To the atheisist?

Question

Why dont athesists beleive in god?
What do you lose if you beleive in god?
Im confused.....

If a beleiver dies and there is no heaven then no one wins but if there is a heaven the beleiver goes to heaven while the non beleiver goes to hell?
Then why dont the atheisits convert to chrisitanity? you dont lose anything from it?

Answer 1

"Why dont athesists beleive in god?"

Short answer: because there's no really good reason to believe in one.

"If a beleiver dies and there is no heaven then no one wins but if there is a heaven the beleiver goes to heaven while the non beleiver goes to hell?"

Ahhh, the ten-billionth appearance of Pascal's Wager which was soundly refuted centuries ago. Here's the short refutation:

1. Does it count as faith if one professes belief in a God, not out of real conviction, but out of a gambling proposition? What if God has more respect for an honest atheist than a dishonest believer? Or, what if God is very wicked who does the opposite of what we expect and ends up damning believers and saving non-believers.

2. Wouldn't you have to profess faith in all gods and all religions? It'd be tragic if you professed faith in Jehovah--and Zeus condemns you to the nastier parts of Hades for your unbelief. What's worse is that many religions are mutually exclusive--if you profess faith in one, you're automatically rejecting others (I doubt that Allah would like it if you professed faith in the Hindu deities.)

3. You most definitely DO lose something when you convert. Almost all Christian denominations would think that it's not enough to just quote Pascal's Wager and be done with religion for the rest of your life. You have to accept Jesus as lord and savior, get baptized, get confirmed, and go to church every week. You have to give up enjoyable vices like pot smoking and non-marital sex, as well as giving up thinking for yourself. If this life is all the existence that you get, it would be a very tragic loss if you gave up harmless vices and spent your life prostrating yourself in fear of a damnation-happy Cosmic Sadist.

There's more, but this should give you enough food for thought for tonight...

Answer 2

I used to be a Christian.

Know what finally changed my mind?

There is one thing and one thing only that provides evidence of the Christian God and that is faith. I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, I knew that Jesus was by my side. I knew that the Father was guiding my life just as sure as I knew that 2+2=4.

I began to dialog with other religious people, and discovered that they had the exact same evidence in their gods that I did. Blessed assurance and a true personal relationship and all of the personal experiences that I had had were also had by them.

I decided to look for the one thing that might show a difference. I looked and looked. My life seemed to be guided in a perfect way to show me the error of my ways when I acted outside of the Will of God, and that everything worked out for the best no matter what because God was guiding my life.

Hmm...

Everyone I talked to, from Hindus to Muslims to Jews also experienced the same. The all felt the loving nature of their gods and could no more deny the absolute personal evidence they'd experienced than shoot themselves in the head!

While all experienced varying degrees of this (as Christianity seems to be the one that evokes the most emotional and personal evidence), I sought what might be the absolute deciding factor that might make Christianity the least dependent on feelings, and the most dependent on actual evidence outside of feelings.

What I found was that the things that Jesus said that were in any way groundbreaking had been diluted by those seeking earthly power over populations. For a Jew in Jerusalem to have had dinner at the house of a tax collector, especially a rich one, should have been evidence that there is absolutely no one that can be judged because acceptance and love is the one thing that will break the cultural hatred that can be created by an institutional religious power- thus paving the way for loving actions by the formerly hated.

Such being the case, it is Christianity, ironically, that is probably the most damaging religion ever devised to Jesus' vision of love conquering all.

My atheism is based on other things, but my fall from grace is probably more based on this stuff than anything else.

And you are wrong in your premise.

"If a believer dies and there is no heaven then no one wins but if there is a heaven the believer goes to heaven while the non believer goes to hell?"

A believer in what?

k

Answer 3

Because I don't want to wake up to go to church.
Because there is no evidence that "god" exists.
Because science has already proved that we evolved form primates. "God" did not create us.
What do I gain from christianity? Ask yourself that.
I gain a few ounces from drinking the wine at church?
Because when I believe something, there has to be evidence behind it.
Just because some people wrote the bible a few thousand years ago doesn't mean it's true. There's no physical evidence that any of it happened.
I don't need "god" to help me find my "inner self"
I also have a choice, and I choose not to waste my time reading a bible and listening to a man preach about how "jesus" helps everyone, and if you believe in "god" your life will be like joyous and wonderful and blah blah blah. I'd rather sleep than listen to some guy preach to some brain washed people.

Answer 4

NONBelievers Do Not go to hell! Hell is a made up place just like heaven. A presumption, but in reality an advertising campaign: buy my product you'll get rewarded, go to heaven; the other guys, go to hell. Atheist are guaranteed eternal bliss, where christians are gambling on mythology. Your confusion comes from ignorance and acceptance of fairy tales as fact. We atheist chose reality as our guidance. More sorrow and suffering has occurred in the realm of christianity than few things else . Far better that you convert to atheism than be tormented by unwarranted quilt as proved in your question.

