Hopefully you have all heard of the wager. It states that if the belief in the existance of God was a bet, a rational person would choose to bet on the existance of God and therefore be some sort of Theist. The wager was modeled off of Christianity, and the claim that Pascal makes is that by believing in God, an individual has nothing to lose in their own lives, and if God does exist one has everything to gain in the afterlife. I am specifically wondering what you guys think of that claim. By being a theist there is nothing to lose in this life, and everything to gain in the next. So what do you guys think?
Please entertain the thought of an afterlife and don't claim that this entire thought is crap because there is no afterlife.
Also, if you believe there are things to lose or gain in this life, please elaborate as to what they are and why.
I recall someone being tested by God, asked to kill his son. He nearly did it but God stopped him and he passed the test. Was it Abraham? I have a religion exam in a week and I should really know this.
Yes, that was Abraham indeed. And that's what was possible back there, since it was God's direct intervention that Abraham received a son. But there was no Decalogue yet in place, so the only sin Abraham was capable of committing is disobedience.
Really? If a god is imperfect, then it can lie. Why should I believe to someone who can lie and remain uncaught (as if it's a god, a human then cannot catch a god in lies)?
I don't know why do yo believe a God that can lie?
Your religion has gods that don't provide any evidence of them existing, while my religion has God that constantly provides evidence. That's why I use Occam's razor against TBG.
LOL. Your God hasn't provided jack and a word I can't say here.
Christianity might be a little more probable than the TBG because it has been around for a lot of time, but it's in no way more plausible than induism or any other ancient religion.
Being older doesn't make things more plausible.
However in reality there are several oddities that cannot (yet, according to MGW) be explained without God, so God is not a subject to this principle.
I don't recall saying there are things that can't be explained without God. I have said there are things we don't currently know.
Just try and live your life the way you think it's best. Unless you have a deviated sense of morality, it's likely you'll live the way most gods would approve of, thus potentially scoring a good afterlife. If not, at least you'll die with little to no guilt on your mind. Win here, win there, win win everywhere
How? Show me proof god didn't do that. I mean, crack open the old testament and god is rather quite clearly telling the various tribes of Israel to kill every man woman and child of another nation, to take slaves, etc.
In that time, the Decalogue was applied only to Israeli people, that's why it was possible for Israely to stone one out of them to death, they first outcast him. Christ expanded the Decalogue to entire humanity, thus eliminating the thing you speak about.
LOL. Your God hasn't provided jack and a word I can't say here.
He did - to me at least. There are some people that I know who too have received something from God. That's not yet happened to you - okay.
Why does Vesper keep saying that God 'would/does do this' and 'wouldn't/doesn't do this'? I thought God was supposed to be incomprehensible to the mortal mind and that he had some sort of divine plan - you cannot claim to know the mind of your deity and it also seems like some poorly thrown-together excuse for why you do some things but not others, if you don't like it then you can just say that God says not to do it even if the Bible or church teachings contradict when you say.
Why does Avorne ask things that he could research all by himself, reading Gospels and thinking about what follows from Jesus's words when He speaks about Father? And don't you please try saying that I do some things and not others, not knowing what I really do and what I really don't do.
He did - to me at least. There are some people that I know who too have received something from God. That's not yet happened to you - okay.
So he did to you. Would you mind telling us exactly how he did so? And why not everyone, if he truly does love everyone?
Why does Avorne ask things that he could research all by himself, reading Gospels and thinking about what follows from Jesus's words when He speaks about Father? And don't you please try saying that I do some things and not others, not knowing what I really do and what I really don't do.
Avorne is saying that it's a contradiction, in the bible it says no man may know the mind of god, but yet, here's the bible, claiming to do just that.
He did - to me at least. There are some people that I know who too have received something from God. That's not yet happened to you - okay.
I propose that the things you received were not from the Christian God at all but were, instead, from the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You may argue that Pastafarianism is just a 'made-up' religion but that's exactly what the Flying Spaghetti Monster wants you to think as not to interfere with your free will. You can't actually prove whether I'm right or wrong and I think it's somewhat blind of you to say that what happened was evidence of the God you believe in and not one of the other thousands of deities out there.
