What If You Are Wrong

[BluEiis]

Everyone has their religion. Maybe you're a Satanist, a Wiccan, a Christian, or a Catholic..whatever. Or maybe you're agnostic or atheist. Whatever your religion may be, how can you be so convinced that you are right?? Do you have an absolute peace and assurance that your religion is the one true faith? Or do you believe several religions have it right? We are all going to die one day. What happens after we die?? What if I was wrong, and there really is a Heaven and hell? What if I was mistaken when I denied connection to any religion. If I died while typing this post, where would I be right now?? I honestly don't know how to process any of this. I think all people who follow a religion are crazy, and I think life is pointless and has no purpose. We are ALL going to DIE, and there is NOTHING after that.. What a fucking waste. The probability of a Heaven and Hell is insanely unlikely. I am so up in the air right now. What is life all about? What happens after we die?? How can people be SO SURE their religion is the true religion?? What if you're wrong about your faith?

[Boobies]

Definition of faith 'Complete trust or confidence in someone or something', doesn't that kind of speak for itself?

[Sythan]

I'm not convinced I'm right, I could very well be wrong, and I accept that, however I could very well be correct as well.

People who cannot accept the fact their religion may be wrong, have either been brainwashed to believe so, or are so afraid they will turn to anything that gives them comfort, and will not allow anyone to tell them otherwise.

[Kate*]

I don't think there is one true answer because if there were, there would be only one religion. I would call myself interfaith. I don't follow one religion exactly, but I pull from different ones to make up my belief system. If you're wrong there's no way to know until you get there. I don't think life is a waste, we're all here for some reason and I know what my opinion of that reason is, but it isn't my place to judge anyone who believes differently. I can disagree though.

[QuantumModulus]

Interesting. That's usually one of the arguments that theists use against atheists and agnostics. xD That usually comes about in the form of Pascal's Wager, which basically constitutes that you'll get into heaven if you believe in God blindly, so even if there is no evidence for the supposition, there is an inherently increased probability in being right by believing anyway. This, however, is a moot argument, essentially because a.) many theists dispute whether or not a belief in God is all that's necessary to get into heaven, or if it's necessary at all, and b.) there are so many hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of religions that have existed, and that conflict with each other, that choosing one because it might be right offers such a dismal probability increase that you might as well not waste the effort. There's absolutely no piece of evidence that makes any one religion more credible than the other.

Whenever a religious person claims that their religion has absolute truth, it goes something like "My religion is true because the religion's book says that it is true, and hence all others are false." I think it's clear to any mature being with rational thought that this constitutes circular logic, and that it is, at best, laughable.

If I'm wrong about religion, then I'd rather I lived a wholesome life through clear reasoning and be wrong than a deluded and, quite frankly, immature, one, led by blind faith and cognitive dissonance so that I can be right.

[ALLorNOTHINGforCHRIST]

Originally Posted by Kate*

I don't think there is one true answer because if there were, there would be only one religion. I would call myself interfaith. I don't follow one religion exactly, but I pull from different ones to make up my belief system. If you're wrong there's no way to know until you get there. I don't think life is a waste, we're all here for some reason and I know what my opinion of that reason is, but it isn't my place to judge anyone who believes differently. I can disagree though.

This is not the case I can believe the sky is green. Does that make it green no therefore there CAN be a TON of religion with only one being right.

[John 6:29]

Well, I don't really consider myself part of a religion, as I've stopped attending church. Too much finger pointing. However, I am a Christian. I do believe that the Christian faith is true, or I wouldn't be Christian. Am I 100% sure by empirical observations and facts? No. Not at all. I do know that I have a certainty despite this, that is, I have the same faith in Christianity that I have the same faith tomorrow the sun will rise. Of course, I don't have any proof, other than that the sun has risen in the past. And I have no proof that Christianity is true, other than what I read in the Bible matches with how I view the world.

