Please describe your god's loyalty reward scheme.

[Catholic_Lady]

I don't believe in other religions or other gods, but I'd still be interested in talking to a Buddhist or a Hindu, etc, about their religious beliefs in genuine discussion. I think it would be interesting to hear their views. I certainly wouldn't ask them questions just so i could mock the answers they took time to give me, and be sarcastic and condecending towards them. But that's just me I guess.

Nor would I. But I would say things to make a point.

Seriously though, it would be dishonest if I pretended to take Christianity any more seriously than Zeus.

I also notice that you would take Buddhists seriously and genuinely be interested but if someone believed in Zeus which is considered mythology you would consider that different merely because it's less popular. But it's no less absurd. The religions of today are exactly like the mythology of tomorrow.

---

We can pray to Him. So, "talk to Him" in that sense. But obviously we don't hear back and can't have a back and forth conversation.  

I'm hardly surprised that you don't hear back.

I can't understand how theists can notice that God's presence is completely indistinguishable from his absence and yet they still believe.

I get the feeling you'd feel very empty without your belief in God and Heaven and souls and free will. I bet you'd feel very empty if you believed this is all there is.

Hell, I feel empty believing this is all there is but I couldn't believe in God even if I wanted to any more than I could believe in Zeus even if I wanted to. Even if I decided I wanted to be deluded (I'd probably make a lot more friends if I was Christian too, there's a lot of Christians in my local area and many people go to church. I may even get a girlfriend more easily if I were Christian) but even if I wanted to believe in Christianity I couldn't no matter how much I wanted to.

I don't want to, but even if I was feeling suicidal (again) without more meaning to my life . . . I still couldn't choose to believe in that nonsense. Even if my life depended on it.

So believers must be completely brainwashed.

No, if someone believed in Greek Mythology and was open to discussing it, I'd ask them about that too, and it wouldn't be to turn around and make fun of their answers. Only reason I didn't use that as an example is because it's not a realistic example.

---

I have two questions related to the OP, without being condescending.

1. Do you, as a theist, believe that the afterlife is important? In other words, is the destination of eternal heaven or hell an imperative teaching?

2. (Multi -part question) Do you worry that everyone has different notions of how to get there? What I mean is, some people believe you must be baptized, some only that you must accept Jesus as your savior (thereby damning all decent people of other faiths), some by good works, grace, confessions, etc. What if you are one who thinks you must only accept Jesus, but it turns out that the Baptism groups is correct? This is just another pascals wager. You are as likely to be wrong about how you get into heaven as I am about there not being one. Doesn't that ever worry you?

1. Yeah, it's pretty fundamental to Christian teaching, if that's what you mean.

2. No, it really doesnt....

...One because I do feel confident in my belief that everyone who goes to Hell will be there from their own deliberate choosing, and it won't be like "Whoops! You were Hindu and not Christian, too bad!" Or "Looks like you never got baptised/had a confession, tough luck!" I cant imagine a God so infinitely huge and all knowing being so petty.

...And two, if I am wrong, there's really no point in being worried about. It will be what it will be regardless of what i do or don't believe to be true, so besides making my best inference, there's nothing much else I can do.

---

So, you don't believe that our choices are what define our destination, but instead that we are basically predestined for one location or another?

No, I believe that one needs to choose God to be saved. The point is that that choice is a matter of the heart, not of precise ritual.

Do you think the "choosing God" can happen after a person dies?

The way I see it, we still have free will in the afterlife. Heaven is the state of acceptance, Hell is the state of rejection. If a person lives this life never knowing God, for whatever reason (wasn't brought up in the faith, was never really exposed to it, etc) can that person then choose to accept Him once they die and see Him? Or have they lost their chance by then? If they lost their chance, that would suggest they don't have free will anymore.