What if you're wrong?

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Catholicc said:
Well, I meant in the event when you really DO stand before God. We all will: That is a truth of our existance.

At that time, it will be too late to make excuses for why you didn’t believe
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Unless you’re wrong about that, too. 😉
 
Awake said:
But surely any humble believer must consider the possibility that they may in fact be wrong.
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It’s a possibility, but it’s a possibility that does not over rule the revelation which we believe to be God. A more likely question would be are we interpreting revelation correctly? I believe the answer to that is yes, people who do not hold the same view as me would say no. I can tell you, that we all will eventually find the answer whether it is just or unjust for mankind.
Awake said:
Oh, and I have read Michael Novak’s book. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with it, probably because I heard great things about it before hand. He did bring up several intriguing points, though.
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Honestly, I have not read his book. I had only listened to what he said when he came and spoke to our school, I also talked with him a little afterward but I thought what he had to say was important. Not “knowing”, isn’t doubt or a loss in faith. No one “knows” empirically at least.
 
Awake said:
OK, but your original question was posed in terms of atheists vs. believers.
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You wrote:
"I hear **believers **often challenge **atheists **by asking “What if you die and you’re wrong and God does exist?” This is a fair question.

If I were an atheist, I would probably apologize to God and explain that based on what I had seen and experienced in the world, my conclusion was that he probably didn’t exist. However, since I’m not perfect, I came to the wrong conclusion."
Oh, for heaven’s sake, this is not a debate on morality. The question is very simple: what if you’re wrong? Your response seems to be “how can I possibly be wrong?”
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You wrote:
“Now, what if the same question was posed to you? What if you died and God said to you “You picked the wrong religion. Much of the morality that your religion taught was actually immoral”?”

I guess, based on your denials above, I’m having a hard time understanding what you’re really asking.
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VociMike said:
But Pascal’s Wager is not the end of the quest for God, though it can perhaps be the beginning.
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I was just saying that I think it’s the wrong reason to get involved. However, if the wrong reason becomes the right reason after accepting Christianity I see nothing wrong with that.

I know I was brought up as a Catholic as a child and you could say my faith began for the wrong reason. However, now I saw the error in it and it became the right reason.

It just seems to me that many try to sum up the whole religious experience to Pascal’s wager as a logical reason for believing. I think it’s a trivial reason for believing.
 
VociMike said:
You wrote:
"I hear **believers **often challenge **atheists **by asking “What if you die and you’re wrong and God does exist?” This is a fair question.

If I were an atheist, I would probably apologize to God and explain that based on what I had seen and experienced in the world, my conclusion was that he probably didn’t exist. However, since I’m not perfect, I came to the wrong conclusion."
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Correct, I wrote that this is a question that many atheists get asked and I am posing the same question to theists. It’s not an atheism versus theism question.
You wrote:
“Now, what if the same question was posed to you? What if you died and God said to you “You picked the wrong religion. Much of the morality that your religion taught was actually immoral”?”
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I guess, based on your denials above, I’m having a hard time understanding what you’re really asking.
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The question is very simple: what if you’re wrong? The fact that you are either too arrogant, or too scared, to admit that this is possibility says a lot.
 
Awake said:
The question is very simple: what if you’re wrong? The fact that you are either too arrogant, or too scared, to admit that this is possibility says a lot.
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Is the ad hominem necessary, or is there another reason you state lies about me as “fact”?

What if I’m wrong? Then I’m wrong. What else can I possibly say?
 
Well, I don’t believe that God (or godess or gods if such exist) would hold it against anyone who was mistaken if they genuinely spent their life seeking Divine Truth and lived as much as possible by that Truth as far as they could discern it.

Just as we don’t hold it against a child who tries to cook a nice breakfast for us but burns the toast or undercooks the boiled eggs or what have you.
 
Awake said:
The question is very simple: what if you’re wrong? The fact that you are either too arrogant, or too scared, to admit that this is possibility says a lot.
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we dont really beleive it is a possibility, thats called faith.
 
Awake said:
Lies? You hadn’t answered the question. You just came up with excuses.
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You stated as fact derogatory things about me which are not true. And you seem extremely hostile to any exploration of your premises, such as that God may say that large areas of Catholic morality are actually immoral. But you haven’t offered any examples of such potentially immoral Catholic teaching, or shown how and where God may have revealed to mankind that these things are actually immoral.
 
I think the OP was asking a hypothetical question…

Suspend your norm for a second and step outside your shoes. Drop what you believe and know is true and look at the question objectively.

IF you were to die and when you came face to face with God it was not the God that you worshipped. Say it was Zues. What would you say?