But, suppose I am wrong. I've thought about this a lot. I've even though about what if my beliefs are right, but I'm not saved and go to Hell. My only response is that I am more content than I've ever been in my life. So, if I'm wrong, if I go to Hell, if there is no Heaven, if there is no Hell, I'll die content. But then again, if there is no afterlife, what will it matter when I die? I won't remember if I wasted my life. But for me, it doesn't feel wasted. The Bible has teaches me to be content, and to love others. So, even if I am wrong, I still am happy with what the Bible has taught me.

[dr2005]

If I'm wrong, then when my body is lowered into a grave or put into a crematorium (not sure which I'm likely to go for yet) and rejoins the ecosystem, that will be that as far as the human being that is me goes. Hopefully I'll have lived a good life, made some kind of positive difference and died content so if that is all that there is to it then I won't have much to complain about. It certainly won't stop me doing the best I can to follow the example set by those who have gone before me or challenge my belief that there is a God, not because such belief is impervious to any challenge but because it doesn't hinge on me being rewarded with eternal bliss and skycake. I know I have my moments, but I'm really not that shallow.

[Magic.]

A friend of mine made a point the other day which kinda made sense to me ... almost all religions say if you do not believe in their God you will go to hell. So basically if one of them is right, everyone else, including some sinners in that religion go to hell ... makes sense, but for "forgiving" God's, seems kinda unrealistic.
Personally I'm happy knowing that until I die I have no idea what's gonna happen. I do believe there is a "higher power" than us, but I'm not keen on religion and I'm not about to choose one. I think if there is a higher being it wouldn't judge us for most of the things religions say it will ...

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

I have a slightly different answer than the other users. Whether I go to hell, heaven, land of mystical fairies, high-five Vishnu, etc... none of it immediately concerns me. Perhaps I am wrong, however, dwelling on whether I'm wrong means I'm thinking of my "life" after I die. I'd rather think of my current life when I am alive as opposed to ignoring my life and pondering the "what if's" when I die. This is an argument I use against some theists: they emphasize some aspect of life yet they don't focus on it, they focus on how they will be after death. To me it seems unusual, perhaps even hypocritical. My answer may be biased in that after I live my life, I'm happy as a pig in mud, I won't care if Satan sticks a pitch-fork up my ass sideways or if Zeus wants to use his lightning bolts to light me up like a Christmas tree.

In other words, if I'm wrong, eh, cant say I don't expect it. However, to understand what life is about, it seems so weird to focus on death.

[TheNumber42]

If I'm wrong then I am wrong. It's no big deal. I sincerely believe that when I die nothing will hapen, I'll just wink out of existence, but if that's not true I suppose I'll deal with it when I get there. I'd much rather live under that assumption than waste my entire life on a (probably) fake religion weighing my every action based on what the mystical Sky Daddy says I can do. It's just not worth it to me to bet my happiness now on what I consider to be extremely bad odds that I *might* have some sort of super-duper happiness later.

[Kate*]

Whether we're wrong or not I think that it's between you and whatever higher power you believe in, if you believe in one at all. I don't think it's anyone else's place to judge what's right or wrong for another person or what will happen to them. There is already something or someone in most established religions to do that.

[MadPoet]

I don't know that I'm right, because there's no way of telling. That's why it's called faith. You don't know for certain, but you still believe. I know that I could be wrong, but what's the worst that could happen? I die and find out that I'm wrong. I figure I might as well live my life believing I have a purpose, because then even if I'm wrong I can still say I had a positive outlook on life and I lived it for something, believed in something. There's nothing that tells me my religion is the right one. But I still believe. And that's really all I can say.

[Xujhan]

If I'm wrong then I'm wrong. It doesn't much matter to me, as I've yet to be presented with a god that I'd be interested in worshipping anyway. That said, I'm about as certain of the non-existence of the Abrahamic war god as I am of the non-existence of Sauron, Zeus and Santa Claus.

[~Mr. Self Destruct~]

What if I'm wrong? What if the Ancient Greeks were wrong? What if Pagans are wrong? What if Christians are wrong? What if the Scientologists are wrong?
It's really a pointless question.

