Death..

[XxDeadlyNinjaxX]

I fear Death more than most things.

The problem with me is I doubt there is a God but then yet I am afraid of what if i am wrong and there is a God and a Hell? Then I am damned to Hell for because skeptical.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with this problem of mine.

 

[Cavemonster]

Think of it this way,
There are thousands and thousands of ideas of God or Gods out there.
Every one has it's own particular set of requirements for admittance to a pleasant result after death, many of them contradictory. For instance, many of these gods are jealous and want you to recognize and worship only them and no other. Therefore, by worshipping any one, you're pissing off a good number of others.

If you feel you have strong evidence for the truth of one of these god beliefs over any others, then by all means go for it, and share your evidence here, I haven't seen any yet.

But mostly I'd follow the slogan on the bus ads "There is probably no God: Stop worrying and enjoy your life"

 

[Lonewulf]

I'd rather fear spending one precious second, one precious moment, out of our short, short lives, feeling angst over a concept imagined by other people. Isn't that so much a waste of the time of your life?



(Instead, I waste my time on video games, and arguing over the interwebs. Yay.)

 

[JihadJane]

Is it death or non-existence that you fear?

 

[Rodney]

The problem with me is I doubt there is a God but then yet I am afraid of what if i am wrong and there is a God and a Hell? Then I am damned to Hell for because skeptical.

You're not damned to Hell for being skeptical per se, you're only damned to Hell if you're an irrational-Randi-Forum-type-skeptic.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

The problem with me is I doubt there is a God but then yet I am afraid of what if i am wrong and there is a God and a Hell? Then I am damned to Hell for because skeptical.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with this problem of mine.

It sounds like you believe in and fear God and damnation.

If you don't believe in God and damnation, there is no need to fear it. If you fear it, then I'm not sure what you mean by saying you're skeptical of it.

Are you afraid you don't believe as strongly as you think you should?

Frankly, I'm suspicious of your post. It sounds like a common theme of atheism-bashing: that atheists are actually afraid of (or angry at) God.

 

[Hokulele]

I fear Death more than most things.

The problem with me is I doubt there is a God but then yet I am afraid of what if i am wrong and there is a God and a Hell? Then I am damned to Hell for because skeptical.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with this problem of mine.

If there is a god who would damn people to eternal torment just for using their brain, it doesn't sound like an entity I would want to spend time with anyway.

 

[XxDeadlyNinjaxX]

Is it death or non-existence that you fear?

Mm well, It's like this,I have my doubts that there is a God and an Afterlife but then yet at the same time(keeping the doubts) I fear what if there is a God and he sends me to the Hell that really does exist. So really i guess it could be that I fear going to Hell in a sense. But in the end maybe I could fear that there is an existance

 

[Lonewulf]

You know, the idea of there being a God, that has the greatest reward to be around him, and the greatest punishment (that's oh so easy to undergo) is eternal horrid punishment... well...

It seems to me to be the perfect dystopia. It's one in which the only way to live, is to be a sycophant... for ever and ever and ever and ever. An eternity of being under the ultimate, childish, selfish dictator, with absolute power and absolute knowledge, and with eternal punishment on his side if you dare speak out against him or question him.

How can anyone NOT get a shudder at the idea? Yet so many believers embrace the idea, so completely, so strongly, that I find it very scary indeed.

Outside of this forum, I feel like the one sane man in an insane world.

 

[XxDeadlyNinjaxX]

You know, the idea of there being a God, that has the greatest reward to be around him, and the greatest punishment (that's oh so easy to undergo) is eternal horrid punishment... well...

It seems to me to be the perfect dystopia. It's one in which the only way to live, is to be a sycophant... for ever and ever and ever and ever. An eternity of being under the ultimate, childish, selfish dictator, with absolute power and absolute knowledge, and with eternal punishment on his side if you dare speak out against him or question him.

How can anyone NOT get a shudder at the idea? Yet so many believers embrace the idea, so completely, so strongly, that I find it very scary indeed.

Outside of this forum, I feel like the one sane man in an insane world.

what you just said blew me away. it is exactly true in my eyes. before i got caught up in the whole judgement day stuff and the "NWO" stuff i was open to any idea out there with no worry in the world but fear has came into my life and what ultimately im trying to do now if fight my way out of the fear.

