I'm confident that every non-Christian has been presented with the following argument: What if you're wrong? What if my/ourGod is real? Wouldn't it be better to believe just in case (hedge your bets)?
If, like me, you don't believe in ANY god, taking the above sentiment to heart would prove to be daunting. As many people have pointed out, it would necessitate "believing" in each and every god ever known to humankind because, not knowing which one is the real deal, you certainly wouldn't wish to offend the wrong one, would you?
From sunup to sundown, you'd have to perform all sorts of religious rituals. In between all the rituals, you'd have to say thousands of prayers to different deities and apologize each time for the prayers to the other "unreal" and "inauthentic" deities. You couldn't hold a job, raise a family and you probably wouldn't have time to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom because ALL of your time would be taken up trying to appease one god after another!
Of course, there is another reason why "hedging your bets" could never work anyway. If god is real, wouldn't he/she/it/they KNOW you were merely going through the motions in the hopes of saving your sorry ass? Wouldn't he/she/it/they KNOW you were a fake and fraud? (If he/she/it/they couldn't figure this out, then he/she/it/they wouldn't deserve to be worshiped in the first place!)
The way I see it is that either you believe or you don't. There can be no middle ground. Either you believe in the concept of hell or you think it's a nasty fairytale. You can't avoid being sent to the place of eternal torment by mouthing a belief that your heart does not hold.
And so, if hell, as believed by many Christians, is real and true, then my ticket is already punched. Nothing I say will cancel my ticket. I'm certainly NOT going to try to "hedge my bets" because all that will do is to save me an even closer spot next to the cauldron.
By being honest and true to myself, I can hope that my reservation is out along the left field foul line. :-D
If, like me, you don't believe in ANY god, taking the above sentiment to heart would prove to be daunting. As many people have pointed out, it would necessitate "believing" in each and every god ever known to humankind because, not knowing which one is the real deal, you certainly wouldn't wish to offend the wrong one, would you?
From sunup to sundown, you'd have to perform all sorts of religious rituals. In between all the rituals, you'd have to say thousands of prayers to different deities and apologize each time for the prayers to the other "unreal" and "inauthentic" deities. You couldn't hold a job, raise a family and you probably wouldn't have time to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom because ALL of your time would be taken up trying to appease one god after another!
Of course, there is another reason why "hedging your bets" could never work anyway. If god is real, wouldn't he/she/it/they KNOW you were merely going through the motions in the hopes of saving your sorry ass? Wouldn't he/she/it/they KNOW you were a fake and fraud? (If he/she/it/they couldn't figure this out, then he/she/it/they wouldn't deserve to be worshiped in the first place!)
The way I see it is that either you believe or you don't. There can be no middle ground. Either you believe in the concept of hell or you think it's a nasty fairytale. You can't avoid being sent to the place of eternal torment by mouthing a belief that your heart does not hold.
And so, if hell, as believed by many Christians, is real and true, then my ticket is already punched. Nothing I say will cancel my ticket. I'm certainly NOT going to try to "hedge my bets" because all that will do is to save me an even closer spot next to the cauldron.
By being honest and true to myself, I can hope that my reservation is out along the left field foul line. :-D
This is amusing to me today because we just found out we lost the proposal on which some of us had worked hard and long over a weekend, including the Sabbath, on which our CEO had emailed us to say he had just come from church where he had prayed for us to win the contact. Never mind that reviewers' debrief basically said we hadn't convinced them that we could do anything we promised.
ReplyDeleteBut we had God on our side! I guess he failed to convince them.
Maybe he didn't pray to enough of the Gods!
Maybe he simply prayed to the wrong ones. ;-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I would have to worship my mother. Her i-am-god complex is quite pronounced.
ReplyDelete