I have had so many people over the years make this statement to me.
"If I believe in god and then it turns out I was wrong, I have lost nothing. If you don't believe in god and turns out your wrong you have lost everything."
I would like to give my opinion on this.
Let's say you live your whole life and you live to be 100 believing in god. You go to church every Sunday, Wednesday night and then read your bible daily. You pray before every meal, you pray during the day, you pray at bed time. You attend revivals, you go to VBS and to bible study classes. If you took all those hours and put them together collectively, I believe it would amount to years.
Then you die and nothing. There is no god, there is no heaven. You were wrong. It was a myth, a fable. What have you lost?
Years...years you could have spent more time with your children, years you could have spent with friends, years you could have spent with your spouse, years you could have been reading a science book learning more about the world around you. Years you could have been actively helping those in need. I could go on and on but you get the picture.
If you are wrong and there is no god, then yes you will have lost a lot. If this life is all we have then time is precious and any time spent on lies and superstition would be a huge waste of that time. Time you can never get back.
Now if I am wrong then I guess I will find out what I have lost. If the bible was truly as Bill and others say the literal word of god then I don't know that I could have made it to heaven anyway. My brain does not function that way. If there is a god in the end, I just have to hope that because he would be my creator he would understand my problem with belief in something that I have no proof of. I really have no other choice. I can't force my self into believing in something so lacking in real evidence.
I know all about faith. Someone on here said its like having faith in your spouse not to cheat on you (maybe thenagel?) I feel it is way more of a leap of faith than that. Ya see I have reasons to have faith in my husband. He has proven to me that he is faithful to me. It is tangible. God has not.
I hope this helps those of you that asked that question of non believers to understand a little better where we are coming from.
Life is precious and short. Live it to the fullest!
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