Would you believe in God if there was no promise of an afterlife?

  • Thread starter Thread starter nicholasG
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Would you believe Hillary Clinton was the president if she won the 2016 election?

Whatever is, is. Whatever is not, is not. I believe what is true. I don’t believe what is false. What we think should, usually I think, correspond to reality. It’s beneficial and right, I would say.
 
Would you commit wrongdoings, crimes and atrocities if there were no punishments for them (in this life, or the next) 😛
 
Dimmesdale said:
Would you believe Hillary Clinton was the president if she won the 2016 election?

Whatever is, is. Whatever is not, is not. I believe what is true. I don’t believe what is false. What we think should, usually I think, correspond to reality. It’s beneficial and right, I would say.
Click to expand...
Yes. Illustrates how hypotheticals can lead astray.

To answer the heart of the OP’s question…we shouldn’t love God for the benefits that might accrue to us, we should love God for the purpose of love: because God is good and holy and deserving of our love, and to be united with God is awesome.
 
I do not think it is possible to divorce the reality of God and Heaven, so I am unable to play the game 🙂
 
Yes, Dimmesdale is quite right. The unstated premise of the question, that people should choose to believe things because it suits them, is clearly false.
 
That would be a very different God. I don’t think God would design us with a love and desire for life/continued existence (generally speaking) if He were to then exclude us from that possibility. The resurrection and eternal life are consistent with the goodness and love of God IMO.
 
Yes because the simple existence of God is not something I believe on faith, but assent to reasoned knowledge. While I haven’t studied it in enough depth (mind–body problem), I think there are very good reasons to acknowledge that there is an immaterial and substantial aspect of the human mind as well.
 
Last edited:
Yes, because being a lover of God is something worth doing, worth being, and is a type of person to be no matter if it wins one an immortal inheritance or immortal-like inheritance. to me this question is like asking “would you write good books if your name wouldnt be remembered as a famous novelist” “would you make good art if your name wouldnt ever be known forever” “would you advance medical knowledge even if someone else took the credit and you were forgotten” “would you raise children well even if they forgot you on their 20th birthday” and so on. there are things worth doing no matter the reward, and being close to God is one of them and requires knowledge/faith in him to do so
 
Last edited:
Maximian said:
Yes, Dimmesdale is quite right. The unstated premise of the question, that people should choose to believe things because it suits them, is clearly false.
Click to expand...
I think that, in certain cases, one should believe what is more positive than negative, even if the grounds for it is shaky, if it keeps one sane and away from despair. If one is mentally ill, and he has recourse only to a fantasy world to keep him or her from committing suicide, I believe he has the right to take asylum in a delusion, if he genuinely thinks there’s nothing better or more supportive.

Generally though, I think we should be oriented towards the true.
 
krayzevuze said:
Yes, because being a lover of God is something worth doing, worth being, and is a type of person to be no matter if it wins one an immortal inheritance or immortal-like inheritance.
Click to expand...
This is exactly why I call myself a Christian. Because regardless of whether or not Christ was the Son of God, the ideals that He espoused, of sacrificing oneself for others, and loving thy neighbor, are still worthy of emulating.

Unfortunately, Christ’s example is also why I don’t call myself a Catholic.
 
I have felt that way too, it is part of why I essentially in my catholicism, focus on 1) God and myself 2) following God 3) my priest 4) my parish

