One of the tried and true arguments trotted out by Christians, in relation to believing in their brand of the faith, is the "What if hell really exists?" argument. The thinking here is that it's better to "believe" and turn out wrong than not to believe and wind up in hell.
The easy response to gambits of this nature is to point out that the "hedge your bets" believer should have no ability to fool an all-knowing creator. God would see right through the subterfuge before you even presented it!
For me, though, there is an even stronger reason why the "hedge your bets" argument doesn't dissuade me from my apostasy in the least; my calculation is based on the likelihood of a possible or potential hell versus an actual one.
If I believed that the possible hell described by many fundamentalist Christians had a better than average degree of probability, I am sure I could summons up the capability to be a "go through the motions" believer. I could act as pious and self-righteous as the situation called for. If this bought me a ticket to heaven, would the cost be so bad?
For me, the answer to that question is why I am happy to go through life as an atheist!
From what I've seen in my many dealings with evangelical and/or fundamentalist Christians, so many of them are hate-filled. There are so many categories of people that they see as being below them and worthy of scorn and ridicule. They condemn homosexuals, women who have abortions, Muslims, Latinos, liberals, blacks, socialists and the list goes on and on.
When so much of a person's being is defined by hate, that doesn't say a lot about that person! Hate is a toxic substance and, though it generally is pointed outwards, it infects the person spewing it just the same. In time, as the old saying goings, your hate becomes YOU.
If I chose to be a "go through the motions" believer as a strategy to avoid a possible hell in the afterlife, I would end up subjecting myself to an actual hell in this life! I would suffer continual internal turmoil as my outward behavior was in direct conflict with my inner self.
Consequently, I'm willing to take the chance that I might face a possible hell in an afterlife in order not to throw myself into an actual state of hell right now.
The easy response to gambits of this nature is to point out that the "hedge your bets" believer should have no ability to fool an all-knowing creator. God would see right through the subterfuge before you even presented it!
For me, though, there is an even stronger reason why the "hedge your bets" argument doesn't dissuade me from my apostasy in the least; my calculation is based on the likelihood of a possible or potential hell versus an actual one.
If I believed that the possible hell described by many fundamentalist Christians had a better than average degree of probability, I am sure I could summons up the capability to be a "go through the motions" believer. I could act as pious and self-righteous as the situation called for. If this bought me a ticket to heaven, would the cost be so bad?
For me, the answer to that question is why I am happy to go through life as an atheist!
From what I've seen in my many dealings with evangelical and/or fundamentalist Christians, so many of them are hate-filled. There are so many categories of people that they see as being below them and worthy of scorn and ridicule. They condemn homosexuals, women who have abortions, Muslims, Latinos, liberals, blacks, socialists and the list goes on and on.
When so much of a person's being is defined by hate, that doesn't say a lot about that person! Hate is a toxic substance and, though it generally is pointed outwards, it infects the person spewing it just the same. In time, as the old saying goings, your hate becomes YOU.
If I chose to be a "go through the motions" believer as a strategy to avoid a possible hell in the afterlife, I would end up subjecting myself to an actual hell in this life! I would suffer continual internal turmoil as my outward behavior was in direct conflict with my inner self.
Consequently, I'm willing to take the chance that I might face a possible hell in an afterlife in order not to throw myself into an actual state of hell right now.
The "tried and true(?) argument" is Pascal's Wager.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager
A. 17th century mathematician, philosopher and Catholic.
It is, indeed!
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