What if

[MikeF]

What if judaism, christianity and islam is correct about that people who do not believe in God go to hell? What if all people who do not worship the one God go to hell?

If this is reality then God is angry and jealous. But what if.. this is really true?

It is wise to believe in one God just in case?

This argument is reminiscent of the chain letters that circulated in grade school where, upon receiving the letter it instructed you to copy it five times and distribute it to five other people or bad things would happen to you.

Those who feel compelled to follow the instructions of the letter are ones who would see your argument as a valid justification for worshiping a deity. My question would be how that person decides which of many deities to worship. Do they simply worship the one they fear most? Do they worship all proposed deities to fully cover all the bases?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Then I'll have a good time in hell with a fair number of my friends here on RF.

It'll be great!

Like Twain,

"Heaven for climate, Hell for company".

 

[Vinayaka]

What if the sky was made of concrete?

That'd stop those noisy airplanes.

 

[John53]

You'll turn into a toad at the strike of midnight if you don't wire me all of your money. Wouldn't it be wise to do so just in case?

Do you accept Western Union?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

What if judaism, christianity and islam is correct about that people who do not believe in God go to hell? What if all people who do not worship the one God go to hell?

If this is reality then God is angry and jealous. But what if.. this is really true?

It is wise to believe in one God just in case?

If we're hedging our bets, I think the T-Rex System(TM) is a more reasonable approach:

Dinosaur Comics!

 

[sun rise]

I don't go by 'what if' scenarios.

Neither do I. It's very easy to construct an intellectual "what if" for probably endless scenarios.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

What if judaism, christianity and islam is correct about that people who do not believe in God go to hell? What if all people who do not worship the one God go to hell?

If this is reality then God is angry and jealous. But what if.. this is really true?

It is wise to believe in one God just in case?

Do you believe that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the only religions that offer valid explanations for what happens after we die?

 

[Ella S.]

If it were true then I would go to Hell.

That said, no, it is never wise to believe in things that have not been demonstrated to be likely to be true, in my opinion.

The Abrahamic God, Eloah/Allah is not likely to exist. He's merely a corruption of the Canaanite El caused by the imprecision of generational oral tradition. El himself was a corruption of the Sumerian Enlil. Enlil was a corruption of the Proto-Indo-Eurpean Sky Deity who was likely an animistic personification of the sky. You can even see how the name morphed etymologically over the generations of transmission.

It's far more likely that Allah is merely the product of a millennia-old "operant conditioning chamber" as the legends grew more extreme and bizarre with each retelling. There's almost certainly no actual God behind any of the Abrahamic myths, As such, I think it would be unwise to believe in his existence.

 

[Trailblazer]

It is wise to believe in one God just in case?

I believe it is wise to believe in the one true God because that is the only God that actually exists.
What happens to people who don't believe in Him is another matter and only God knows.

 

[Trailblazer]

Do you believe that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the only religions that offer valid explanations for what happens after we die?

I don't even think their explanations are valid, and they are all over the board. How can they all be right, that's not logical.
The Baha'i explanation is closest to The Afterlife Revealed explanation, where we all go to different levels called spheres, depending upon our spiritual development. That explanation makes the most sense to me so I am going with that.

 

[Trailblazer]

If it were true then I would go to Hell.

Not necessarily, because what these religious people believe about hell is not necessarily a correct understanding of their scriptures.

 

[Trailblazer]

I don't believe in the Christian God.

If he existed and all of the above was true, then it wouldn't really matter if humans found his requirements unfair, would it...

No, it would not matter.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I believe it is wise to believe in the one true God because that is the only God that actually exists.
What happens to people who don't believe in Him is another matter and only God knows.

To me, it makes more sense with the state of the world to believe in many less powerful gods.

If it turns out there's just one really powerful god, and he lets the things go on that he does yet is fully capable of changing them, I really wouldn't like him at all.

 

[Trailblazer]

And what if there is no heaven or hell, you've wasted your only life over nothing.

Very true, but the converse also applies. If there is a heaven and hell, or only a heaven and no hell, and you worked to get to heaven, then you have not wasted your life.

 

[osgart]

The idea that not believing in God sends one to hell doesn't make any sense. Why would that be a condition of doom?

If heaven isn't won on deserved merit then what kind of heaven is it? It's probably not worth anything to be there.

If heaven is a free pass for rotten people then it's definitely not worth it.

Or maybe heaven is a reform school for evil people. Again, so what.

There's lots of things I don't believe in. Why is that a condition of punishment?

I don't believe in Santa Claus; why should anyone believe in anyone they have not encountered.

It's very likely that these religions were written up by ancient humans who didn't think through their conditions very well. Any human can write a book declaring heaven, and hell by any conditions they wish to set up. What makes these religions any more valid or authoritative than the average human?

When I read these books I get the strong impression that people conjured up a God, and played upon people's feelings of conscience and fear.

What if people could make their own religion

 

[Trailblazer]

To me, it makes more sense with the state of the world to believe in many less powerful gods.

But that would be like having no God at all.

If it turns out there's just one really powerful god, and he lets the things go on that he does yet is fully capable of changing them, I really wouldn't like him at all.

That begs the question as to why would an all-powerful God change the world when humans are perfectly capable of doing that themselves?

Capability does not imply responsibility.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Capability does not imply responsibility.

If humans or some humans are God's children, that implies responsibility.

And if God has no responsibility for anything that happens in my life, why should I possibly care about him?

And if God doesn't take responsibility, why should he be able to issue laws to follow, and have people follow them, if he's above any law and responsibility?

 

[John53]

What if judaism, christianity and islam is correct about that people who do not believe in God go to hell? What if all people who do not worship the one God go to hell?

If this is reality then God is angry and jealous. But what if.. this is really true?

It is wise to believe in one God just in case?

So this God isn't intelligent enough to work out I'm only believing just in case?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

I don't even think their explanations are valid, and they are all over the board. How can they all be right, that's not logical.
The Baha'i explanation is closest to The Afterlife Revealed explanation, where we all go to different levels called spheres, depending upon our spiritual development. That explanation makes the most sense to me so I am going with that.

Personally, I no longer believe what the Bible claims or teaches about the afterlife, and I no longer believe in the concepts of heaven or hell either. I've discussed what I believe about the afterlife in other threads, but I can repeat what I've said in this thread if asked.

 

[Trailblazer]

The idea that not believing in God sends one to hell doesn't make any sense. Why would that be a condition of doom?

I do not believe it is. Belief in God is not everything, deeds also matter.

If heaven isn't won on deserved merit then what kind of heaven is it? It's probably not worth anything to be there.

I fully agree, heaven has to be earned.

If heaven is a free pass for rotten people then it's definitely not worth it.

I fully agree, and I don't believe that anyone gets a free pass.

It's very likely that these religions were written up by ancient humans who didn't think through their conditions very well. Any human can write a book declaring heaven, and hell by any conditions they wish to set up. What makes these religions any more valid or authoritative than the average human?

Again, I agree. The Bible might have been inspired by God (?) but it was written by humans, and those humans probably had an agenda.