[chook14]

I guess that's why I'm agnostic...I believe in something, I'm just not sure what! I like to believe that there's some higher power out there that's watching over everything. But if I'm completley honest with myself, there probably isn't. It's just nice to believe that there's something there, and that life has purpose. I don't need proof to believe that, I guess it's just a state of mind thing. I find it scary to think that we're all just here in this crazy messed up world for no reason, and with no direction. Mostly though I believe in science...you can't go wrong with science! Evolution and a lot of other life-defining things have been proven. You don't need to question that. I don't think anyone will be punished for not believing, or believing in the wrong religion. I don't think life is a test. If god exists, then we should have been given more proof. Life is about asking questions, forming opinions etc. You just believe in what you feel comfortable believing in. And if you choose to believe in no religion, then so be it.

[BluEiis]

I understand where each of you is coming from.. I've just been more than a little overwhelmed with my Christian brother in law on one hand and my Catholic aunt on the other hand along with my agnostic little brother.. All these beliefs are SO different..but only one of them is right.. and then they say stuff like Heaven is forever and so is Hell.. Forever is a long ass time.lol I don't know I've just been really confused lately.

[TheNumber42]

Originally Posted by BluEiis

I understand where each of you is coming from.. I've just been more than a little overwhelmed with my Christian brother in law on one hand and my Catholic aunt on the other hand along with my agnostic little brother.. All these beliefs are SO different..but only one of them is right.. and then they say stuff like Heaven is forever and so is Hell.. Forever is a long ass time.lol I don't know I've just been really confused lately.

It's a personal choice, but when it really comes down to it, do you want to pretend to believe something out of fear? Especially when it will be basically trading your freedom and happiness in this life for the chance (and not a very good chance) of some sort of happiness after you die.

I mean, if you really, honestly believe it, that's cool. But if you're just trying to believe it out of fear, don't. Even if God or some other deity is real, the chances of picking the right religion out of thousands is essentially nil. There's no point in believing 'just to be safe' because you'll probably be wrong anyway.

tl;dr If you honestly believe that's awesome, but don't let fear force you to pretend to believe.

[Kate*]

Originally Posted by BluEiis

I understand where each of you is coming from.. I've just been more than a little overwhelmed with my Christian brother in law on one hand and my Catholic aunt on the other hand along with my agnostic little brother.. All these beliefs are SO different..but only one of them is right.. and then they say stuff like Heaven is forever and so is Hell.. Forever is a long ass time.lol I don't know I've just been really confused lately.

See, to me this proves my earlier point that I believe that there is more than one right answer.

[John 6:29]

Originally Posted by The Man And XX Master

I have a slightly different answer than the other users. Whether I go to hell, heaven, land of mystical fairies, high-five Vishnu, etc... none of it immediately concerns me. Perhaps I am wrong, however, dwelling on whether I'm wrong means I'm thinking of my "life" after I die. I'd rather think of my current life when I am alive as opposed to ignoring my life and pondering the "what if's" when I die. This is an argument I use against some theists: they emphasize some aspect of life yet they don't focus on it, they focus on how they will be after death. To me it seems unusual, perhaps even hypocritical. My answer may be biased in that after I live my life, I'm happy as a pig in mud, I won't care if Satan sticks a pitch-fork up my ass sideways or if Zeus wants to use his lightning bolts to light me up like a Christmas tree.

In other words, if I'm wrong, eh, cant say I don't expect it. However, to understand what life is about, it seems so weird to focus on death.

I can see your point, but I don't necessarily agree. When you plan to go on a trip or a vacation, you focus on it. Perhaps you do not think about it 24/7 but you must make arrangements, save money, plan flight tickets, etc. I believe it's the same with religion, we are planing for another destination. I understand what you mean by living in the now, but I believe if we are concerned with what comes next, we'll be concerned with right now because right now determines what happens next.... like the vacation example. If you don't save, don't make arrangements, don't get flight tickets, and just live presently, you'd never make the trip. But even being a Christian, I try to concern myself with the present.

Originally Posted by Kate*

See, to me this proves my earlier point that I believe that there is more than one right answer.

