If there were no G-d (or gods), what would be the saddest thing for you?

[meltzerboy]

What would be your greatest disappointment without the existence of G-d, or gods? If you would NOT be sad or disappointed, and would be happy or neutral, please tell why.

 

[vincent10395]

What would be your greatest disappointment without the existence of G-d, or gods? If you would NOT be sad or disappointed, and would be happy or neutral, please tell why.

“If there were no God, then man and the universe are doomed. Like prisoners condemned to death, we await our unavoidable execution. If there is no God, and there is no immortality. And what is the consequence of this? It means that life itself is absurd. It means that the life we have is without ultimate significance, value, or purpose.”

• Dr. William Lane Craig

Thats my disappointment, “Life is absurd”.

 

[bben15]

How could I be sad if I didn’t exist? God created everything.

No Him=no me.

 

[TRH1292]

If God did not exist, life itself would be objectively absurd and meaningless. Instead of my own disappointment, it would be reality itself that would be the disappointment.

 

[bsroufek]

I grew up in a secular household most of my life. When I was 15, I observed death of another and got angry at God because there is death in this world.

Soon afterwards, I decided that I didn’t want to live if there wasn’t a God, because this
life is so miserable and hopeless that there is no reason to suffer it unless we go
to Heaven.

God certainly exists and this OP is really absurd, because there is nothing without God.

 

[ShameonMe]

What would be your greatest disappointment without the existence of G-d, or gods? If you would NOT be sad or disappointed, and would be happy or neutral, please tell why.

Well, in this theoretical, the only way I would know for sure would be after death.

And without an afterlife, I wouldn’t ever know that I was wrong.

If there is somehow an afterlife without God, I suppose I would be more confused than disappointed.

 

[Jeanne_S]

I grew up in a secular household most of my life. When I was 15, I observed death of another and got angry at God because there is death in this world.

Soon afterwards, I decided that I didn’t want to live if there wasn’t a God, because this
life is so miserable and hopeless that there is no reason to suffer it unless we go
to Heaven.

God certainly exists and this OP is really absurd, because there is nothing without God.

 

[TK421]

The concept of there not being a God is N/A.

However, I know what it’s like first hand to live with no positive belief in a God. I ate, I drank, I slept, I socialized, I played video games, I watched movies, I wrote, I read, I relaxed, and I worked. I was not particularly sad, not particularly joyful, nor particularly anything else. I was a mammal.

 

[triumphguy]

What would be your greatest disappointment without the existence of G-d, or gods? If you would NOT be sad or disappointed, and would be happy or neutral, please tell why.

Losing the divine touch in creation
Not being made in the image and likeness of G_d.
No eternal life
No eternal life with loved ones.
No chance of the beatific vision/oneness with God.
Jesus would just be a man.
The OT would be pointless.
The NT would be lie.
The saints would all be fools.
The martyrs woulds be suicidal fools.
And the Guardian-reading sneering self satisfied and smug atheists would be right.

 

[vames]

That all hopes for a “World to Come” would be vain. Not necessarily useless (from an utilitarian point of view), but vain.

 

[po18guy]

Since our source and purpose is our Creator, we would not exist but for Him. From the catechism (Emphasis mine):

26 We begin our profession of faith by saying: “I believe” or “We believe”. Before expounding the Church’s faith, as confessed in the Creed, celebrated in the liturgy and lived in observance of God’s commandments and in prayer, we must first ask what “to believe” means. Faith is man’s response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life. Thus we shall consider first that search (Chapter One), then the divine Revelation by which God comes to meet man (Chapter Two), and finally the response of faith (Chapter Three).

I. THE DESIRE FOR GOD

27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.1

28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:

From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."2

1 Vatican Council II, GS 19 § 1.
2 Acts 17:26-28.

 

[Qoeleth]

What would be your greatest disappointment without the existence of G-d, or gods? If you would NOT be sad or disappointed, and would be happy or neutral, please tell why.

In one sense, I would be happy to avoid the danger of eternal punishment, or a long stretch of Purgatory. I would also be happy to be free to hurl myself of a cliff, without going to Hell or Purgatory, should I decide at any point that life is unpleasant or tedious, or not worth the trouble. If I chose not to do that, it would be mildly comforting to know that death will, at least, offer a definite end to suffering.

