I can't tell you how many times I've heard a person tell me with regard to belief in a God or a particular faith, "Well, I figure I might as well, you know? If I believe, what's the worst that can happen? I was wrong? Oh well. If I don't believe and I'm wrong, I'd be a lot worse off, so I might as well believe."
I call that explanation, that thought-process, "The God-Fearing Complex". Most people whom believe in God believe in her/him/it to be benevolent (all-loving), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful). So, my question then becomes, if this entity is all-knowing, wouldn't he/she/it be able to see right through the seemingly ingenuine faith? It doesn't take much for one to simply say, "I believe" or "I love". It takes much more effort to back up those words than to simply say them. So, if one says to believe in a faith just in case it's true out of the fear of not believing and being punished, would that signify genuine faith? Would this please a higher power enough to say, "Hey, come on in. You 'said' you believed. Welcome to paradise!"?
If I were to tell a woman I loved her, yet did so just out of a fear that I may lose her otherwise or I proposed to her due to this same fear, but no other reason, while she may not realize this at first, the truth would make its presence known after a while and I highly doubt she'd stick around.
If there is a God and he/she/it is not omniscient, then okay, I can see one getting by on saying, "I believe! I swear, I believe!" BUT, if he/she/it does know everything, then I honestly don't see how that's going to fly. Hey, if we're going to go by that philosophy, I have an idea. Let's believe in every religion in the history of man/woman/humankind, JUST IN CASE.
I call that explanation, that thought-process, "The God-Fearing Complex". Most people whom believe in God believe in her/him/it to be benevolent (all-loving), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful). So, my question then becomes, if this entity is all-knowing, wouldn't he/she/it be able to see right through the seemingly ingenuine faith? It doesn't take much for one to simply say, "I believe" or "I love". It takes much more effort to back up those words than to simply say them. So, if one says to believe in a faith just in case it's true out of the fear of not believing and being punished, would that signify genuine faith? Would this please a higher power enough to say, "Hey, come on in. You 'said' you believed. Welcome to paradise!"?
If I were to tell a woman I loved her, yet did so just out of a fear that I may lose her otherwise or I proposed to her due to this same fear, but no other reason, while she may not realize this at first, the truth would make its presence known after a while and I highly doubt she'd stick around.
If there is a God and he/she/it is not omniscient, then okay, I can see one getting by on saying, "I believe! I swear, I believe!" BUT, if he/she/it does know everything, then I honestly don't see how that's going to fly. Hey, if we're going to go by that philosophy, I have an idea. Let's believe in every religion in the history of man/woman/humankind, JUST IN CASE.
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