The World’s Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

What if there is a god?

Has anyone here every thought about what if there happened to be a god. It doesn't really matter what god or what religion just if there is one. When you die what do you think they/him/her would say and how you would react? If they were a god that passed judgment, do you think that they would understand your reasons for not believing and forgive you or would they punish you without question?

I was raised Christian and while I don't believe anything they say, the above still crosses my mind quite often. I'm a musician and I get a lot of gigs playing for church services, especially around Christmas and Easter. It's hard not to listen to the sermon and try to understand their way of thinking during these times and these questions always pop into my mind during and after the service.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 13, 2009 at 10:36am

Ummm ... they couldn't pay the special effects bill? I mean just ask Industrial Light and Magic! That stuff ain't cheap!!!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ogden Lafaye on November 28, 2009 at 4:14pm

I give up Loren, you rule the day for replies.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mihai on November 10, 2009 at 10:37am

Actually, I wish there was a god.... not the angry bastard of the Old Testament, of course. This world faces so many problems: climate change, economic crisis, famine, you name it! We really could use his help, and I think I could love a caring god.
But there is not the slightest evidence whatsoever! Any "proof" religion brings is worthless;
so, rest assured, there is no god!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on November 11, 2009 at 3:03pm

For the sake of argument lets pretend (beyond all laws of physics ) that the magic Sky Thing exists, then I would point to the words of Thomas Jefferson,
"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear"......Thomas Jefferson

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Miller on November 11, 2009 at 9:37pm

Awesome I love fantasy/sci-fi!
Okay I've always imagined that an intelligence as old as time and all-knowing would be utterly unfathomable to us- more like Cthulu and the god of the Yaweh cult. But I assume you mean the Biblical (jewish, christian, possibly muslim guy) one, so we'll go with that.
First, hoping he had as great of a sense of humor as he'd have too I'd start with, "Holy crap, I was sure you'd at least be an Arab or Jewish lookin' guy!"
Sorry I couldn't help it.
In all seriousness I have thought about this before as I went from christian to uncertain christian to atheist. I'd have loads of questions and I'd probably be a little angry.
Most important and #1."Why'd you stop doing big magical stuff so we could all see it? If I had actually heard you talk, which I hear is impressive, or saw a lake part to allow the passage of a group of people, or had you showed me one freaking angel, I may have seen things differently! Dude if you showed everyone a magical flying angel at some point in their life it would have lent a ton of credence to the religious arguement. So are we cool then?"
Or something like that.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by AtheistsAreUs on November 11, 2009 at 9:57pm

If a god existed (and I do not believe so) I doubt he or she would have any issues with me not believing in it. And if a god did exist and it was ANYthing near to what most people believe in, I would not worship it. Any god that existed and passed judgement (especially as described by most christians) would be a MONSTER similar to Hitler that burned people and starved people for years because he considered them less valuable as human beings. That whole concept is inhumane and plain sick. I would absolutely reject such a god.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 12, 2009 at 5:35am

Okay ... one thing you had better know about me is that I am an enormous fan of Robert Anson Heinlein, one of the best of early writers of science fiction in the 20th century. If the man wasn't an atheist, he came damned close ... and if I may, here's HIS take on the subject:

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 12, 2009 at 6:50am

Actually, to take the discussion of Robert Heinlein and his attitude towards existence of a deity one step further, may I offer the evidence of Job: A Comedy of Justice. Herein, Heinlein gives us the results of mapping the story of Job onto a modern day evangelical minister, whose faith is tested not just by his somewhat parenthetical initial training as an engineer and by his shrew of a wife (whom we hear about but meet only once), but by a series of events beginning on a cruise ship in the South Pacific which would have the original Job reaching for the aspirin bottle (if he could!). Heinlein pulls no punches in thoroughly skewering a number of Christian sacrosancts, even as Mark Twain apparently did in Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven, a work I haven't read ... YET!

May we all meet one day at the steps of the Church of the Divine Orgasm - "Sabbath school at 9:30 AM, church services at 11, picnic and orgy immediately following."

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 12, 2009 at 11:58am

Jan, scientific fact is "merely fact" to them. They're dealing with a higher truth, "higher" in that it isn't of this world, can't be proven, but apparently is supposed to be intuitively obvious to anyone who comes across it and adhered to without examination or question.

I can't help but notice that many evangelicals use 20th and 21st century technology to promulgate their BS, but are loathe to acknowledge it when the same or similar technology makes mincemeat of their assertions. This is a level of compartmentalization of belief, never mind pure denial, nearly unparalleled in human society.

I do have to say though, that Christianity isn't the only religion which deals in the 1+1+1=1 you speak of. Were you to engage a Hindu about his/her religion, they might tell you that Ishwara is the central god of their faith, and that the others, including Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and so on are aspects contained within Ishwara, or so I understand it. I think the primary difference here is that Christianity INSISTS on referring to itself as monotheism. I don't know that Hinduism makes the same insistence.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 13, 2009 at 6:57am

No worries, Jan ... I sometimes answer to "Hey, YOU!" as well! As for Christianity, it suffers from a lot more than Multiple Personality Disorder! I'd throw in Munchhausen by Proxy, Megalomania, and a few others, to boot! They want to be the Only Game in Town and would probably foment Armageddon themselves if they thought it would achieve their purpose!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ogden Lafaye on November 28, 2009 at 4:22pm

If sodomy were legalized, within a hundred years the likenesses of all Christian historical characters, saints and Jesus alike, would adorn rectal pain medical bottles.