On the other hand, if God didn’t exist, I would have no choice, philosophically, but to affirm that this world has absolute existence. I would find that to be totally unpalatable. I like to view the world in the context of the infinitude of God- as a mere particle of barely existent dust, on the Divine scales. This brings me great peace. And the hope of Heaven is also the only possible source of joy, for all humanity.

So, to summarise, on the negative side, without God, life would be totally absurd, pointless and wretched, and what’s more, it would be ‘all there is’, a bad joke with no punchline, a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

But on the plus side, you would be free to commit suicide at any time.

Not the most cheerful thought, I grant you.

 

[thequietsinger]

How could I be sad if I didn’t exist? God created everything.

No Him=no me.

Exactly. If there was no God, then there would be no me, you, computers, CAF, nothing.

 

[Celtic_Maiden]

Well, in this theoretical, the only way I would know for sure would be after death.

And without an afterlife, I wouldn’t ever know that I was wrong.

If there is somehow an afterlife without God, I suppose I would be more confused than disappointed.

Just wodering why you and a few others don’t put there religion is there a reason for just a number. I thought one should be proud of being whatever you are, and stand proud, and not hide the fact. If your on the Forum Stand and be counted.

 

[ShameonMe]

Just wodering why you and a few others don’t put there religion is there a reason for just a number. I thought one should be proud of being whatever you are, and stand proud, and not hide the fact. If your on the Forum Stand and be counted.

I haven’t decided yet. I was born protestant and flirted Atheist, and just decided to find a Liturgical Christianity I support.
If I choose Catholic, Orthodox, or Episcopalian I’ll put it out there.

 

[Robertanthony]

In one sense, I would be happy to avoid the danger of eternal punishment, or a long stretch of Purgatory. I would also be happy to be free to hurl myself of a cliff, without going to Hell or Purgatory, should I decide at any point that life is unpleasant or tedious, or not worth the trouble. If I chose not to do that,** it would be mildly comforting to know that death will, at least, offer a definite end to suffering.**
On the other hand, if God didn’t exist, I would have no choice, philosophically, but to affirm that this world has absolute existence. I would find that to be totally unpalatable. I like to view the world in the context of the infinitude of God- as a mere particle of barely existent dust, on the Divine scales. This brings me great peace. And the hope of Heaven is also the only possible source of joy, for all humanity.

So, to summarise, on the negative side, without God, life would be totally absurd, pointless and wretched, and what’s more, it would be ‘all there is’, a bad joke with no punchline, a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

But on the plus side, you would be free to commit suicide at any time.

Not the most cheerful thought, I grant you.

I think there are quite a few people who genuinely enjoy being alive, for whom life is an adventure. My life is wretched, but maybe meltzerboy is not particularly anxious by nature, has quite a few gifts and is quite content with his life, friends, family, occupation etc., so don’t go making monolith statements generalizing everyone’s experience of life. I agree with you about hell. Don’t even spend a minute worrying about Purgatory, but hell is a real cause for concern. Some people are overwhelmed with suffering, are desperate to find a place of rest, to think that a brutal condemnation to eternal hell (please spare me the rose-water “people choose hell” BS please) may be what awaits them is well beyond troubling. The eternal beatitude of 75% of all the people who have lived here doesn’t justify the 25% of collateral damage. The thought that my son, who is the apple of my eye, could be afflicted in hell, while I play harp in Heaven and am unbelievably happy and content in the company of the one person who is responsible for keeping my son miserable, is an abomination. If I see an old, sick dog that wants to bite me because the pain drives him mad, making damn sure it stays alive as long as I can sustain him so I can get the satisfaction of seeing him suffer would not cross my mind. But it does God’s. if you’re loving one second and infinitely cruel the next, then you’re not a loving person. God is not a loving person. Loving him back is not an option. We have free-will because God didn’t want us to be robots. I’d like to do a “Job experience” in reverse: take away the threat of hell and see how many people love God for his own sake and not because of what he can do to their eternal souls. Eternal hell came from the mind of a loving God, I shudder to think what he would have come up with had he not been a loving God?x1000 The story of the prodigal son should have had an epilogue where the fate of the son would have been described had he not gone back to his loving daddy. Add “annihilationism”, and I gladly recant everything I said in this post. There is something deeply unsettling about God’s unrelenting will to sustain the damned so they can be eternally and hopelessly mortified. Think about this next time someone says God is love.

As a possibility, suicide is a wonderful thing for people acquainted with despair, it’s a defense mechanism that allows you to think: “If things get too bad, i have this last resort way out”. If life lasted 200 years and suicide was not possible, I’d go insane.

