Well when looking at Christianity for example... if you live your live as if there is no God, no reason for living but to have fun, and you die but you were wrong and there is a God. All of eternity would be spent in hell. So several years of fun for eternity in hell would be the tradeoff.
Conversly by believing there is a God and living accordingly, what are you giving up? If you die in this scenario and are wrong... ok so you missed out on some things in life perhaps, but is the risk worth the reward?
Im not sure how you are saying the 2nd is the bigger risk...
there are plenty of reasons to live other than just having fun, many athiest live their lives helping others where they can, the fact they do so purely because they want to is much more admirable and selfless than the person chasing the promise of entry into heaven or trying to avoid a one way trip to hell.
I'm sure there are... that wasn't really the point of the argument though. It was which way of living carries with it the bigger risk...
You make a good point about someone's motives for doing things though. The first example is the much more selfless one for sure.
Curious. Do you believe that a person that lived a good life but did not believe in God would go to hell if they were wrong? This is a question not an attack.
My personal opinion?
Well my personal belief is that what the bible says is the absolute truth... and in there it says that if someone does not know Jesus, then He will say that He doesn't know you when you come before him after you die... which means yes I believe that someone who lives a "good" life but isn't a christian would go to hell. Those are not my rules, but those are the rules I live by.
just because one is atheist does not mean that they have no empathy. Quite the opposite can be true. Some of the greatest people on earth and those who have made enormous contributions to society and humanity were atheists, Stephen Hawking, just to name one.
Where in my post did I say atheists have no empathy? That wasn't even implied. This is being twisted well beyond the original debate. The original question was which way of living carries more risk? Both you and the previous poster have gone down rabbit trails that were not even part of the original discussion...
Are you implying that atheists are morally reprehensible monsters? One can live a loving, fun and kind life as an atheist you know. Unless of course, you associate "fun" with something you consider to be shameful or deviant. In fact, I have found that many right-wing Christians seem to have more problems with temptation and sin than the rest of us. They're hypocritical, abusive racists who don't follow the teachings of Christ (to love one's fellow man). I believe there is an afterlife of some kind but I most certainly do not believe in Hell.
No, that was not being implied at all. The debate was which way of living carried with it more "risk"...
@jrcornerl, No i don't think it's more of a risk to be an athiest in fact I would not want anything to do with the god the bible tells us to adore.
A all knowing god, that gives people free will, then takes it away by demading to be worshipped in one set way only is a narcissist and a fool.
A all knowing god would know that time, culture and experiance would be vastly different, that people would choose walk very different paths, would live their lives never hearing of other paths. so wouldn't care about which path you choose if any.
And an all loving God would care more about peoples actions and deeds then what type of prayer they whisper.
If a murderer can have his sins washed away on his deathbed and walk throught the pearly gates, but a good person who simply doesn't pray cannot then it is not heaven and it is not somewhere i wish to see.
What qualifies a person as "good"? I'm not attacking... I'm asking your opinion. What is good to one person is not good to another... therefore the definition of "good" does not work unless there is an absolute standard...
@jrcornel in the terms of the discussion does it matter what anyone person myself or otherwise deems to be good? we are talking about god, and a god that would forgive a murderer who confesses on his death bed and professes to love god but would turn away someone who spent their lives giving to others, feeding the needy etc simply because they say the wrong prayer or love the wrong person does not deserve to be believed in.