Does The Thought of God Not Existing Terrify You?

[Alea_iacta_est]

Actually religion is revealed by God.

Religion is not for us to pick and choose.

For instance, God revealed the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and it would be blasphemous to choose which commandments we were to obey.

The Christians have the Apostles' Creed, an expression of faith, so it would also be blasphemnous to pick and choose which parts of the Creed to believe.

Muslims believe the Koran is the literal words of Allah. And to pick and choose which words are Allah's is blasphemy.

So we take Revelation as revealed truth or we reject all of it.

Religion is not like a supermarket or a smörgåsbord.

Based on the amount of different forms of Christianity, I may have to disagree. What of Christian Deism, is that not a basic selection of God (who inevitably left according to deism) but without all of the other stories? No divine intervention?

There's nothing stopping anybody from choosing the parts of religions that they like over others and still calling it a sub-variation of a religion.

 

[Showbread]

Yes, very much.

This has been quite a confusing topic for me lately. Because I don't think I'll ever be able to not believe in God. I have experienced him too many times, and I know people who have had even more incredible encounters than I have. I think what scares me more is the idea God does exist, and that I just don't understand him. Which in all honesty, is where I'm at right now.

 

[zago]

Yes, very much.

This has been quite a confusing topic for me lately. Because I don't think I'll ever be able to not believe in God. I have experienced him too many times, and I know people who have had even more incredible encounters than I have. I think what scares me more is the idea God does exist, and that I just don't understand him. Which in all honesty, is where I'm at right now.

Why haven't I had any cool God experiences? Does he hate me? Am I not special enough to have cooler God encounters than others?

I am kind of lying, actually. Once I drank a whole bottle of Robitussin and I saw God, clear as day. Unmistakable. Most powerful experience of my life. And then I came down. I don't believe in God. But I will say, if God is real he is a sick fuck with a sense of humor like that. Maybe I'll start the church of Robitussin.

 

[Showbread]

Why haven't I had any cool God experiences? Does he hate me? Am I not special enough to have cooler God encounters than others?

I am kind of lying, actually. Once I drank a whole bottle of Robitussin and I saw God, clear as day. Unmistakable. Most powerful experience of my life. And then I came down. I don't believe in God. But I will say, if God is real he is a sick fuck with a sense of humor like that. Maybe I'll start the church of Robitussin.

 

[skylights]

I'm not afraid of the thought that God doesn't exist, but I am afraid of the thought that there is nothing after death but the dark abyss that is non-existence. I don't want to perish from this place, I like it.

These are my feelings on it, too.

Based on the amount of different forms of Christianity, I may have to disagree. What of Christian Deism, is that not a basic selection of God (who inevitably left according to deism) but without all of the other stories? No divine intervention?

There's nothing stopping anybody from choosing the parts of religions that they like over others and still calling it a sub-variation of a religion.

Yeah. I think everyone selects their belief set, regardless of how closely it may or may not match others'. We all have various sources of knowledge. Even single churches with single creeds may have people arguing over interpretation of certain phrases. Arguably, no two people are really ever able to have the "same" beliefs, if only because no two people have the same perception.

 

[zago]

I don't think nothingness is THAT scary, if at all. What I don't like about death is losing people I love and the loss of wisdom and experience that a person builds over their life. Lots of things are worse than death though, if you ask me. Like concentration camps and stuff.

 

[The Iron Giant]

No. I've been convinced of the non-existence of god for more than 25 years. I fully understand that like every other living thing on this planet, my life will end someday and I will no longer exist. I won't be here to care that I'm gone, so what does it matter? If I have a long life, it will be filled with far more pain than my death could ever bring. It already has been, and my suffering has been nothing in comparison to that of the rest of humanity.

What does matter is right now. There is just this time to do as much good as possible for myself and for others, and instead I waste so much of that time on other things. I take heart in knowing I'm not working for an afterlife/heaven/harem of virgins as a reward, only the legacy I leave behind with the living.

 

[Hawbawbowba]

I feel many things when I consider infinite universes. That god has to be real in every manifestation, that endless versions and non-stop quantities of me variants are treading the every-possible plane. Possible is a useless word because all the rules are broken and unbroken. Constantly growing and being annihilated and chaos and the void. Terror is one of those feelings.

 

[Eruca]

That depends perhaps on the sort of god that could exist.

Our range of possible gods would start from an evil, tyrannical god to a good, giving and caring god. The existence of the former would terrify me, while the lack of the latter would disappoint me.

Even in terms of those positives we would expect from both forms of god, the evil god's suppliance would seem to be a poisoned apple. So
1. Meaning. One would imagine any meaning the evil god can supply to our lives would be distasteful to us, if not horrific.
2. An afterlife. Again, the afterlife an evil god oversees is likely to also be highly unpleasant.
3. Moral definition. Another benefit of the existence of a god is that morals set by it are above human relativity. Unfortunately, the morals of an evil god are not likely to seem moral to any human, and we couldn't accept them willingly.

