Suppose you obtained absolute proof that Heaven and Hell exist. And suppose you also found out that Atheists and Agnostics go to Heaven, and everyone else goes to Hell.
(And by the way, there are people who believe in an afterlife without believing in a God.)
Would you stop believing in God, in order to go to Heaven?
Too easy…
You’re talking in absolutes, right? OK, so far you’ve defined a pretty big lump for theists to swallow, but if it’s absolute, it’s absolute.
So noted. In fact, I’ll point out that theistically speaking, proof of an afterlife does not directly relate to proof of the disposition of souls in the hereafter.
And this is why I said, “too easy,” above. Theism does not hinge on either the afterlife, or the disposition of souls. And bringing Divine Intervention into it doesn’t help. Theism is based on a Divine Being, and if He changes the rules then Theism becomes the rule, and if He creates a paradox, then you wind up with a bunch of dead Theists…or non-existant ones, I’m not sure which.
Anywho, I think it’s a pretty null argument.
inkblot, who seems to be very talkative tonight.
If God doesn’t want me to believe in him, then I won’t.
I agree with alessan:)
Well, if that were the case, there wouldn’t be much difference between Heaven and Hell anyway, so it probably wouldn’t really matter.
Either God exists and He’s playing some pretty major head games with His creation (Who’s to say the torture would cease once in Heaven?), or He doesn’t exist and there would be nothing to determine the disposition of such souls.
The whole scenario is just ridiculus…“I stopped believing in God because He told me so.” :rolleyes:
Is this an Atheist’s attempt to vilify a belief structure whereby one is rewarded for believing in a benevolent god? What’s the harm in that? If Atheists are right, who cares? I’m sure you’ll be laughing from your cold, lifeless grave.
Chaim Keller on another thread told a Talmudic story to which I cannot do justice as he did, but here goes:
It is told that a very righteous man once committed a heinous sin, and God appeared before him in glory and told him that he was condemned to Hell for that sin.
When the Divine Presence vanished, the man fell to his knees, praising God.
“Why do you praise Him?” the man’s friends asked. “He has just sentenced you to Hell.”
“All these years,” the man answered, “I have been in doubts whether I loved the Lord for Himself, or in hopes of the reward of Heaven. Now I know that I truly love Him, without hope of reward.”
This little exercise in “what if” ranks with the four-sided triangle and the too-heavy rock in conundra that do not affect a theist – and probably no reasonable atheist either. One is committed to God because He is God, not because He owns the Many Mansions Celestial Condominium complex and is the sole source of harps and wings.
No reasonable God would perpetrate the hypothesis of the OP. For what an unreasonable god might do and how to deal with it, see Job – either the original one or Heinlein’s.
A nice turn-around of Pascal’s Wager!