it is all very localized for me, so I do not focus on the hatred of God mimicking Catholicism, but only on God’s love and living it. I do feel the sentiment also though, if you have not already, Leo Tolstoy’s later post-conversion works may interest you, as he rejected “Churchianity” for a following of God’s love alone: http://www.earthlyfireflies.org/works-by-leo-tolstoy/ (ignore who runs the site, they are conspiracy theorist, but they have translations of his rare works on here, that few focus on, this one being fundamental: http://www.earthlyfireflies.org/the-christian-teaching-by-lev-tolstoy/) also maybe the work of this one: The Christian consciousness, its elements and expression : a discourse delivered at the installation of J.K. Karcher as pastor of the Spring Garden Unitarian Church, October 5, 1859 / : Frothingham, Octavius Brooks, 1822-1895. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive a 19th century unitarian/trancendentalist, they do express the love of God in a beautiful, beautiful way, worthy of living, especially through Jesus’ own example, a small excerpt from that archive.org link:
I AM THE VINE, YE ARE THE BRANCHES ; HE THAT ABIDETH IN ME, AND I IN
HIM, THE SAME BRINGETH FORTH MUCH FRUIT.
Click to expand...
Have you ever fairly mastered this thought: That
once upon a time, eighteen hundred years ago, what
we call Christianity was all gathered up in the person
of a single man, who lived and breathed like other
men, in the far-off land of Judea, — when Christ was
Christianity, and all the Christianity there was on
earth \ Put the intervening centuries by. Let your im-
aginations brush away, like so much dust on a window-
pane, the vast Church that stands between you and him.
Disappear, pope, cardinal, and priest ; cathedral, chapel,
shrine, altar, vestments, symbol, cross and goblet, keys
and dove ; vanish, creeds of every complexion, sects of
every name; vanish, pulpit and vestry-room, organ
and choir, reading desk and surplice ; vanish, New
Testament, Liturgy, and Hymn-book. Let us see
that shape ye have so long hidden from our view. In
that remote corner of the earth, Jesus of Nazareth
Click to expand...
stands alone, uncomprehended by the few who love
him, despised or feared by the few who love him not,
unheeded by the many who see in him nothing by
which he can be distinguished from common huma-
nity ; solitary in person, and solitary in spirit, having
little in common with his generation; solitary, with
his great Religion folded in the secret place of his own
heart. The mighty Truths which the world hail
as revelations and build up into confessions, are his
private thoughts. The creative forces which have
wrought such moral results, and even something like
a transformation in the sentiments of the most ele-
vated portion of mankind, are the silent affections of
his heart. The regenerating principles which have
effected so much towards the growth of a new order
of humanity, are the deep convictions of his individual
conscience ; and profoundly hidden in the experiences
of his soul, are the spiritual laws that have since puri-
fied the piety and re-constructed the worship of mil-
lions of men… It falls into the
ground and dies.
Click to expand...
he continues but it is beautiful
 
Jesus said we would be going to be with Him … so I cannot answer this ridiculous hypothetical.
 
If there was no afterlife, if I just became dust when I died, I would believe in God and follow Him today, because my life is better with God in it.

I grew up with an alcoholic parent that had addictions. I am forever grateful that God in His kindness lifted me out of that darkness. If you don’t know how dark life can be, you are in a blessed place.
 
nicholasG said:
Would you believe in God if there was no afterlife?
Click to expand...
Being able to envision a non-Creator-existence has not been possible for me. It really has nothing to do with an afterlife, punishment or reward etc, but the simple fact of my being and conscious awareness. I honestly can’t conceive of these things outside some first Source.
 
Yes!

In fact, I sometimes struggle with notions of afterlife…and yet I live and breathe and abide in God. I am in relationship with Him and cannot deny His presence. And so KNOWING Him, I TRUST Him on all the rest.
 
That’s a good question. Very straightforward. There are, in fact, atheist who I’ve run into online who do believe there is a God but there is no afterlife. I remember, one even saying, “God, pulled a Pontius Pilate on humanity.” Oddly enough, there are also atheists who believe in an afterlife but don’t believe in God. Both are odd sorts to me, but I’ve run into them.

As for me. My salvation is not guaranteed. I, like many but not all, have sinned. So, I too may face Hell or Death. Again, I haven’t committed grave sins and nothing I haven’t already confessed to a Priest. But in climbing this mountain of Faith, I’ve stopped sinning many, many years ago, continued praying, and continued having Faith in God.

So, to answer your question, I know there is a God, that much life has taught me. Where I or anyone else stand with Him, I do not know. I’m not so cynical to suspect that God is like a Watchmaker who gets life going and then sits back and watches us suffer for his entertainment. I do believe God has intervened in my life and the life of others many times. And I do believe, no matter what your circumstance if you look to God with honest, humility and even a little bit of yearning he will respond and his response will impact you.

But again, I wrote a post on this, it is only by God’s Grace alone that I may enter into his humble abode.
 
There was a group of people that believed in God without believing the afterlife, the Sadducees. They thought believing God was worth it even though they did not believe they were going to be rewarded for it in an afterlife.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top