"What if you're wrong?" the Christian man asked me. I told him his question has Pascal's Wager written all over it. I understand why he's asking: the threat of hell is so severe, so intimidating, so eternal, and such an essential component to the "loving" message of the Christian gospel that to be mistaken about god is the worst possible mistake a person can make. After all, one's eternal fate rests (for reasons that are less than clear) on believing the right things. "What if you're wrong?" when asked by a Christian comes with the additional implied question: "You don't want to go to hell, do you?"
What if YOU'RE wrong, Christian friend? Again, your question reeks of Pascal's Wager, which of course promotes a false dichotomy. Atheism and Christianity aren't the only two options out there. What if you are wrong, and the Muslims are right? What if all the religions are wrong and god is pissed off because everyone's idea of deity is incorrect? What if you are wrong, and you've spent your time, your career, your finances, your entire life advocating a fantasy while those atheists and freethinkers you have been trying to "save" have been the ones with the firm grasp on reality this whole time? I ask not with the implied threat of hellfire and damnation, but with a compassionate reminder that reality is wondrous and mysterious and inspiring enough without needing to gloss it up with fantasies and delusions, and there are enough real problems in our world without needing to create imaginary problems. Seriously, my Christian friend: what if you are wrong?
What if I'm wrong? Then I hope god or whoever/whatever is out there is intelligent and rational and compassionate and empathic enough to understand the limits of our understanding, that I and many others like me would have believed if we had only seen reason to believe, that many of us used to believe, and didn't step away from faith because we wanted to, but because we saw it was the right thing to do.
Dead-Logic.com
"What if You're Wrong?"
"What if You're Wrong?"
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