 

[Lonewulf]

Well, at the very least, you are playing the odds, considering the great plethora of religions out there; and according to many of the less well-known ones, you probably don't even have a soul anyways.

Just put it another way: Right now you're stressing over heaven and hell, instead of nirvana and desire. The reason why is most telling of all. Your Geographical point of origin has decided for you what belief to think about the most, nothing else.

 

[XxDeadlyNinjaxX]

It sounds like you believe in and fear God and damnation.

If you don't believe in God and damnation, there is no need to fear it. If you fear it, then I'm not sure what you mean by saying you're skeptical of it.

Are you afraid you don't believe as strongly as you think you should?

Frankly, I'm suspicious of your post. It sounds like a common theme of atheism-bashing: that atheists are actually afraid of (or angry at) God.

no no its nothing of the sort honestly im not trying to bash atheists dont get the wrong idea. the thing i am afraid of is what if i am wrong? about my beliefs

 

[Lonewulf]

I think that if you're wrong with your beliefs, the majority of people, if not all of them, would still be shown to be wrong in theirs.

While I'm sure that some religions get some facts right, the fact is, they change and morph over the ages, and are so ill-conceived to be based on putting disproportionate focus on such a small group of people in the first place, that the chances of them getting all the details right are practically nil.

This includes concepts of heaven and hell.

For instance, even if there WAS a heaven and hell (HUGE assumption here!), what if hell were temporary, and after hell, you'd go to heaven (such as the way the House of Song and House of Lies functioned under Zoroastrianism)? Sounds bearable to me.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

To simplify what Cavemonster said, what's the difference in believing in no god vs believing in the wrong god?

You have just as much change of being wrong as do we atheists.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

That's a record, 11 posts in the time it took me to write 2 lines.

...Ah, now I see what happened. I opened the tab for this thread on Firefox but then didn't get around to posting on it for a while. Seems I need to consider refreshing threads for recent posts when I line up tabs all at once.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

....

Frankly, I'm suspicious of your post. It sounds like a common theme of atheism-bashing: that atheists are actually afraid of (or angry at) God.

Ditto, except I always thought the motive of lying for Jesus was like the motive for putting "Official Document" on the front of my junk mail, thinking they were fooling me into opening the stupid thing.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

I fear Death more than most things.

The problem with me is I doubt there is a God but then yet I am afraid of what if i am wrong and there is a God and a Hell? Then I am damned to Hell for because skeptical.

For being skeptical, indeed. I cannot fathom that if there is a God, that he would have so little respect for our Human intelligence.

I think you can, while reserving a little doubt, dismiss the concept of a God that has so little confidence in himself that he damns those who find no reason to believe in him to the lakes of eternal fire.

I suspect, however, that all there is waiting for us is an eternal, dreamless sleep.

 

[Hokulele]

I think you can, while reserving a little doubt, dismiss the concept of a God that has so little confidence in himself that he damns those who find no reason to believe in him to the lakes of eternal fire.

Heh, I have always seen the Christian concept of god as being like those people who spend 90% of their time in a relationship whining, "Prove to me you love me."

 

[cj.23]

I fear Death more than most things.

The problem with me is I doubt there is a God but then yet I am afraid of what if i am wrong and there is a God and a Hell? Then I am damned to Hell for because skeptical.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with this problem of mine.

Deadly Ninja, do you really think a God that created the cosmos is going to destroy you or punish you eternally for making a belief error? Even the Roman Catholic Church believes atheists who made a sincere quest for truth can be saved. My suggestion - stop worrying about death, enjoy your life, and try to act nicely towards your fellow humans, and if you want to search for god do so - but not because you think God is some sort of cosmic tyrant who is gonna fry you for being you. Have fun dude, and anyway, God or no God, we don't really know death is the end. None of us have been dead as far as i know...

cj x

 

[Oliver]

I fear Death more than most things.

The problem with me is I doubt there is a God but then yet I am afraid of what if i am wrong and there is a God and a Hell? Then I am damned to Hell for because skeptical.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with this problem of mine.

It's quite easy. Just try to be a good and helpful individual - and if it turns out that there is a God and he judges based on your faith rather your positive actions, he's an ******* anyway. You disagree?