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I’m seeing more and more unbelievers on this forum, and wondering. If you are an unbeliever have you ever considered what will happen if you are wrong in your unbelief? I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Personally, I made the choice many years ago to be a follower of Christ. If it turns out that I have been wrong, what have I got to lose?
I was reading Psalm 2 yesterday and when I read the following, I have to say, I think I made the right choice.
“Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” (Psalm 2:12)
I find the bolded question naive. What on earth makes you think they WOULDN'T have considered that they might be wrong?
I'll grant that there are indeed a few atheists who say they never believed, not even in childhood (one, amusingly, once said he would sit in church and think, "Who are they talking to?") but the majority of unbelievers who post regularly on City-Data are former believers, mostly former Christians. In their struggle to try to keep believing even as their faith diminished, they surely asked whether they might be wrong at multiple times in the process.
And as mensaguy stated, it's not always a choice. One cannot force oneself to believe if one just don't believe or has come to have lost their belief for whatever reason. Sometimes, as in the case of MysticPhD, an atheist has an experience so profound that it brings about belief.
What if smite happy believers are wrong about God and He really wouldn't harm anyone? What if it really is unconditional love. What does that make them running around telling people that He will?
Last edited by L8Gr8Apost8; 04-30-2022 at 08:43 AM..
Reason: Could it be Satan....
I’m seeing more and more unbelievers on this forum, and wondering. If you are an unbeliever have you ever considered what will happen if you are wrong in your unbelief? I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Personally, I made the choice many years ago to be a follower of Christ. If it turns out that I have been wrong, what have I got to lose?
I was reading Psalm 2 yesterday and when I read the following, I have to say, I think I made the right choice.
“Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” (Psalm 2:12)
That's the thing about belief. You either believe or you don't believe. I was a believer for decades, but I can no more change how I don't believe now than I can my eye color.
Not everyone has the same beliefs you do, nor do they believe that the Christian God is the only God or that there is even a God at all for that matter. My belief is everything is connected to the Source of Life, whether we are Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, non-believer, plant, animal, whatever our expression is in this physical world.
I agree, you made the right choice. For you.
Have you ever considered what would happen if you are wrong in your belief? None of us can possibly know anything about the afterlife or even if there is one. I like to think that as energy we always continue to exist in some form. But again, that is my belief. There is no one size fits all. And to answer your question, I don't think any of us have anything to lose. I am much more at peace now than I ever was as a Christian. I no longer feel like I have to prove something to God or live in fear, obligation or guilt.
What if smite happy believers are wrong about God...
Now, this is an example of a statement classified as "obnoxious snark". No Christian here is happy that God will judge sinners.
If you wish to have an actual conversation, just be nice. Show some respect. For the most part, you don't see me or other Christians here using that type of rhetoric with you.
I was a believer and now am not. We die and cease to exist except in the hearts of those that love us. Religion is a coping mechanism to feel better. We have free will to make choices. You can’t change your beliefs on a whim and if you did pretend to believe it wouldn’t be real.
How do you propose that these unbelievers change their beliefs? Not what they say, not whether they go to church, not whether they read a Bible, but what they really believe. Regardless of their actions, God would know what they really believe? How should they go about changing that?
Working to acquire the virtue of humility is a great start.
To the actual question of the OP, What do you have to lose?
One answer might be the chance to have, if not happiness, some contentment in this life. For people who believed most of their lives and yet were handed stones when they asked God for bread, it may just be that "your life might be sad and difficult now as long as you believe and take what I hand you but think how GREAT it will be when you're dead!" is no longer enough. Suffering may have worn them down to the point where they just can't believe this anymore. There's no evidence of God's love except supposedly some words on a page in a book full of promises never realized that now ring hollow. They have nothing left in them to give, nothing left to help them believe, because believing and trusting in God and trying to live a righteous life has brought nothing but sorrow.
The end to crying out in prayer and studying the scriptures with no answer ever coming forth may simply be a relief after a lifetime of trying to get the attention of a God who doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about you no matter what you do or don't do.
To the actual question of the OP, What do you have to lose?
One answer might be the chance to have, if not happiness, some contentment in this life. For people who believed most of their lives and yet were handed stones when they asked God for bread, it may just be that "your life might be sad and difficult now as long as you believe and take what I hand you but think how GREAT it will be when you're dead!" is no longer enough. Suffering may have worn them down to the point where they just can't believe this anymore. There's no evidence of God's love except supposedly some words on a page in a book full of promises never realized that now ring hollow. They have nothing left in them to give, nothing left to help them believe, because believing and trusting in God and trying to live a righteous life has brought nothing but sorrow.
The end to crying out in prayer and studying the scriptures with no answer ever coming forth may simply be a relief after a lifetime of trying to get the attention of a God who doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about you no matter what you do or don't do.
This ^^^
Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 04-30-2022 at 11:49 AM..
Reason: My own typo in quote
Working to acquire the virtue of humility is a great start.
What? Why do you want to be humble? Whatever that reason is will be the reason you'll never get there. Sought after virtue is not virtue.
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