(November 27, 2011 at 3:29 am)Forsaken Wrote: I am new to this forum so not sure if this has been already discussed.
The other day, I was having an interesting conversation with a friend who believes in god. He asked me "What if I was wrong? What if God exists and you realize that after death?" Well, I simply told him that there is nothing to be wrong about as I am steadfast to my belief that there is nothing such as god. The conversation should have ended there, but I took the liberty to ask him the same question. His response was something I was not expecting from someone who claims himself as a true devotee of god.
Basically what he mentioned was that he was playing it safe, and that is what majority of the religious people do (according to him). If he was wrong, no problem! It did not cost him a dime to believe in god, so if god did not exist, after his death, he is simply gone from the face of the earth and his body rotted away in his grave. But if he was right, then he is safe and will go to heaven for his beliefs.
This is what really opened my eyes. Probably the fear of what will happen in after-life is driving most people to believe in some form of god. If he exists, they are safe. If he does not, no problems. At least, they are leaving no stones unturned!
I agree to a point as far as christianity is concerned, I can't speak for other religions. I know many come to Christ out of the fear of hell, I did, I see no problem with this, Jesus preached on hell often and that it is a real concern for nonbelievers. Why do you obey all the laws of the land, so that you can be the best citizen ever or because of the possible punishment. If someone just receives Christ to stay out of hell and uses salvation as an insurance policy and never grows in a relationship with Him then who knows what may happen when they die. Eternal life is a first step in one's belief in Christ, after that a relationship should develop with Christ, this is when work comes into the christian belief, to serve Christ is to show your love for Him. So for those who use Christ as an insurance policy I would question their absolute belief in Him, to me it is a half belief and a half belief in my opinion is no belief at all.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
