# Do you fear God? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832 "2005-12-22T18:39:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/1 "2005-12-22T18:39:02Z")
Why or why not? If you lack belief a diety you probably don’t have much to add, so I ask that you refrain from posting to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/2 "2005-12-22T18:44:35Z")
Are we allowed to answer from when we did believe? I will go ahead and do so, but if I am offending you, I do apologize. When I did believe in Krishna, I never feared him. I knew He loved me, and it was unconditional love - if I failed or screwed up He would be sad, but not angry with me. In Hinduism you get many chances anyway. If you screw up in this life, you pay for it in the next, and if you do well in this life, you get good things in the next. It’s rather fatalist, I know, but it did give me the feeling that Krishna would only give me another chance…I’d suffer for the things I did wrong, but suffering was a part of life and He’d want me to do better so I could achieve \*moksha \* and join him. I hope that was all right, answering. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/3 "2005-12-22T18:57:01Z")
It was. I’d like as many viewpoints as possible. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/4 "2005-12-22T19:01:36Z")
I fear dog. He has big teeth and runs faster than me. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/5 "2005-12-22T19:04:26Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > It was. I’d like as many viewpoints as possible. OK, then. Now an atheist, I grew up a Protestant. My church never really stressed Hell or divine retribution. Or Heaven, for that matter. So the bad stuff never seemed very real. That probably made the transition to atheism all the easier. By the time I went to a real fire and brimstone church, I had pretty much confirmed my atheism. And the pastor was such an assclown that it was hard to take him seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/6 "2005-12-22T20:17:07Z")
I fear Him in the archaic sense of being filled with awe. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/7 "2005-12-22T20:24:37Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > I fear Him in the archaic sense of being filled with awe. Really, is that the archaic sense? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/8 "2005-12-22T20:56:22Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > Why or why not? > > If you lack belief a diety you probably don’t have much to add, so I ask that you refrain from posting to this thread. I used to. Then I found out he didn’t exist, so I don’t any more. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/9 "2005-12-22T21:14:23Z")
I don’t fear God in the least. I have plenty of fears, but God isn’t among them. I also don’t belong to any organized religion, although we did join a Unitarian Universalist church at one time and may do so again. ---
**Author:** ![lalaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@lalaith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalaith)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/10 "2005-12-22T21:35:06Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > Why or why not? > > If you lack belief a diety you probably don’t have much to add, so I ask that you refrain from posting to this thread. Oddly enough, this was partly how I came not to believe. When I believed in the Christian god, I did not fear him. I believe he was supposed to be a god of love and forgiveness, the ultimate good parent. When I was questioning my beliefs I sat down and read, really read, the Bible. In the Old Testament the actions of god are so brutal, so horrific that I decided there was no way I could worship that. That the only kind of worship something like that could get out of me would be a worship based on fear (and not the fear as “awe”). I came to the conclusion that if there were a choice between heaven and hell, I’d rather be in a hell with a ruler, Satan, I was supposed to hate, then spend an eternity with a ruler, Jehovah, who was a mass-murdering butcher that I was was supposed to love, yet I could only fear and hate. Hell struck me as being more honest. Now, I’m completely agnostic and more at peace about it. I know you asked us non-believers to refrain from posting, but I did keep my answer relevant to the periods in my life when I believed. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/11 "2005-12-22T21:40:34Z")
Fear? No. Respect? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/12 "2005-12-22T21:42:24Z")
No-because I don’t believe in a heaven or a hell or a punishing god-on-high. Hindu idols aren’t meant to be literal “gods” who sit around judging me-they’re metaphors and varied representations of Brahman. As a Hindu my life is guided more by ensuring my own salvation by bettering my karma rather than worrying about a parental figure set on punishing me. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/13 "2005-12-22T21:51:23Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Really, is that the archaic sense? Yes. It’s what the King James translators meant. And it’s American Heritage’s 4th definition: “Archaic Awe; reverence”. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/14 "2005-12-22T23:53:25Z")
I’m all about the revering rather than the fearing. The God I believe in is loving and kind, and tries to show people the right path, rather than punishing them for bad behavior. I should point out that my beliefs come from personal experience, rather than from reading the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/15 "2005-12-23T02:01:57Z")
> [@](#): > > I fear Him in the archaic sense of being filled with awe. Ditto. It’s the kind of fear one has upon being confronted with a force infinitely more powerful than oneself. It’s what prompted Isaiah to say “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” when he had a vision of God in His glory. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/16 "2005-12-23T02:10:22Z")
Absolutely not. Doesn’t God love us? That seems to be what his messengers always say. If that’s true, why would we fear him? ---
**Author:** ![indierock82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f14d63/32.png) [@indierock82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indierock82)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/17 "2005-12-23T06:10:09Z")
> [@kevja](#): > > Absolutely not. > > Doesn’t God love us? > > That seems to be what his messengers always say. > > If that’s true, why would we fear him? But isn’t there two sides to that coin: yes he loves us, but he’s also a jealous God. Not to mention spiteful. Judging by the OT. ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/18 "2005-12-23T06:21:22Z")
The thought that The God of Christians (pretty much any denomination, really) might turn out to actually be true scares the crap out of me. Clearly he doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing, and he seems rather quick to anger when the rules he lays down result in actions he doesn’t like. The entire universe, run by an egomaniacal omnipotent child with serious anger issues? Yeah. That’s scary. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/19 "2005-12-23T06:36:11Z")
Nope. I do my level best to live a moral life, ask for forgiveness when I do sin, and the guidance & strength to improve myself when I have failed. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832/20 "2005-12-23T06:47:03Z")
I do not believe in the _Christian_ God. Or, at least, not what he has been warped into being, however he got that way. But I do believe in a God(s). I do not fear this God(s). I also believe that any bad in our life isn’t God’s specific doing, as much as it is something we planned to experience so we could learn from it. It’s the only way to really grow, the way I see it. Yet, I’m not a fatalist. But I’m _mostly_ Taoist, and don’t worry about it too much. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-fear-god/336832.md?page=2)