Hypothetical Question??

Question

Non-believers...what if after you died, you found that there was a higher being?

Believers...What if after you died, you found that your religion was the wrong one?

What would you do, say to the "god(s)". would you feel you whole life was a waste?

Please no disrespectful answers, thanks!

I'm sorry that this question has been asked, I did a search, I guess I didn't use the right words...I'm sorry for insulting some, but that is why this question is HYPOTHETICAL! I'm not denouncing anyone's God and I'm not saying non-believers are wrong, i'm sorry for the confusion.

Answer 1

If i found out there was a higher being i would ask who was in charge and file a big complaint. And than write a very mean letter.

Answer 2

Let me solve this in one of several possible ways.

Let us begin with a card game to illustrate the problem.

Imagine the following:

I show you three cards face down. I tell you, and you know I am truthful, that one of them is the Ace of Spades. If you choose the Ace of Spades, I will pay you five dollars (US).

You choose one, we will call it card A. Since you have no explicit knowledge all are equal. Now imagine, either through advanced analysis or because I am nice and tell you, you know that that Card B is not the Ace of Spades so it can be eliminated. I then allow you to reselect, do you pick Card A or Card C and does it matter.

You should select Card C. The reason is that your hypothesis was that there was a 1/3 that is was Card A. It is still true that you have a 1/3rd chance of it being Card A and 2/3rd chance it is either Card B or Card C and you know it is not card B.

This is easier to see in a full deck. Imagine you select Card 1 and I show you, or you analyze 50 of the 51 and can show they are not it. Now you know you have a 1 in 52 chance of it being Card 1 and a 51 in 52 of it being say Card 52, you should obviously switch.

Now, returning to the problem of gods, goddesses and other external supernatural beings.

There are literally tens of thousands of religions on this planet, particularly if you pick a specific denomination of say Christianity.

Now you pick your religion as the default hypothesis. If you look at it on a percentage basis the odds are strongly against you picking correctly, but if you pick on a percentage of the world and you were Catholic, then you have about 1 chance in 7 of being correct, comparitively incredible odds...especially when you look at things like Cargo Cults or the Assembly of God.

Now you analyze all religions, deism and atheism except your own.

For simplicity we will make you Catholic as that is the best odds group. As such, the only one we will not analyze is the Catholic Church.

We can discard Protestantism easily on the grounds that it is a break with the apostolic tradition, eliminating tens of thousands of independent groups.

Orthodoxy is a special case as it is dogmatically nearly identical. Therefore it can either be lumped together with Catholicism or excluded as schismatic. Either way, it is a non-issue.

Islam is hard to believe given the independent history and the implications, such as that a women only is worth half a man. Would a true divine being set up that idea? Or that non-believers should be killed.? Let us reject on moral grounds or believability grounds.

We can reject Shinto and other animistic religions because we know magic does not really exist.

We can reject Jains, Jews and Hindus on the ground that a divine being could not possibly be interested in specific racial groups.

Buddhists can be rejected on the grounds that reincarnation implies a constant population.

We can work our way through the various religious groups, such as the cargo cults until we are down to you selecting Catholicism, Atheism and maybe Deism or Spinoza's God.

Atheism, Deism and Spinoza's God are consistent with the independently observable data or at least not inconsistent, although Deism may no longer work. Let us get to Spinoza's God and Atheism.

They are essentially identical except one has a being and one does not. Using Occam's Razor Spinoza's God disappears as unnecessary though may exist, but we will rule it out using the Razor.

That leaves Atheism have a 6 in 7 chance of being correct and Catholicism 1 in 7.

Let us assume we all become Atheist and are wrong. A 1 in 7 chance isn't that bad. Given that this God is a Loving God, who would fear? Additionally, if there is a God it is unlikely anything like anything we know and so what that being is like is not only an unknown but outside of our control. Since that is outside of our control, it is like a "sunk cost," and not something to concern ourselves with. It simply doesn't matter.

If there is a higher being, I would have to see what it was like to know what my reaction was.

Answer 3

From a Catholic...

If Islam is true, I the call is the same as in my faith--to "surrender" ourselves to God completely. If worshiping Jesus makes me an Idolater, and calling God "Father" makes me blasphemer, then according to the forms of Islam I am familiar with, I need to have outweighed those sins with other good works. In that case I'd figure I'd have the same chance as any Muslim, and wait for the verdict.

If Judaism is true, I'm kinda in the same boat (though not all Jews believe in an afterlife). As a Gentile, I need to have kept the 7 Noachide laws, though in Judaism there seems to be more tolerance for innocent ignorance than in Islam.

If Hinduism is true, I get another chance anyway.

If Buddhism is true...the same as Hinduism.

If Sikism is true, or pretty much any other religion, I get another chance.

If atheism is true, I won't know about it.

So since in Catholic soteriology we are saved by being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit...and since Catholic theology requires absolute faultless ignorance to receive this grace outside of explicitly seeking it, making it far more exclusivist...I figure if I'm wrong, I've picked the right faith to be wrong about.

But God does not lie.

Answer 4

i recognize. This has been occurring for an extremely long term. There are countless motives. The Atheists have their schedule to attempt to push Christianity out of each little thing and try to positioned on down the saints interior the final days (Daniel 7:25). another reason? definitely everyone seems to be in right here purely to play video games---even some 0.5-hearted Christians are doing this---and that they are asking questions for the factor of cheating. They get extra beneficial IDs and ask on one identity and answer on the different. I under no circumstances did this and don't intend to. it is amazingly cheating and keeps the trustworthy people from getting any credit. ok, yet another reason is that definitely everyone seems to be bored and basically style of going alongside with the chaos for exciting you recognize and that they are puzzled and scarcity purpose of their lives. So, i think of that extraordinarily lots sums it up. (I even have responded the style of great variety of questions ok and yet purely have 4% ultimate solutions. I rechecked one and observed that the respond chosen replaced into definitely stupid---they only occurred to agree or maybe it replaced into the identity cheating.)

Answer 5

Well I am a non believer and if I died and found there was a higher being, I would just hope that it liked me.

Answer 6

What if this higher being is your Self in a fully awakened state?

Seriously, why go through life worrying about such nonsense? Instead, just enjoy the ride and try to make a positive difference in the lives of all you meet along the way.

Answer 7

I'm a believer and I don't think that God would punish you for the religion you followed as long as you worshiped him and his son.

Every one thinks that some part of their life was wasted, but you can't dwell on it. You need to do good things now, you're not going to have the chance when you're dead.

Answer 8

I'm a believer. If I'm wrong, what have I lost? Nothing. I lead a good life and worshiped the God who never failed me. What God has done, or can do, more for me than the God of the bible?

Answer 9

I am an atheist and if I found a higher being after my death it would have no consequence. Might be an superior alien or anything. Don't think I could talk to it, since I'm dead after my death.

Answer 10

This question has been asked so many times that it appears to be on a repeat loop.

First off, which higher being?

Second, there's no evidence for an afterlife or a higher being, so I'm supposed to believe without evidence?

Third, I'm not wasting my life,. Why would you assume that if I'm living, my life is wasted in the instance that I don't believe in an afterlife? That's just nonsensical.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^