Not believing in the Christian God?

Question

Let me start by saying I HAVE NO INTENTION OF OFFENDING ANYONE WITH THIS QUESTION but am only asking as I have little knowledge of the subject and am just trying to find out more in as honest a way as I can.

Now I have a Christian friend who tells me (in simple terms) that if you refute the existence of God, he will basically ignore you when you die and you'll go down to the Devil's realm.

Now the Devil and God are polar opposites of the Christian faith. So if you do not believe in one, and he ignores you, surely this would mean that you didn't believe in the other (Satan)...and therefore wouldn't he ignore you too, if you thought he was just as made-up as God?

Thanks for all seious and open-minded answers. Please no long cut-and-paste bible quotes (references welcome though)!

Answer 1

I don't believe God and Satan are portrayed exactly as polar opposites. For example, God is everywhere at once but Satan can only be in one place at any one time. God is the creator, Satan is like the angels a created being. He does not have the same powers as God, he cannot judge us when we die and he has no final authority. In short, and it sounds bad I know, Satan can only do what God allows him to do (see the first chapter of Job.)
Satan has many tools, he is known as the father of lies, he pretends to be an angel of light (to confuse people, after all if he was openly evil and dark nobody would be fooled by him) and his biggest tool is deception. If you wanted to undermine God and keep people out of heaven, the best you can hope for is that nobody will believe in you , so you can carry on operations unnoticed, covertly. Satan WANTS you not to believe in him.
Satan is the 'prince of this world',which is why it's got so much bad stuff going on, but Jesus is the 'light of the world' and as long as he is around, love and caring will be around too. Hell is the only alternative offered to people who don't get into heaven, and it's a place simply devoid of God's presence, ie all the good stuff.
I absolutely recommend you read Adrian Holloways book, 'The shock of your life'. It's like a story of what happens to 3 teenagers when they die, I couldn't put it down and even my non-believing sister liked it.

Answer 2

Sunshine is correct anyone can claim to be Christian , but the term actually means modelling your life after Christ,if you do this you will understand not just the simple things but also the deep things about God, this in turn will cause you to conform your life to be in harmony with the scriptures and therefore your beliefs will be consistant There are a group of such Christians, they are called Jehovah''s witnesses. We trust in what the bible says and make the necessary changes if our actions are out of harmony. For example I havent always been a Jehovah's witness and I used to celebrate such traditions as christmas and easter after researching the origins of these traditions I realized that doing so was out of harmony with being a Christian, so I stopped When i first started studying the bible i smoked cigarettes and heeps of weed, the more i studied the more i realized i could not do both and still please God so i stopped smoking. Regarding differences in beliefs keep in mind there is only one True God, Jehovah is his name and there is only one truth, God's word is the benchmark on which to measure these apparent differences. The trinity in my studies is not supported by the scriptures, many will disagree but regarding truth we need to make up our own mind based on the available evidence. Drinking alcohol is not a sin in the Bible, even Jesus drank a little however Drunkenness is and there a many scriptures to support this statement. I guess what i'm alluding to is opinions are a lot like belly buttons, we all have them, and the're all a little different. But truth, it doesn't change , the problem is some peoples perception of it does. But if we base it on a reliable source such as Gods word then we are building on an infallible solid foundation, one that is not always shifting.

Answer 3

God and satan are imaginary beings. But let's just say for arguments sake that god is real, would this extraordinary super being who created the universe be so concerned as to whether you praised and worshipped him (bit of an egomaniac?) rather than questioned something for which there is absolutely no proof, would he not want his creation to think rather than just blindly accept what is proposed by others, often for rather dubious reasons? I think not, I don't believe in god but if one were to exist I doubt he would have all these human qualities which are attributed to him such as vanity, pettiness, spitefulness (you didn't believe in something for which there was no proof so therefore suffer eternal anguish - nice...) Why would there be so many religions each one believing that they are right, certain that god is on their side, justifying killing of those who believe something different - god sounds like a rather mean being with a vicious sense of humour. The devil in this instance seems rather undiscriminating and under god's control. All sounds like a fairy tale... Think I'll take make chances and completely refute both their existence...

Answer 4

God only exists because of the people that can't distinguish good from bad on their own and need someone to tell them.People need a upper divinity so they can relate to each other, so they can have something in common except for the fact that they are a part of the same species.Sure, we do not know everything yet, but we have time to gain knowledge.Religion is going to vanish, because people get smarter and start asking questions.Sure, this had happened in the past, but now people are actually looking for the answers, don't just get bored and accept that the human mind can't compare to divinity, and stop.I have questions that I can't answer but that doesn't mean that I'll accept God, or Buddha, or Allah, it means that I'm not cultivated enough to answer. Humanity will one day solve these questions. And I'm not an atheist, as you might think, I'm an agnostic, i think that if god exists I'm just not capable of believing in him.I actually do often find myself thinking of heaven, or hell, or reincarnation, or nothing. Anyway, i think I'm growing intellectually, not spiritually.

Answer 5

Satan is not God's enforcer over the wicked in Hell. He is God's enemy.

Those that die return to the dust and are no more!
(Job 14:12,13)
This subject is discussed extensively at the HP found by accessing my avatar's property.

Thus the wicked simply remain dead forever, and receive no resurrection. The faithful receive the resurrection on the last day and after judgment day.

Answer 6

As far as Islam is concerned if you reject God then, you're in trouble because Heaven is for believers of God.

Satan is under the control of God.

We do not believe that God will ignore you because whether you like it or not you will still be sustained by him. How? You need to eat and drink, right, this is part of God sustaining us.

If you believe in him then you will given the best of this life and the best in the next and vice versa. No one can say that he is going to heaven and the other one is not, God knows who's going to heaven and who is not.

Answer 7

You're going to get a lot of various answers. Personally, I would have to agree with you. It makes sense to me. It's also something that is very difficult to answer since no one knows for sure what will happen when we die. I've always been aghast and occasionally amused by my fellow Christians who run around telling people where they will end up when they die. They don't know. They can only hope.

Answer 8

If you do believe in the christian god then you'd better watch out when you die cos Thor will be after you with thunderbolts, Poseiden will be sending tsunamis after you, Ra might give you some nasty sunburn, and various other gods will be doing all sorts of other nasty things for not having believed in them. Luckily though, they can only exist in your mind, so when you die, so do they.

Answer 9

Well, I am not a Christian, but as far as I understand it, neither will ignore you. From the Christian point of view, if you die and believe in Jesus, you go to heaven, and if you don't, you go to Hell.

Yeah, the Christian god is kind of mean.

Answer 10

Religion is only one thing people use to indulge in false pride. The ego overcompensating for low-self-esteem. False pride hinders critical thinking.(Asking relevant questions and being objective with our answers).
It is due to this false pride that many teach their faith in an ignorant, (self-righteous, and hypocritical), way. And people try to understand their ignorance in the same way. With ignorance.
Because they have the same failings being human
beings.
Facing up to our own silly human nature. And keeping our own self-righteousness and hypocrisy to a minumum. Will help to restore critical thinking, and help us find real answers for real questions.