Topic of the Day: Do believe in God? Why, or why not?

deliveryman3

As someone once said...."why not believe, if you dont believe then u won't go to heaven..if there is no heaven then you'll be dead and will not know that u don't know.

That's based off Pascal's wager. Been struggling with this for years now. The fact that JD would bring up this topic today is "spooky" as I just had a "revelation" falling asleep last night and it's based around our pets. I'll share that later.

http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/pascals-wager.htm

YES--- The "Resurrection" is the cornerstone. 

If God does not exist, it does not matter how you wager, for there is nothing to win after death and nothing to lose after death. But if God does exist, your only chance of winning eternal happiness is to believe, and your only chance of losing it is to refuse to believe. As Pascal says, "I should be much more afraid of being mistaken and then finding out that Christianity is true than of being mistaken in believing it to be true." If you believe too much, you neither win nor lose eternal happiness. But if you believe too little, you risk losing everything.

But is it worth the price? What must be given up to wager that God exists? Whatever it is, it is only finite, and it is most reasonable to wager something finite on the chance of winning an infinite prize. Perhaps you must give up autonomy or illicit pleasures, but you will gain infinite happiness in eternity, and "I tell you that you will gain even in this life "—purpose, peace, hope, joy, the things that put smiles on the lips of martyrs.

if u say you believe but have doubts , then what.  If God knows all then  he/she  knows if you really believe or not.....I imagine we all believe if we are on our death bed  waitiing to die

But what about some tribe in the jungles of South America that has not been exposed to religion , does God give them a pass.......they cant believe in something if they have not been taught or exposed to it.

other questions arise........there are many religions......they can't  all be right so to speak. most of us believe in what we were raised to believe...if your parents went to catholic church so did you, Muslim , Jewish etc.....Religion is one thing we don't really decide on, its decided for us during our childhood and we tend to cling to that  vs studying  all the different religions and saying , "ok, i choose this one"

This is why many people travel all over the world studying religion. I would love to spend a year, make that five, in the far east.

This thread has been up over 13hrs and has just over 200 views with just 15 responses? Not quite sure what to think about that. I know how the internet works on the weekend but damn, this is a weak ass response. Don't be scared or ashamed people, speak your mind. I know religion is a personal thing but you will feel much better if you talk about it. It's not a secret!

lol DT, careful what you wish for... As I said in my earlier post, I do not want to discuss this a bunch myself.. However as cynical as most people are and with thousands if not millions of different possible questions, especially regarding The Old Testament.. It's a very complicated subject.. I have noticed some people say here something to the effect of 'if you believe at least you have a chance at something vs if you don't believe you get nothing' like it's a freeroll of somekind, but I will say 'those that KNOW, know.. but those that don't know have a hard time understanding'.. I do not know enough myself to answer the many questions many people have, I would suggest just read the Bible to yourself and believe it or not pray and ask God to guide you on your path to understanding. Also I don't go to Church as often as I'd like however Dr. Jim Richards has great podcasts every friday here..

 impactministries.com/.../CyberChurch.aspx

very solid content, he points out often that many churchgoing christians are actually misguided in their faith and many non believing people actually are just confused by the many different branches of religion and may or may not have had a bad experience at some point and just deceided it wasn't for them. fwiw when I do go to church I go to a non denominational one and usually am very happy I did at the end of the service. Good luck to all in sports, life and this thread lol God Bless..

Religion & Politics. What a shame. This is a beautiful planet. I wish we all could see more of it. Surely we aren't an accident.

dennistyler

deliveryman3

Adam lived 930 yrs.....he would have bankrupted social security

Now that is outrageously funny!

I do a lot of praying especially during football season with less than 2 minutes to go.  

Seriously, for those wanting "proof" it would make it too easy to believe and Heaven would get too crowded and strip clubs would go broke.  For those wondering about some tribe in the jungle, even though they have never watched the 700 Club they have their own religion and there will be believers and non-believers of that religion amongst the tribe. I believe some people from all religions will make it to Heaven and that GOD is OK with a little doubt. He knows who put him first and who the hypocrites are.   Unfortunately, I currently fall in the hypocrite category but hope to change.