think about it this way, if you are a christian and there isn't heaven and you lived your whole life living this false belief when you die you just die and your whole life was wasted, what have you lost?
Atheists, what if there is heaven and you lived your whole life rejecting God, but in the end you die and find out that there is a heaven, and you end up going to hell because you haven't taken Christ as your savior.
Christians are not gonna lose if there is no heaven, but Atheists will suffer if there is heaven.
2007-06-13 03:45:51 · 34 answers · asked by HideousStrength 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
wow, wasn't expecting this much answer to this question. obviously I missed something discussed about pascal.
2007-06-13 03:55:59 · update #1
I'm quoting Pascal Wager, so? Some are telling me that he was discredited a long time ago. Guess what people, evolution has been discredited a billion times before, called the biggest fraud in history by a top evolutionist, and still you see in textbooks and you see people believing it, because they don't go farther into the matter to really see if it's true. So if you want to believe you came from a monkey just because you have a lot of similarities, guess what? we are 96% similar to a banana, so did we come from a banana too?
2007-06-13 07:18:25 · update #2
better to be safe than sorry. Christianity has given a lot of hope to people...What IF there is a heaven and you didn't believe it? You will be too toasty for words
2007-06-13 03:52:21 · answer #1 · answered by Amy K 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
You are repeating Pascal's Wager here. He likely meant it as a joke, but many take it seriously. Dad once said, "Son, you cannot go to Heaven, if you...!" I retorted, "I would not want to go to such a place, even if it did exist. You see only 2 different Hells. The Heaven you and your cronies mention is grim, boring and depressing. It and Hell were invented by fools, so only fools would want to go there. It is so strict, no one could stay there long without being thrown out for so-called sins." There is no chance I am wrong about Heaven and Hell being imaginary. I worry as much about that as I do about going to Valhalla, the House of Hades, achieving nirvana or being reincarnated. One can say the same to you about all the other religions' places for dead men. You will suffer for not believing in Odin, Zeus, Allah, Ahuramazda, etc. One of my college pals said our group would rendezvous on the north side of Hell if it and heaven existed. Does that answer your question?
2007-06-13 03:59:22 · answer #2 · answered by miyuki & kyojin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pascals wager again... ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
At the very least I will have lived as honest and decent life as I could, helping as many people as I was able to. Contrast with those who believe in god just simply because they're scared of hell.
I'd rather be a decent person because *I* choose to be rather than because I'm being threatened or because it will look good on my spiritual CV. If, in some trillion-to-one shot, I end up facing god then he'll know I've been honest with myself and straight with everyone else. If that's not good enough for him then he's no god worthy of the name.
In the meantime, so far I've put over 2,000 Sundays to much better use...
"Billions"? your argument regarding evolution is discredited by your exaggeration and failure to name "the top evolutionist". As far as I'm aware "the top evolutionist" is Richard Dawkins - I suspect you won't find much comfort in the pages of his books if you think that we were all created out of mud 6,000 years ago.
At the risk of repeating myself on the subject of evolution, we are not descended from monkeys, we share a common ancestor with apes. The two are different - I'll get my 10-year old daughter to explain it to you if you like.
And it should come as no surprise that we share DNA with bananas and all other living things - if you trace the ancestry of life back far enough we all share a common ancestor - thats humans, bananas, bacteria and even deluded creationists.
2007-06-13 03:48:39 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Christians have the same odds as Hinduism, Islam or judaism. So really you can't just break it down into belief or non-belief. Pascal could not have been a betting man because when the odds are that stacked against you the best bet is to not play (Atheism)
2007-06-13 03:52:10 · answer #4 · answered by dougness86 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your whole life wasted isn't a loss? I mean I understand it's over so there's nothing you can do or worry about, but it's still a waste.
There is no way that God can exist as described in the Bible. If God exists, I highly doubt he'd deny a non-follower of Christianity for merely not following flawed doctrine.
2007-06-13 03:51:43 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life wasted? Why would you think that living as a Christian is a waste. I think that, even is there is not heaven as you say, living as a Christian is a smart decision.
Now, if you are an atheist, and there is a heaven, you just really wasted you life and go to hell.
So, Pascal in my opinion got it right.
Take care.
2007-06-13 03:53:23 · answer #6 · answered by Yanya Yanyitus de Yanhoos 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If Christ truly loves me then I won't go to hell for not believing in him. I have lived my life with compassion, honesty and goodness to the best of my ability and simply not believing in a narrow definition of God will not prevent me from going to heaven (if indeed there is a heaven). If I am prevented from going to heaven because of my beliefs (or lack of) then its not a place that I want to go to anyway.
The problem with Christians and their idea of heaven is that there are billions (yes billions) of non-Christians out there in the world and it is pretty arrogant to say that they are all evil and all deserve an eternal life of agony.
On the flipside of the coin, if Christians want to waste their life trying to earn a 'ticket to heaven' (thanks Mark Knopfler) then thats OK by me. Maybe they are right and I'm willing to accept that possibility, I just wish that they would treat people better here and now.
2007-06-13 03:53:59 · answer #7 · answered by megalomaniac 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sounds like Pascal's Wager.
2007-06-13 03:48:53 · answer #8 · answered by eclecticdoctor 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
actually for the period of the crusades they have been slaughtering different Theists notwithstanding some Atheist could have fallen right here and there. Theists are particularly apt at killing different theists because of the fact they are not the dazzling style of theist. Atheists merely style of shop to themselves drawing a low profile as they stay their existence. If one kills they are not christian. If on judges they are not christian. in the event that they coach hate in the direction of their fellow guy they are not christian. Hell would be crowded with people who call themselves christians. Atheists have greater effective issues to do than sit down for an eternity in this frail and incorrect for in the two hell or heaven. think of approximately it!
2016-10-07 10:28:31 · answer #9 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I appreciate your question, but I don't drink alcohol in the morning. Does soda pop count instead? To refute Pascal's Wager, though, what if you're wrong and wind up in another religion's hell?
2007-06-13 04:08:25 · answer #10 · answered by Graciela, RIRS 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is called Pascal's Wager, and it's too early to drink.
I would lose greatly. I do not choose to live my life pretending to believe in an entity that I do not believe exists. It makes no sense that your god would want a bunch of lukewarm followers who believe just in case. I live a moral life, and I have no regrets including not regretting my choice of atheism.
2007-06-13 03:48:42 · answer #11 · answered by glitterkittyy 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