Comments on: Can you choose what you believe? http://mantred.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/can-you-choose-what-you-believe/ Religion, Philosophy, Atheism; try not to learn anything. Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:11:44 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: justanotherjen http://mantred.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/can-you-choose-what-you-believe/#comment-3 justanotherjen Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:49:34 +0000 http://mantred.wordpress.com/?p=19#comment-3 Very good, clear explanation. I never understood how people could throw Pascal's Wager out there like it was a logical, viable solution. I completely agree with your reasoning about god knowing in our hearts if we believe or not and that you just can't make yourself believe. I tried all my life to believe the nonsense I was learning in Catholic school. But deep down I knew I couldn't believe it, it just didn't make any logical sense. When I finally gave up trying I was a much happier person. Very good, clear explanation. I never understood how people could throw Pascal’s Wager out there like it was a logical, viable solution.

I completely agree with your reasoning about god knowing in our hearts if we believe or not and that you just can’t make yourself believe.

I tried all my life to believe the nonsense I was learning in Catholic school. But deep down I knew I couldn’t believe it, it just didn’t make any logical sense. When I finally gave up trying I was a much happier person.

]]> By: pantheophany http://mantred.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/can-you-choose-what-you-believe/#comment-2 pantheophany Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:29:44 +0000 http://mantred.wordpress.com/?p=19#comment-2 As many have pointed out, there's another side of Pascal's Wager. What if there is a God, but his test to enter heaven is in whether you honestly tried to understand the Universe He has given you through the incredible gift of Reason that He gave you? In other words, what if God, in hiding Himself, is testing us to see if we'll come to the rational conclusion that he does not exist. Those are the one's that he will reward. So we should all be atheists "just in case." Or perhaps Allah is the correct God. Or Zeus. Or one of the ten thousand others. Perhaps your sister's friends should worship them all "just in case." You wouldn't want to take a 10,000-to-1 long shot on picking just Yahweh and hoping he was the right one. Ironically, this would bring them back to a very historical view of religion: you try to discover all the powerful creatures out there and make sure to worship them all in the ways the want to be worships. That way they don't send floods or drought. I'd hoped we could be beyond that by now. A few weeks ago I wrote a lot <a href="http://pantheophany.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/on-fear/" rel="nofollow">more</a> about the wrongness of worship based on fear of punishment. Your post made me think of that again. Thanks for reminding me I'm not alone. As many have pointed out, there’s another side of Pascal’s Wager. What if there is a God, but his test to enter heaven is in whether you honestly tried to understand the Universe He has given you through the incredible gift of Reason that He gave you? In other words, what if God, in hiding Himself, is testing us to see if we’ll come to the rational conclusion that he does not exist. Those are the one’s that he will reward. So we should all be atheists “just in case.”

Or perhaps Allah is the correct God. Or Zeus. Or one of the ten thousand others. Perhaps your sister’s friends should worship them all “just in case.” You wouldn’t want to take a 10,000-to-1 long shot on picking just Yahweh and hoping he was the right one. Ironically, this would bring them back to a very historical view of religion: you try to discover all the powerful creatures out there and make sure to worship them all in the ways the want to be worships. That way they don’t send floods or drought. I’d hoped we could be beyond that by now.

A few weeks ago I wrote a lot more about the wrongness of worship based on fear of punishment. Your post made me think of that again. Thanks for reminding me I’m not alone.

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