ruffers wrote:there is always the lingering, nagging doubt in the back of my mind that I may just be wrong, so I reserve the right to change my mind. I imagine this will is mostly likely to happen in the moments immediately before my demise.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/lolol.gif)
That's like "Pascal's Wager": a kind of "game-theory" approach:
paraphrase wrote:If I do not believe in God:
If God does not exist, then there are no consequences.
If God does exist, then I go to Hell.
If I do believe in God:
If God does not exist, then there are no consequences.
If God does exist, then I go to Heaven.
Therefore it is better to believe in God.
However, this argument falls down in that:
1) God will know that you are choosing to believe in Him merely to avoid Hell, and may send you there anyway for being a cynical b*st*rd.
2) There generally
are consequences to believing, such as spending a few hours at church/temple/mosque/whatever once (or more) a week, financial support to one's church, and so forth.
3) How is it possible to choose to believe? If I look at the evidence and decide that I can't in all honesty believe in God, how can I then say "well, I'll believe anyway just in case..."?
4) How do you know you're believing in the
right God? If religion A demands that you accept certain dogmas to go to Heaven, and religion B demands that you accept dogmas contradicting those of religion A, which do you accept?
5) The whole thing is a veiled threat: "believe or else."