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.

Views: 1093

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by James on May 14, 2009 at 9:29pm
Don't worry, God wants you to be an atheist. At least that what all evidence points too. Here is what really doesn't makes sense, God want you to worship him, he has the power to make you worship him, instead he just threatens you with hell, which is more or less making you, not freewill.
People believe in god for one reason, personification. We need to personify thing in order for us to understand them. I find myself thinking weird things like "my computer must think I weird" as a computer tech I find that people do it all the time it help us understand.
I think it is perfectly ok for someone to question his belief or non-belief from time to time. Isn't it rational belief that we are trying to promote here. That requires revisiting the rationalization every once in a while. Let he who has prayed "Please Start! Please Start!" to their car cast the first stone. Yes, I Believe my car is a god ;)
Permalink Reply by Jennifer W on May 15, 2009 at 4:31am
Personally I wouldn't give a damn if there was. I mean if I live an honest reasonable life, I shouldn't have a guilty conscience in not believing. I know in my heart that goodness prevails.

If I get punished for not believing it would be wrong. Period. A person who lives an honest fulfilling life but doesn't believe shouldn't be in the same category to someone who is a mass murderer.

I've grown confidence in my atheism to the point that even if god does exist, its really irrelevant to worship. I mean if something did happen years ago it was diluted by human influence, propaganda, primitive thinking and values.

But really God is too much of a simple answer to existence. Things work in so much complex ways that we have to discover how everything works instead of having default defeatist attitude of saying "God did it".
Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on May 15, 2009 at 10:21am
Well put.
Permalink Reply by Bill Ballard on May 17, 2009 at 8:16pm
I often wonder about this.In fact I think some form of "god" is likely.I mean some ultimate cause for everything in the universe.I do NOT believe a personal god,and sincerely hope none exist.If I were to meet Jehovah or any similar "Abrahamic" god I'd be fried meat in a second!!
Permalink Reply by Tom Myhill on May 22, 2009 at 6:28am
There isn't a God. I would imagine the only reason you are still pondering this is because, as you say, you were raised a Christian. Studies show that those who are raised with religious belief are more likely to hold onto such beliefs for the rest of their lives. I would also advise you to think very carefully about playing in church services. I am also a musician who has played in church services in the past, and it is not a good environment to be in. Churches are poisonous environments that teach only bigotry and false hope, and should be avoided at all costs.
Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on May 22, 2009 at 9:41am
All true. However, I still say it doesn't hurt to play the hypothetical. Ask on a Christian forum, "What if there isn't a god?" and you'll get a whole lot of "How dare you even consider such a thing - you can't possibly be Christian and ask that even as a hypothetical."

And yet, I think that's the first real step to opening the door out of the church.

If we hope folks are open-minded enough to even consider whether or not there is a god then in all fairness we should be able to ask the reverse. Besides, it only goes further towards showing our point. The more God is held up to scrutiny the more of a badly written fairy tale he appears to be.
Permalink Reply by Ogden Lafaye on November 28, 2009 at 3:34pm
Tom MyHill...so glad to hear a musician say so...I felt the same when I accompanied a drummer friend to a service. Very negative experience.
Permalink Reply by Doug on May 22, 2009 at 8:41am
Having been raised in a Christian family I can understand the question ( I think :)

I also often wonder "If their was / is a God what would he /she /it think"

I cannot see how the Christian concept of an all loving father God could be so fickle as to dam people for eternity for not believing. This was one of the basic problems that started me questioning religion.

I am not a very forgiving person but I can only think of a very few special people I would like to burn in hell, then when I really think about it I doubt I could do that to anyone for an eternity.

It is a mental exercise more than anything, I see some christians doing pretty horrid evil things and I see non-believers doing great and kind things.

WWJD? burn the good kind people and welcome the evil people into heaven because they said the right words at the right times ?

It is an interesting question :-)
Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on May 22, 2009 at 9:44am
Absolutely well put!

And such hypotheticals - putting myself in God's shoes and measuring him by the same values we measure ourselves and other people - was also a prime factor in keeping me asking questions until I was ready to break free.

To that end, I saw an interesting flyer on a teacher's door in college: "What Would Jesus NOT Do?"

The list included things like "Oppress a single mother ... Hate people for loving other people who happen to be of the same gender ... Give control of a woman's body to the government ... Build multimillion dollar churches while there are still poor people in need..."
Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on August 29, 2010 at 7:35am
What Would Jesus NOT Do?!?

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, I LIKE that!
Permalink Reply by Ogden Lafaye on November 28, 2009 at 3:36pm
Interesting not wanting an enemy to burn for all eternity. You have a good point there and I agree on reflection...that makes us better than their God right off the top, I would say.
Permalink Reply by Jason Spicer on June 1, 2009 at 3:01am
If I meet god when I die, and it says anything other than (as proposed in Hitchhiker's Guide) "I apologize for any inconvenience," I will kick it in the balls for being such a self-absorbed ass.

I neither desire heaven nor fear hell. After a few millennia, constant punishment would be indistinguishable from constant hosannas. And who would want to spend eternity numb? Maybe that's why Jehovah is such a miserable psycho--he's stir-crazy.

RSS

© 2013   Atheist Nexus. All rights reserved. Admin: Richard Haynes.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service