Is anyone in this thread terrified by the non-existence of an evil god? Does the possible existence of an evil god as opposed to a good one still make them want to press the god creation button, or does that possibility mute their terror of no god existing at all?

So I guess what I'm saying is be more precise with your question, OP. Oh god. I'm being an INTP cliche again.

 

[serenesam]

I guess personally for me, assuming that a soul exists, it’s even more terrifying not here on Earth when I am alive but in the afterlife because essentially who is keeping order? People/souls can do whatever they want and even if there were established “powers”, their lack of omniscience terrifies me as they may be more susceptible to making mistakes….I feel that if a God exists, everything would be more fair…hate to have to see the notion that “life isn’t fair” apply to the afterlife…of course, I am only basing all of this on a God that is Good, Perfect, and Omniscient.

 

[Cellmold]

It only frightens me when I consider how many people there are who believe in a concept of morality and adhere to it, only because they also believe that it is set out by a most-likely-non-existent-external-force-deity.

It's suggests to me, that if that were removed as an option for their basis of morality, they would quickly cast aside all pretense and a nice showering of shit would commence.

Although then again......it usually showers that way when people use their belief in gods to justify it anyhow.

 

[Mole]

Based on the amount of different forms of Christianity, I may have to disagree. What of Christian Deism, is that not a basic selection of God (who inevitably left according to deism) but without all of the other stories? No divine intervention?

There's nothing stopping anybody from choosing the parts of religions that they like over others and still calling it a sub-variation of a religion.

This is true of Protestantism which has splintered into 10,000 sects. However Protestants form only a small part of the world religious community. However if you live in the USA you might well think most of the world is Protestant. But this is simply parochialism.

 

[Alea_iacta_est]

This is true of Protestantism which has splintered into 10,000 sects. However Protestants form only a small part of the world religious community. However if you live in the USA you might well think most of the world is Protestant. But this is simply parochialism.

I didn't really consider Christian Deism a type of Protestantism, but I guess it could well be one. I always found it more like a Gnostic Agnosticism (oxymorons are fun). I do live in the USA and in a region infested with Protestants (mainly Southern Baptists), but the point I made is that people can still be apart of the umbrella term for several religions (e.g. Christianity is the umbrella for all of the various followers of Christ) and still claim that they are Christian. Therefore, one could simply pick the parts of Christianity that one believes to be true, form a religion about it, and still consider oneself Christian and through that logic be able to declare that the religion itself is a form of Christianity.

 

[cafe]

I think the idea that we're sort of swimming in the ocean with no lifeguard bothers me some, which is part of why I believe in God. I like having the lifeguard there. I don't like chaos.

No afterlife doesn't bother me much. If there isn't one I won't know that there isn't because I won't exist. I think an afterlife could be very cool but it could also be very bad, depending on which afterlife happens to be right. But I guess I am also a cafeteria Christian because I can't believe in an eternal lake of fire where people who do not believe in Jesus go.

 

[HongDou]

I'm not sure how to feel about it. I'd be more terrified by the thought of afterlife not existing.

 

[Mole]

I didn't really consider Christian Deism a type of Protestantism, but I guess it could well be one. I always found it more like a Gnostic Agnosticism (oxymorons are fun). I do live in the USA and in a region infested with Protestants (mainly Southern Baptists), but the point I made is that people can still be apart of the umbrella term for several religions (e.g. Christianity is the umbrella for all of the various followers of Christ) and still claim that they are Christian. Therefore, one could simply pick the parts of Christianity that one believes to be true, form a religion about it, and still consider oneself Christian and through that logic be able to declare that the religion itself is a form of Christianity.

Choice is part of Protestantism but choice is not part of the rest of revealed religion.

Revealed religion is a gestalt, a whole, a context, a way of looking at the world, and it is given to almost everyone in the world as their patrimony as a child.

And children accept their given revealed religion without question, it is only literate protestants who pick and choose and question and accept and reject.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

No

 

[Stansmith]

The idea of living in a permanent state of euphoria for an eternity (Heaven) terrifies me a bit more; it just seems unnatural, like being on a permanent drug trip with no comedown. I'd rather just...rest.

 

[Lexicon]

I'm okay with a God not existing. I never banked on the existence of a Supreme Being, to begin with.

Considering the existence of cancer, incurable viruses, etc.. if a god did exist, I think I'd be a little pissed. Sure, boil a lot of human suffering down to man's free will, but why the fuck does ebola exist, jerk?

/shrug

 

[WALMART]

If God controls the land and disease,
Keeps a watchful eye on me,
If he's really so damn mighty,
My problem is I can't see,
Well who would wanna be?
Who would wanna be such a control freak?

God who'd wanna be such an asshole?