If you are interested in reading more about Common Sense Christianity, check out http://moderatechristianrants.blogspot.com
_________________________________________________________
I am a Christian. If you are, have you ever stopped to wonder WHY you are a Christian? Other than the fact that this is how you were raised? And I know, you say it's because of being able to get into Heaven, Jesus died for our sins, etc., but have you ever REALLY thought about it?
The reason that I ask is because I have. I have gone beyond the stories of the Bible and the lessons they try to teach us at church, and TRULY contemplated it. I even went so far as to question the existence of God. And you now what I came up with? A way to explain to people why you believe what you do, why you have faith in something/ someone that you can't see and that won't reveal himself.
This is the explanation that you SHOULD be giving to the people who question your faith:
There are only a few things about religion that we know for certain; that atheists, etc. will agree with us on. The relevant ones for this post are that there either is or is not a God, and that there either is or is not a Heaven. This leaves us with 4 options:
1.) We believe in God and there is a God
2.) We believe in God and there is no God
3.) We do not believe in God and there is no God
4.) We do not believe in God and there is a God
Option 1 (Believe; God) - this gets us into Heaven. This outcome is GOOD.
Option 2 (Believe; no God) - means that we do not go to Heaven, but also no Hell. So while it is not good it is not bad either, so for this argument that equals GOOD.
Option 3 (No Belief; no God) - gives the same outcome as option 2. Not good, but not bad, so technically GOOD.
Option 4 (No Belief; there is a God) - this sends you to Hell. So obviously, the outcome here is BAD.
So, what does all of this mean?
This means that by believing in God you have a 100% chance of a good outcome. (2 GOODS)
By not believing in God, you only have a 50% chance of a good outcome. (1 GOOD, 1 BAD)
I don't know about you, but to me a sure thing is a sure thing. If someone told you you had a 100% chance of meeting the person of your dreams tonight, don't you think you would go with them to the bar? If someone promised you that you had a 100% chance of winning the lottery, would you forget to buy a ticket? I sure wouldn't.
So next time that someone questions your faith, answer with this. No one that asks those types of questions wants you to preach to them, and they might actually listen to you if you answer them with reason instead of sounding like a religious extremist (that is how they view all of us, not just the true nut-cases).
Wouldn't it be nice to know that you actually got through to someone? Who knows, you might even convert a hardcore non-believer by using their own methods against them!
Posts
1 comment:
The argument you make is called Pascal's Wager. It has been pretty thoroughly demolished.
Here are some of its flaws:
It assumes that there's only one god that you could believe in and that that god will reward you simply for believing in him.
People have believed in at least thousands of different gods. Mere belief is not enough for some of those gods. Many of them require specific acts, rituals, prayers, etc.
Even if you're going to believe in a god because you think it's the safer bet, how will you choose which one to believe in? Then, how will you know which version of that god's religion to follow?
What if you pick the wrong god? Many of these gods are supposed to be very jealous. Wouldn't it be safer to just be agnostic? If you pick the wrong god to worship, then mightn't you just be making the real god madder and madder at you?
Further, if the god you believe in is one of the all-knowing ones, then wouldn't he be aware that your belief was shallow and that you only believed for selfish reasons? Would he still reward that sort of belief? Maybe god would prefer an honest and sincere atheist, rather than a "believer" who only believed in god for selfish reasons.
Also, your argument assumes that people can choose to believe in something, regardless of what the evidence or lack of evidence shows. Mark Twain said, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so." That quote is funny because reasonable people can't do that.
Post a Comment