N4mddissent
Active Member
- Sep 30, 2008
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See what most people, non-believers, especially the rabid strain, don't understand is that if genuine Christianity is totally bogus, once we die, we literally have had nothing to lose and, in any case, have lived a beautiful life.
If Christianity did not exist, civilization at this point would probably have died out. Seriously!
Anne Marie
If we're wrong, then we're either going to hell or not. If hell is real and we are sent to hell, god is not just. Infinite punishment for finite sin, especially when he chooses not to reveal himself to non-believers and provides them with enough rationality to conceive of a universe without a god, is not just.
A god who would assign me infinite punishment because I unwillingly, through the use the mind he ostensibly gave me, reached the conclusion that it is unlikely he exists, despite living a life of equal or even superior morality to many believers I have known, is a god who places vanity above morality. Such a god is a horrible creature.
If god doesn't send me to hell, then what difference does it make?
And as far as living a beautiful life, I guess that depends on which version of christianity. Don't fall in the common trap of creating the false premise that there is only one version of christianity. Perhaps your interpretation is that there is only one "true" version of christianity, but that is a subjective article of faith and in any case does not change the reality that christians have a wide range of interpretations of a "christian life" each one holding with equal conviction that theirs is a valid interpretation if not the only valid interpretation.
When christians in early America burned "witches" they were following their interpretation of a christian life and believed with equal conviction as any christian today. Yet burning people alive is not what I would consider a beautiful life.
Because acts such as slavery and killing witches, among other atrocities, and almost any ideological slant can take on a bestowed "morality" and divine support by reading certain biblical passages and certain interpretations, then a beautiful life can only be achieved by selecting the positive moral aspects and wisdom from the teachings of the bible and regarding them as the "true" interpretation. But if you already have the ability to select which parts are moral and good, then you do not need the bible at all, but instead can rely on one's own sense of right and wrong to live a beautiful life.