The questions answer has nothing to do with scripture. It is a just a question.
 
The only answer that I have is…

Since I have no idea what other religon teaches…

I believe that morality is in all humans and is the same in all humans. From what I know about most of the other religons of the world the moral teachings are pretty close to the same. There are minor differences but still close to equal. So I would have to hope that my life would have been lived according to the universal moral code that this (fictional) god would have written.
 
Awake said:
I hear believers often challenge atheists by asking “What if you die and you’re wrong and God does exist?” This is a fair question.

If I were an atheist, I would probably apologize to God and explain that based on what I had seen and experienced in the world, my conclusion was that he probably didn’t exist. However, since I’m not perfect, I came to the wrong conclusion.

Now, what if the same question was posed to you? ** What if you died and God said to you “You picked the wrong religion. Much of the morality that your religion taught was actually immoral”?**
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You know, Awake, the more I think about this, the more I realize that the question you pose (highlighted above) is not a corrolary of the Question,"
What if you die and you’re wrong and God does exist?"
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The correct corrolary of that question to the believer, is
What if you die and you’re wrong and God doesn’t exist?
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. In this case, you would actually never know, because you would simply stop existing.

The question you pose, is much different. The question you pose is really one of questioning your own values and beliefs within the construct of the existence of God. If what you say happened, and God told me that I led an immoral life, I would say that I was sorry, beg his foregiveness and ask whether there was anything I could do as pennance to make it right. I would also be upset with myself for not taking the time and effort to find the truth and do what was required.
 
Awake said:
What do you mean by this exactly?
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I mean that our Faith, Christianity, is provably true in a way that no other faiths are.

i have noticed many people who are not exposed to religion as a daily necessity and duty, seem to think that all faiths are equal, you could pick any of them, and have an equal chance of being correct.

i would opine that this stem froms a lack of true familiarity with either christianity or any oother faith.

simplified:

we can prove we are right, nobody else can.
 
Awake said:
Wow.

If everybody felt the same way, then there are going to be a lot of people in denial once they die.
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no, that will be the end of any possibility of denial. no longer will we infer truth from other factors, now we will be confronted with it.
 
Awake said:
Wow.

If everybody felt the same way, then there are going to be a lot of people in denial once they die.
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Its true, there will be a lot of people surprised when they die. If you want to be less suprised, do some significant resource. Find out about the Catholic church. I suggest " the Truth of Catholicism" by George Wiegel as an easy to read primer. Get familiar with the catechism and the scripture. It will help you understand what the church really teaches. If you still have questions, post them in CAF and you will get answers. there are a lot of good people here . If you want to compare, read up on the founders of the other religions that you consider feasible… That should be enough to convince you where the truth lies.
 
lorathon said:
IF you were to die and when you came face to face with God it was not the God that you worshipped. Say it was Zues. What would you say?
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Problem with this is that Zues makes no promise of salvation or any thing in the afterlife. The gods of polytheistic religions are meant to explain bad things and good things in our current life. Not to explain afterlife.

There is hades, but all dead people went to hades it was not a matter of judgement.

As far as I know the God of Abraham is the only God that truly judges you.

I’ve heard it said, that all religions which worship one true God (and does not contain any other gods) worship the same God. However, that does not mean that they believe that salvation is brought about in the same way.

I can’t think of any religions other than the Abrahamic religions that worship one God. If anyone knows of any other religions that worship only one God please correct me. Also, the Abrahamic religions are the only religions that have an idea of paradise. Again, correct me if I’m wrong on this matter. (I know Buddhism and Hinduism, reach a state of enlightenment or Nirvana but these are not the same idea of a paradise.)

You will only be judged by one true God, or not by God or a god at all.
 
iNs1d3tRiP said:
…
As far as I know the God of Abraham is the only God that truly judges you.

I’ve heard it said, that all religions which worship one true God (and does not contain any other gods) worship the same God. However, that does not mean that they believe that salvation is brought about in the same way.

I can’t think of any religions other than the Abrahamic religions that worship one God. If anyone knows of any other religions that worship only one God please correct me. Also, the Abrahamic religions are the only religions that have an idea of paradise. Again, correct me if I’m wrong on this matter. (I know Buddhism and Hinduism, reach a state of enlightenment or Nirvana but these are not the same idea of a paradise.)

You will only be judged by one true God, or not by God or a god at all.
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Nice belief, but “what if you’re wrong?”

There are millions upon millions of people in the world that believe differently.

The stronger a person’s faith, the more consistently that person behaves as-if their faith were true. More than that cannot be claimed or proven - of any religion.
 
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