone else.
I don't "reject" god. I just happen to have the opinion that he doesn't exist. So contrary to what you state, I don't expect him to welcome me into heaven, because I don't think there is a heaven. God just doesn't play a part in my life, although my guess is that this is hard for you to understand.

Not believing in a god doesn't mean that you can't lead a meaningful, fulfilling and worthwhile life.

"These "gods" are fake, they don't exist. We can't just decide for ourselves what the real God is like"

You are doing the exact same thing! Why are you so blind that you can't see this? You are the one fabricating her own god. Ever heard about tolerance and pluriformity?

I pity you, I really do.

I don't know why I even bother since I am sure that you won't even consider any other options than your own narrow-minded truth...

Answer 4

Oh, the ball's in my court now? Thanks.

When you say "the Bible is 100% historically, scientifically, and prophetically accurate," you're only proving yourself to be profoundly ignorant of history and science, while for "prophecy," you might just as well cite the Mayan calendar or Nostradomas or freaking Sylvia Browne.

When you say "We can't just decide for ourselves what the real God is like," you're only proving yourself to be the greasiest kind of hypocrite, because that is (after all) EXACTLY what you have done. "But it's in the Bible!" Well, then - obviously! - what you've done is chosen to interpret the Bible as the "Word of God," and then held up your choice as "Truth." You've "decided for yourself," and now you're yelling at everybody else for exercising the same prerogative. How is it that a person becomes so mind-numbingly arrogant and vindictive?

Answer 5

This is a futile argument, since you've started with the premise that God punishes everyone who doesn't believe in God as you've conceived God. It is simply unsupported. Wanting it doesn't make it so.

Justice is not a matter of "law" but of what is right, as no law can be perfect. A perfectly just God would not punish people for ignorance. And since God offers no direct, incontrovertible proof for "his" existence or effect in the sense-able world, the default human state is ignorance of divinity. Even those who "know" God can't seriously claim they understand God completely, so wouldn't their ignorance condemn them also? It's just a matter of degree. So EVERY concept of God, even the orthodox one, is false to some degree.

Your ball has gone flat and is lying outside the fault line.

Answer 6

I'm not counting on anything happening when I die. I'll be dead, I will cease to exist. That's it. No heaven, no hell, no deities, no judgement. In the end, I will be the equal of every human that ever lived, broken down, decomposed, and returned to the natural cycles.

Let's explore the hypothetical though -- I get to heaven and Jesus meets me at the gate. I'm flipping him off and walking away. The deity described by Christianity is immoral, evil, and vile, utterly unworthy of worship.

My morals mean more to me than anything else. I will not worship a god like the christians believe in, even if it is the only way to get air conditioning.

Answer 7

"We can't just decide for ourselves what the real God is like."
"Bible that is 100% historically, scientifically, and prophetically accurate."
You think your bible god is true and there is no proof except the book says it. To prove it there has to be at least two witnesses to that. At least that is what Paul said. Have you actually read that book? Scientifically accurate in saying that unicorns and dragons actually exist? If people thinking like this are going to heaven then thanks, but I would not want to have to associate with them. That's my choice.

Answer 8

Thanks for (again) telling me about the choice I have.

I aleady chose hell. Any god that invents something so horrible as hell, doesn't deserve to have me close to him. If I'm the only one, then so be it, but I think it's time to start to stand up to this God of yours. It's gotta stop somewhere.

Hell is an aweful, horrible invention that serves no purpose. If I have to go there, simply to show God how morals REALLY work, then so be it.

I chose hell. In the interest of my future children. If you wanna be so selfish to choose heaven, that's your own choice. If your God rewards your selfishness, I even have a bigger reason to choose hell.

You're free to choose. What will it be: selfishness, and with that God will never learn how horrible hell is, and if if your future children will make a wrong choice, they're screwed..

Or will you make the right choice, Hell, and with that try to at least save a few future generations from God's wrath?

Ball's in your court.

Answer 9

When I was a Christian, I never wanted anyone, regardless of how evil they may act in life, to go to hell and burn forever and get tortured by demons. How could anyone deserve such a horrific punishment? As a girl, I used to pray that God would change his mind and put everyone in heaven, because that would be more humane and loving. By the way, how could people choose hell? They didn't create it, and no sin on earth is bad enough to merit it.

Answer 10

Where is this bible that is "100% historically,scientifically and prophetically accurate" because no one on this earth has ever seen it.
I have yet to hear of anybody who has rejected god all their lives expecting to get into heaven either.

Answer 11

If you mean the god of the bible, then you mean the god that told Saul to murder a man to steal his wife. Or had Joshua commit genocide. Or himself killed every inhabitant of two cities for the faults (sins) of a single man.

He doesn't sound very forgiving. He does not even sound nice.

Fortunately for you, it is almost 100% certain that he does not exist. So he will not be there to get you when you die.