Atheist or God Believers?

Question

A "what if" question:

Atheists, if God did exist, would anything change in your life?

"Christians" (or others), if God didn't exist, would anything change in your life? Specifically, I care more of your answer then an Atheist since he/she is not "losing" anything (belief, idea, a "hope").

How would you feel if the opposite of what you believed was true? I mean really feel - imagine it, put yourself in those shoes (takes longer then half a second of thought). Would you feel fear? Would you be lost? Would you have found something?

- Buddhist

Irrelevant? Hmm, I shouldn't be surprised you couldn't "imagine" a life without him - please, if you can't imagine this, then don't respond - sick of bible quotes and crap that prevent the thinking process

Answer 1

Nothing would change in my life. I am fully capable to life my life without a parent substitute.

- Theravada Buddhist

Answer 2

Depends on which god.

If it was the god of the bible then I'd be a Satanist (as in the ones who actually believe that the devil exists, not the LeVayan sort) because I would want to make a stand against that evil deity.

If it was Thor or any of the Norse Gods, I would be rather happy to return to being an Asatruar, to be quite honest. Nothing much would change because I still (even though I am an atheist) follow the Nine Noble Virtues.

Most of the others, I am pretty sure wouldn't mind me not worshiping them anyways so it wouldn't matter.

Answer 3

Since you are mainly directing this at Christians, I guess you want to know how I would live if I were you.

Well let's see, knowing that you have no hope for a life after this one, and that you are free to do anything you want but it doesn't really bring you more material items, quality of life, or overall happiness. I guess as people died all around me in natural disasters, war, disease and daily life including the planet I live on, and I just sit waiting to take my place with the party in the dust. Knowing that if I'm wrong about God, I'm going straight to hell and that I had better work hard to never let my life disappear or that's the end.

Oh I don't know, I guess i'd be happy. Duh

Answer 4

It would depend on which or what kind of God. I'll admit as an atheist at this point I find the idea of God at least as depicted in the big three monotheistic traditions so unlikely I expect proof of little green men on mars more than of this God. A deistic or Spinozian type God would be more likely to me and I do consider myself a bit of a pantheist. For this God I would have nothing to change. If the other were proven I find things about that belief system immoral for myself and I would have to say I don't consider some of the "rules" or things they consider as sins (acknowledging the sometimes considerable variances in their beliefs) reasonable or sinful. I would feel uncomfortable worshiping a God that would send people to hell for not worshiping it, like otherwise nice Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, etc...so I think I would still be who I am with the ethical system I believe in and take my chances with hell.

Answer 5

It's difficult to imagine, I have to be honest. Because I've had experiences in my life that prove God and Jesus and his angels and saints. For the sake of argument, I'll "ignore" what I know. ;-)

If there were actual proof that God didn't exist and everything I've believed were proven untrue... I imagine I'd feel pretty desolate, void, alone, and worthless spiritually. I would be disillusioned. I would feel weighted down and imprisoned rather than "freed." I would probably be saddened rather than angry. I imagine that I would mourn the loss, much like losing a beloved family member and close friend. I would be beyond disappointed not only for my sake, but for my children's sakes and the sakes of my family and friends whom I had hoped to be reunited with in Heaven.

Sounds pretty bleak to me. I'm relieved I don't actually doubt the existance of God.

Answer 6

My dear friend - the thing is if I were to find out that God is not real and that I have spent my life believing in a myth - when would I find that out? After I die right? If it is after I die that I find out I have been mistaken all along, it isn't going to even register because I will be, as the Atheist says, just dead. My mind will have ceased to function and along with it all of my ability to believe anything. Therefore it would not matter.
No person can come up with any real 'proof' of God's existence. We believe it by faith, which by definition is -

"Faith can refer to a religion, or to belief in one or more deities. It has two general implications which can be implied either exclusively or mutually:

To trust:
To commit oneself to act based on sufficient evidence to warrant belief, but without absolute proof[1]. Mere belief on the basis of evidence is not faith. To have faith involves an act of will.
(From Wikipedia.org)

So, there is nothing that any person can present to me this side of the grave that can persuade me there is no God. From early childhood my heart has told me that there is God and that He will be there after I leave here.

Now I'm sure that my haters will find much trouble with my statements here but the fact remains - should I find out that there is no God it will be after I have lived my life with faith that there is and then it won't matter anyway - will it.

Answer 7

WOW, first of all good question but that's like asking me what will I do if there was no air. See, God is the breath of life without him there is no me or you. So to answer your question If there was no God I would feel nothing or believe nothing because I would not be.

Answer 8

I'll assume that you're referring to a christian god....

Nothing would change, except that I'd be pretty depressed to find out that the universe was created by such an ego maniacal, sadistic, hateful being as "god"....

If you're asking whether or not I'd admit I was wrong.....of course!! I'm an atheist because I believe facts, not fairy tales. If someone actually proved the existence of a god, of course I'd admit my mistake.

On the plus side..... I'd be able to vent my depression and frustration at being under the rule of the biggest sadist the universe has ever known. Stoning, murder, rape.... heck, even genocide was all pretty well condoned in the OT. It would also be unbelievable amusing to watch all the different sects of christianity scramble around to make their religion fit an actual set of facts, rather than picking and choosing what they like in the bible....

Answer 9

I don't know if anything would change in my life. It all depends on which god would all of a sudden exist, right?

If it were Thor, Zeus, Allah or Yahweh, nothing much would change, probably. I'd wanna have a little talk to Allah or Yahweh about their weird morals, but for the rest I'd just ignore them basically.

Gaia on the other hand....
If she were to exist, I'd worship her.

Answer 10

Which god?

Poseidon = I'd sacrifice a goat before seavoyages

Bastet = I'd be nicer to cats

Quezacotl = I'd go on long vacations during harvest time

Cuthulu = I'd stay away from old mysterious houses

Weird question..

Answer 11

I don't know if it would change anything if God existed. If it were the Deist or Pantheist conception of God, it almost surely wouldn't. A Buddhist or Hindu conception of God likely wouldn't.

The Abrahamic God might change how I live my life, because He demands to be worshiped. If I discovered he existed, I might worship him to avoid eternal punishment.