How did that prove anything? Just because people disagree doesn't mean there's no (or more than one) right answer.

[Kate*]

Can I just point out that this very well may be how religious wars broke out? This is an oxymoron, but that's beside the point. We all have a right to believe whatever we want and we won't know for sure until we die anyway. It isn't for any one of us to decide who's right or wrong.

[QuantumModulus]

Originally Posted by Kate*

Can I just point out that this very well may be how religious wars broke out? This is an oxymoron, but that's beside the point. We all have a right to believe whatever we want and we won't know for sure until we die anyway. It isn't for any one of us to decide who's right or wrong.

Nobody's trying to decide who's right or wrong. The only thing of merit here to discuss is the methods through which we hope determine possible answers, and how reliable they are.

We can have all sorts of people saying that they believe in this or that for this reason or that reason, and with absolute certainty, or as John 6:29 so hilariously points out, certainty with no empirical proof, but it's not going to change the validity of their arguments, and it's certainly not going to change the fact that no one religion is more objectively true than another. All we have are thousands of opinions that have no empirical basis, and one null position that abstains from all of them. Based on fundamental principles of logic, if there can be no agreement between contradictory views, none of which have firm empirical evidence, then the only reasonable position to have is the one that essentially is no position whatsoever.

The good thing about this is that it's not saying that any religious claims are right or wrong -- it's simply saying that it's pointless to have anything other than the no position until we have evidence that any one religion is more true than another. It baffles me how the grand majority of people can so blatantly ignore such a simple constituent of logic and laugh directly in its face, while still trying to help their religions hold water in an intellectual debate.

[muchadoaboutsomething]

First of all, I'm an atheist.

Now, If I'm wrong, then I guess I'll find out when I eventually die. I'm not going to waste my one and only life worrying about that, though.

[Celestial.]

I don't claim that my religion is the only one that's valid. I could be wrong, and that's okay. I believe that all religions have elements of truth in them. It's like climbing a mountain - there's different ways to go about it, but more than one gets you to the top. My religion is what feels right for me, so it's what I follow.

[Anthropomorphic]

I'm an atheist. If I'm wrong, and I'm denied entry to Heaven upon my death, then that's that, and there's nothing I can do about it at that point.

I'd like to say, in response to the essential question of "What if you're wrong?" perhaps there's an idea that we're all right. Every single person will be admitted to their own personal version of Heaven based on their religious beliefs and personal moral standards. Or, if you're atheist, you'll die and be stuck in the ground or incinerated in cremation. Or, if you're Hindu, be reincarnated. Maybe we're all right.

[Cabron]

I'm also an atheist. I'm with Cody in that I believe that after we die, it's just like how it was before we were born. Nothingness. There are no pearly gates, and no saint is going to be standing there with a list of who gets into Heaven and who doesn't. And if all that is true (which I find almost laughable in its unlikeliness) then I guess I'm damned. So be it.

[Dont3verLooseHope]

“I would rather believe in God and find out I was right than not to believe and find out I was wrong." x kimbeerlybeth

[Xujhan]

Originally Posted by TotaallyWorthless

“I would rather believe in God and find out I was right than not to believe and find out I was wrong." x kimbeerlybeth

Pascal's Wager. What if you die only to discover that god only allows atheists into heaven?

[dr2005]

Originally Posted by Xujhan

Pascal's Wager. What if you die only to discover that god only allows atheists into heaven?

You guys wouldn't want to go in there anyway if some of these threads are anything to go by, so we'd probably get a free pass.

[zakc40]

Most people arnt completely sure, of course i go to synagogue, but if i was asked to bet my life one way or the other. well im only human! of course i would probably go against God, but if im wrong then no harm done, and if im right then great!

[Xujhan]

Originally Posted by dr2005

You guys wouldn't want to go in there anyway if some of these threads are anything to go by, so we'd probably get a free pass.

That would depend on the heaven, and just because we'd turn down god's offer it doesn't follow that he'd make the offer to others either. I can imagine many gods and many heavens that I would happily accept, they just happen to not be much like the gods and heavens commonly proposed by human religions.