Answer 5

*Cheers*! Great question, I can't find any faults in that. Oh, wait a minute...
The most obvious problems with Pascal's Wager are:

How do you know which God to believe in? There are plenty to choose from, and if you pick the wrong one, you could be in big trouble (e.g. what if you choose Jesus, but get to heaven only to come face-to-trunk with Ganesh?). This is known as the "Avoiding the wrong Hell problem".
God is not stupid. Won't He know that you're just trying to get a free ride into Heaven? How can you sincerely believe in a God simply out of convenience?
If there is no God, you have still lost something. You have wasted a good portion of your life performing the various devotional rituals, attending Churches, praying, reading scripture and discussing your deity with His other followers. Not to mention giving your hard-earned money to the church, wasting your intelligence on theological endeavours and boring the hell out of people who really don't want to hear your Good News.
Can you get away with just sort of generally believing in a Supreme Being, without specifically believing in one particular Deity? Probably not - God will still know what you're up to.
Few, if any, atheists disbelieve in deities out of choice. It's not as if we know the god is really there, but somehow refuse to believe in it. Most atheists disbelieve simply because they know of no compelling evidence to suggest that any sort of god exists. If you want an atheist to believe, show her some good evidence, don't just say it's in her best interests to believe even if there is no god. A person cannot choose to sincerely believe in something, just because it is pragmatic to do so. Sure, you could say all the right prayers and attend church regularly, but that is not the same thing as actually believing, and any God worth his salt would obviously see straight through that.
It is quite insulting. It amounts to a thinly veiled threat, little better than saying "Believe in my God or He'll send you to Hell" (in fact, this is often the form it is presented in). Also, the theist making this threat assumes that the atheist believes there is a Hell or a God to send her there in the first place. If you don't believe in Hell anyway, it's not a scary thing to be threatened with - a bit like saying "If you don't start believing in unicorns, one will trample you to death while you're sleeping." Who would be worried by that?
It is often self-refuting, depending on the person's description of God. If you believe that God will forgive anyone for anything, or judge people purely on how they lived their life and not what they believed, or that everyone gets to Heaven regardless (unless maybe they were genocidal cannibal serial killers), then the Wager is meaningless. You might as well say "Believe in God, or you'll... erm... go to Heaven anyway." In such a case, it doesn't make a scrap of difference whether the person believes or not.
Pascal's Wager is hopelessly flawed. It sounds good at first, but poke it with the spike of reason and it quickly deflates, letting out all the hot air.


An alternative - The Atheist's Wager
This seems to be much more reasonable, both for atheists and theists :

"It is better to live your life as if there are no Gods, and try to make the world a better place for your being in it. If there is no God, you have lost nothing and will be remembered fondly by those you left behind. If there is a benevolent God, He will judge you on your merits and not just on whether or not you believed in Him."
(And if God is not benevolent, he's gonna git ya whatever you do!)

Answer 6

if you motivate yourself with false hood and fantasy what you get in this life is your own fault . I dont even waste my precious time on after death fairy tales if I can avoid it . Life is to short to be fooled and deluded from the business at hand of living . I don't believe in the original /ra or mithra or krisna either so as I imagine like most you have discounted all deities but the one why not finish the job . After all just how many recantations must a poor man go through before they call it done.

Answer 7

hmm

1. its spelled Atheists.

2. the same reason you dont beleive in [insert god you dont beleive in here].

3. nothing. but there is nothing gained either.

4. yes you do seem confused...

5. well lets take your idea a few steps further. what if a beleiver dies and they find that islam is the correct religion? or judiams? or hunduims, or buddhism?

what if youre wrong? are you 100% absolutely sure youre right? are you willing to bet your eternal soul, pain, torture and agony for all eternity on your beleif?

you better have one hell of a good reason for beleiving....what is that reason by the way?

so...you do lose something in a way....if youre wrong...you go to someone elses hell

so you better have a real good reason for why you beleive what you do.

i do. and im more than willing to bet my "eternal soul" on it.

Answer 8

I value credibility very highly and I don't want to lose mine. I used to believe in God and it dictated more than just my thoughts. I lived my day-to-day life based on my beliefs so there is much to lose in devoting a life to Christianity. I have a life, Christians don't. All that guilt-associated behaviour and self-doubt is so draining. And what is this presumption of yours that a believer goes to Heaven and a non-believer doesn't? I thought the Bible says that you will be judged on your actions. I know many God-believers serving life sentences for crimes against humanity, surely they aren't going to Heaven?

Answer 9

Athesists? Why do I feel like a non-term paper?

* I was raised that way...never did and don't still

Please do not carry one with that ridiculous and insulting garbage and ask us why we don't convert to YOUR religion... Why do we have to? Why yours? Why not some other religion?

Answer 10

from what I have seen a true atheist is simply some one who wants proof rather then searching the scriptures and allowing the word of God to influence their life.

They want to see God but don't want to feel him burning within their soul.

They think organized religion is just a following of man. They rely on logic but never realize that there will always be a bridge they go over that is waiting to collapse on them.

Every man has his last day.