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.

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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on November 15, 2009 at 10:20am
I'll second that Roy Batty.

Danny - very cool of you to ask the question I know lots of Atheists ask. If only to ponder the universe full of what-ifs and further philosophically dissect the goofiness that is god.

Besides, last night I went to sleep wondering what it would be like to be a vampire. What kind of vampire would I be? Who or what would I prey on? Makes for awesome REM dreams!
Permalink Reply by Ogden Lafaye on November 28, 2009 at 4:32pm
I have sent you my e-mail address, reply and I will give you a list of FunDummies in my small town that you can vamp with equanimity.
Permalink Reply by Pansy on November 13, 2009 at 5:19pm
...and if there were a god, i think it very unlikely that it would have an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt or deny its existence...
Permalink Reply by Mary O'Grady on November 14, 2009 at 8:33am
Yes, Amelia, or punish those who do not grovel before it.
As that great theologian, Homer Simpson, once explained to his children, "God is very insecure..."
Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 14, 2009 at 10:15am
Cripe, we got a closet theist in here!
Permalink Reply by Johnny on November 14, 2009 at 10:40am
as much as I love this topic, the 13 pages of comments tell me that there are plenty of people already militantly defying the Pascal's Wager idea.

It really isn't good reasoning for feeling sorry about not believing in god. There are plenty of reasons why.
Permalink Reply by Ubiquitous Toad on November 14, 2009 at 10:50am
Rather than asking myselfself "What if there is a God?" I ask myself "What sensible reasons do I have to suspect there might be a God?" The answer, of course, is none.

I find this simple process usefull when analyzing other propositions, like "What if there really are Magic Beans?" and " What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?". This leaves me more time to ponder more important things like "What can I do today to make life a little better for myself and others ?" and "What kind of cheese should I put on my sandwich?"
Permalink Reply by Chris G on November 18, 2009 at 6:17am
What is the Hokey Pokey.... Sex after roller derby.

;>
Permalink Reply by Ogden Lafaye on November 28, 2009 at 4:34pm
The author of Hokey Pokey recently died...there was a bit of confusion in the funeral home when they tried to put him in the casket, "You put your left foot in, you take your right foot out, you...."
Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 14, 2009 at 10:55am
Pascal came from a culture steeped in Christianity, its influence, its dominance, and its fear-mongering. Science in his time was hardly in its infancy, and the brand of rational thought we enjoy now was a stark rarity in his time. Anyone in Pascal's time indulging in his wager were a product of those influences and that they indulged is not surprising.

We live now in the age of science, methodology and logic, where rational thought is slowly but surely displacing superstition as the primary means of evaluating our reality, how it behaves and what we can do with it. The brand of "crossing your fingers" which Pascal's Wager represents has no place and is unsupportable by any form of rational analysis.

Pascal's Wager is an ass-covering gambit used by people either unsure of themselves or insufficiently self-possessed to stare down cold facts without blinking. It amounts to a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card, except there is no jail to get out of. It's like the ether theory of light or phlogiston theory of chemistry, outdated and deserving of being discarded.
Permalink Reply by Ogden Lafaye on November 28, 2009 at 4:44pm
I have an electronic mouse trap and peanut butter that works unfailingly. A mouse every morning, every year, until the are gone for that Fall period.

I was thinking of baiting it with gold and placing it in the garden.

Milder than alien deathrays I admit, but then...quite the topic eh?

I am getting bored with dressing in black from toe-to-toe, getting up at 4AM with a salt shaker in hand, and preying on slugs and snails...which reminds me of my neighbor's snail who was attacked by two slugs while working in her garden. The police were called and arrived, asking her "Well ma'am, could you give us a description of these two felons?" To which she replied, placing back of hand on forehead, "Ohhhhh, I don't know officer, everything happened so FAST"
Permalink Reply by Paul Lin on November 14, 2009 at 12:10pm
Well, there is no reason to think about what if there is God because there is no God.

The problem with the idea of God is that when you are asked to give a definition of God, the definition will have to contain the essential characteristic - omnipotence. Omnipotence is not possible in reality. To disprove it all we need to do is to find something that is not possible to perform in reality. An example would be two mutually exclusive paths where one can only choose one but not both. God cannot choose both and therefore God is not omnipotent, which contradicts with the definition.

Psychologically, human beings have the temptation to imagine an omnipotent being because they feel helpless for whatever reason. Christianity simply fills their psychological void and give them a hope to deal with whatever that make them feel helpless. Christianity, in my opinion, is just like a drug that allows a person to escape from reality.

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