Luckly we’ll never have to deal with this.
So God exists, and you must ‘follow him’ to score a place in heaven. The Christian fundamentalists were right – he IS an asshole.
Do you submit?
What is it that compels us to believe of his existence? Something irrefutable, or is it still something vague enough that can be rationalized?
Let’s say we all hear a booming voice that says “BOW DOWN BEFORE THE ONE YOU SERVE OR YOU ARE GOING TO GET WHAT YOU DESERVE.” I would probably get down on my knees like the little pussy I am.
I am a non-believer not because I am rebelling against God. I just don’t feel there’s sufficient evidence that it exists, especially in the way that humans have conceptionalized over the past 2000 years.
No, there’s no point. I’m not psychologically equipped to submit to that kind of monster, and he can’t be fooled so there’s no point in faking. And that’s being optimistic and assuming it’s not the version that will accept only 100,000 out of all of humanity.
No, there’s no way I could jump through all the hoops to meet the criteria anyway.
As someone who has mocked the existence of the Christian god for more than 30 years, I am pretty sure It would zot me immediately.
But, no, I wouldn’t bow down. At least I like to think I wouldn’t.
If he’s such an asshole, it’s pretty stupid to take his word for it that his followers get the good ending.
Something irrefutable.
True, but would you risk eternal Hell-fire for it?
Der Trihs, brings up a good point. God would know who hissheit’s true followers were.
So let’s say he just reqires you to do hissheit’s bidding.
The entire point of a Christian God is that you *cannot *have proof: to believe, you must use faith. A God that proves his own existence to you would no longer be the God of Christianity. He would just be some super-powerful overlord.
I suspect a better question would be how many believers would STOP believing because it had ceased to be a situation of faith.
Maybe Christ returns?
That question’s so easy to answer… NO!
What do you mean by “bidding”? All that feel-good Christian stuff? Or stuff like putting our first born son on a sacrificial altar?
I’ll do the feel-good Christian stuff. But I’m not into playing games with a psycho from the Q Continuum. Why should I trust a psycho from the Q Continuum?
Well, either. If there’s a heaven, you and your son are assured a seat.
How do we know this?
Because the psycho from the Q Continuum tells us so?
Why should we believe him?
I guess an argument can be made that it would be better to take a chance on any supernatural diety that reveals itself to us, because what would we have to lose? But even some Original Believers would be wary of such a thing–especially if this diety was making us do things that go against dogma and conventional wisdom. The Christian God wouldn’t have us sacrificing our children, I don’t think. So people would get to thinking this isn’t the Christian God after all, but Satan. All it would take is one “WTF” edict and we’d have rebellion.
God’s better off staying where he is.
Not really, that’s just a modern excuse to handwave away demands for evidence. The Bible after all is full of God acting quite openly.
You believe him because the alternative is the **promise **of Hell.
Well, my confirmation name is “Thomas”, so I got off on a bad start already…
Seriously, though, I don’ think any of us is such a special snowflake, such an incorrigible non-conformist, that we couldn’t follow the rules of Christianity if the choice was heaven or burning in hell for all eternity. Besides, if you slip up, you can go to confession and the slate is wiped clean.
Only because he tells us this. But unless he forces us to believe him–which would make everything we’re talking about rather pointless–we’d still have room in our psyches for things like doubt and suspicion.
If he says I’m going to burn in hell if I don’t do what he commands me to do and then he commands me to kill my parent just because he doesn’t like their faces, I’m going to wonder just how trustworthy this kind of entity is. But if he tells me I’m going to burn in hell for not honoring and respecting my parents, then that’s different (although still kind of an assholish thing to do).
So you’re citing the Bible as proof of your argument? Interesting…
Is it the God exactly described in the Old and New Testament, or a version from one of hundreds of Christian sects? If the latter, which one?
The Old and New Testament.