Is God attracting people by interest?

[lylebr]

I was talking to my friend and he asked me: “I would like to know if God is attracting people to him by interest? Because if it was not the reward of Heaven and the fear of the Hell, there wouldn’t have so many christians. God hid himself in this world to we freely meet him, but it is not completely freely, we are going by interest of Heaven and fear of Hell.”

 

[Mystophilus]

I was talking to my friend and he asked me: “I would like to know if God is attracting people to him by interest? Because if it was not the reward of Heaven and the fear of the Hell, there wouldn’t have so many christians. God hid himself in this world to we freely meet him, but it is not completely freely, we are going by interest of Heaven and fear of Hell.”

The really short answer is “No”.

The longer answer, after more than a century of the study of the psychology and the sociology of religion, is that people’s reasons for religious belief are many and various, including enculturation (i.e., growing up in a religion), acculturation (i.e., inheriting a religion, often from someone loved or respected), aesthetic preference (i.e., religion and especially religious art has an emotional impact), philosophical conviction (i.e., being persuaded that the religion is a reasonable proposition), desire for certainty here and now, desire for post-mortem security (Heaven rather than Hell), and yet others as well.

It is also worth noting that the Bible spends an awful lot of time talking about life here and now, but is comparatively vague about details of the afterlife. The main point is “Love God, and love your neighbour”, not “Save yourself”.

 

[mab23]

I was talking to my friend and he asked me: “I would like to know if God is attracting people to him by interest? Because if it was not the reward of Heaven and the fear of the Hell, there wouldn’t have so many christians. God hid himself in this world to we freely meet him, but it is not completely freely, we are going by interest of Heaven and fear of Hell.”

its by no means just heaven or hell

its we are made by God in his image

and we have the choice to choose or reject him - and we have this time on earth as a gift and we get to splendor at all his creations - the intelligent and miraculous design of the Universe, earth , all the way down to the atoms

why would anyone would want to fray from their creator is beyond me