[krstnrcksbtt]

I am Christian. I don't know if I'm right or wrong. I do believe that there is a God, a
Heaven and a Hell. Even though I am Christian, I sometimes wonder how it could be
possible. I don't think anyone knows for sure. I mean, that's why it is a belief, not
fact.

[dr2005]

Originally Posted by Xujhan

That would depend on the heaven, and just because we'd turn down god's offer it doesn't follow that he'd make the offer to others either.

I know - I was joking. I can come up with a more in-depth response if you'd like, but given how our debates have gone before I thought a bit of humour was worth a try.

Originally Posted by Xujhan

I can imagine many gods and many heavens that I would happily accept, they just happen to not be much like the gods and heavens commonly proposed by human religions.

Intriguing. Do you believe such gods cannot exist then in light of your self-professed atheism, or is it merely a case of the lack of evidence for their existence as with the mainstream religions? I'm not trying to be probing, I'm just quite curious.

[Xujhan]

Originally Posted by dr2005

Intriguing. Do you believe such gods cannot exist then in light of your self-professed atheism, or is it merely a case of the lack of evidence for their existence as with the mainstream religions? I'm not trying to be probing, I'm just quite curious.

I see no more or less reason to think that such gods exist than any other mythical deity. As a general rule it's almost impossible to prove the total non-existence of something, particularly something as ill-defined as a god. I think I a science fiction analogy actually works well here: it's possible that sentient life exists elsewhere in the galaxy, although at present we have no reason to think it does. However, we can be pretty damn certain that Klingons don't exist. I view gods the same way: there may be some god-like being somewhere in the universe (or outside it), but any specific god we dream up is essentially guaranteed to be wrong.

In general, I do my best to align my beliefs with reality; I try to be as hesitant to accept a pleasant idea as I would be to accept an unpleasant one. I can think of hundreds of gods nicer that the Abrahamic one, but my liking them doesn't have any impact on their actual existence.

[TheBabyEater]

Because worrying constantly about whether or not I'll get into hell means my face will break out in acne.

[Ess The Morgenstern *]

Actually, I think religion comes from desperation, because one fears of finding nothing after death (in that case, you wouldn't notice it anyway). It's kind of a common human feeling the need of being 'eternal', to last forever and some people find in God their salvation. We don't know if we're right, there's an 'idea of God' (or Allah, Jeovah or however you may call him, all in all, it ends up being the same idea) but this 'idea' is a concept, a definition so it's not "alive". There's God as long as you want him to exist, he creates himself in your mind and you contribute to his life by giving him a material body 'to exist'. He's formed by colective concience, but we can't see him, so we can't know him rationally though we can do know him by feelings, by willing power. I must point out I'm not a religious person, I'm atheist but it doesn't mean I don't think there's something after death, not neccessarily God or such, but there's a common concience as I said, there's a common idea (though everybody 'makes' his own god as they imagine him) and it's a colective thought which is kind of immortal, and I'm sure about that. Everybody wants to be immortal, and they will be by contributing to form this concience, and I thinks that's about it, that's our God, a God who is 'alive', who suffers, love, etc, with feelings, not just a passive concept but an active 'creator'. Because if we limit ourselves to believe in an idea, we'd get an 'explanation'. Sure, we need an explanation for life but once you get it, you have an explanation of where you come from BUT that's all? No, you need to know what's the meaning of your life, and this concept can't explain it. That's why we create a God in our minds, similar to us, all in all, an human God, who's divine because they have his own concience and, at the same time, involves everyone's concience, and that's our aspiration, be ourselves and, at the same time, EVERYTHING else, that makes us immortal, and since this God is, we are part of his, and as part of his, we're immortal too. And that's what there's after death, a perpetuation of ourselves in alive people's mind.
I don't know if you get me, but I mean, I don't believe in 'God concept', the one theologists apology for, but in 'Human God', the one who makes you immortal by being part of you as you're part of him.