 

[Qoeleth]

I agree with you about hell. Don’t even spend a minute worrying about Purgatory, but hell is a real cause for concern. Some people are overwhelmed with suffering, are desperate to find a place of rest, to think that a brutal condemnation to eternal hell (please spare me the rose-water “people choose hell” BS please) may be what awaits them is well beyond troubling. The eternal beatitude of 75% of all the people who have lived here doesn’t justify the 25% of collateral damage. The thought that my son, who is the apple of my eye, could be afflicted in hell, while I play harp in Heaven and am unbelievably happy and content in the company of the one person who is responsible for keeping my son miserable, is an abomination. If I see an old, sick dog that wants to bite me because the pain drives him mad, making damn sure it stays alive as long as I can sustain him so I can get the satisfaction of seeing him suffer would not cross my mind. But it does God’s. if you’re loving one second and infinitely cruel the next, then you’re not a loving person. God is not a loving person. Loving him back is not an option. We have free-will because God didn’t want us to be robots. I’d like to do a “Job experience” in reverse: take away the threat of hell and see how many people love God for his own sake and not because of what he can do to their eternal souls. Eternal hell came from the mind of a loving God, I shudder to think what he would have come up with had he not been a loving God?x1000 The story of the prodigal son should have had an epilogue where the fate of the son would have been described had he not gone back to his loving daddy. Add “annihilationism”, and I gladly recant everything I said in this post. There is something deeply unsettling about God’s unrelenting will to sustain the damned so they can be eternally and hopelessly mortified. Think about this next time someone says God is love.

As a possibility, suicide is a wonderful thing for people acquainted with despair, it’s a defense mechanism that allows you to think: “If things get too bad, i have this last resort way out”. If life lasted 200 years and suicide was not possible, I’d go insane.

On a deeper level, God is All- God alone exists. You and me, this world, suffering, Heaven and Hell- are all mere passing shadows and illusions. Only God truly IS. For this reason, it matters naught whether life is wretched or pleasant, whether we live or die.

Knowing that God alone exists, and that this world (including ourselves) are merely illusion, means that there is no cause either for sorrow or joy over anything, whether we live one day or 10,000 years.

 

[Robertanthony]

On a deeper level, God is All- God alone exists. You and me, this world, suffering, Heaven and Hell- are all mere passing shadows and illusions. Only God truly IS. For this reason, it matters naught whether life is wretched or pleasant, whether we live or die.

Knowing that God alone exists, and that this world (including ourselves) are merely illusion, means that there is no cause either for sorrow or joy over anything, whether we live one day or 10,000 years.

I want as much as I can squeeze out of life, I want to be happy and at peace here and happy and at peace in the afterlife. Hell is not passing, nor an illusion. But we’re pretty much God’s paws forced to play the game according to his rules. One or a billon souls lost perpetually is of no concern to him. Can you love someone if you don’t feel some kind of emotion when they’re in pain.?Perhaps God is like a cat, it doesn’t care if you’re there or not, you come home after being away 10 hours, and it literally couldn’t care less, but I’m sure the cat wills your best, which means the cat loves you. Cold, intellectual love is sad.

 

[RPRPsych]

Losing the divine touch in creation
Not being made in the image and likeness of G_d.
No eternal life
No eternal life with loved ones.
No chance of the beatific vision/oneness with God.
Jesus would just be a man.
The OT would be pointless.
The NT would be lie.
The saints would all be fools.
The martyrs woulds be suicidal fools.
And the Guardian-reading sneering self satisfied and smug atheists would be right.

Gotta love this list, especially the last one. Especially since my father’s a devout Guardian reader, but he’s definitely Catholic too.

To which I might add:

• No restitution / justice for evil acts that go unpunished or unrecognized on this earth
• Richard Dawkins would be right, and that would be worse than everything else.

 

[meltzerboy]

On a deeper level, God is All- God alone exists. You and me, this world, suffering, Heaven and Hell- are all mere passing shadows and illusions. Only God truly IS. For this reason, it matters naught whether life is wretched or pleasant, whether we live or die.

Knowing that God alone exists, and that this world (including ourselves) are merely illusion, means that there is no cause either for sorrow or joy over anything, whether we live one day or 10,000 years.

This sounds more like Hinduism than Catholicism or Judaism. Still interesting, however.