God owns heaven. he created it and made it his home and his property. God thus has set up the rules for his property and the rules are very easy. All he asks is that if you want to live on his property with him that you have a relationship/friendship with him now. This friendship can be made by 1) praying 2) reading a biography he had some dudes write for him. 3) respect his authority in his property. Now if you don't want to follow those simple rules on his property then he kindly asks that you go elsewhere. He isn't making you a slave, and he isn't taking your life from you, and he isn't doing any wrong to your own life, liberty, or property. Now when you die and if you haven't made a friendship with him don't complain at that point in time that you now want a friendship because you don't have the right to demand anything from him. you weren't a friend to him before, so don't expect him to be a friend to you now. It is his right to set any rules he likes on his own property and in his own life.
As an analogy... You can make friends with John Doe, and then at a later point in time if you are hanging onto a cliff begging for people to help pull you up, then John Doe is very likely to help you out cause you are a friend. Now if you aren't a friend to John Doe, and pretend that John Doe doesn't exist when he enters a room; and then if at some later time you are hanging from a cliff begging for someone to help pull you up, John Doe probably wont do it. Has John Doe done you any wrong if he doesn't? Nope! it is his own free choice to help you or not. You are the one that got yourself into a position of almost falling off a cliff and its not RIGHT for you to put blame on him for something you got yourself in to. John's decision to not help you is not a wrong on his part. Maybe he doesn't want to risk his life for someone he doesn't know.
Now taking into account everything I wrote above... Lets assume that God exists. To have this relationship all you need to do is try and love god with all your heart; and some things you can do to do that is 1) go to church 2) read the bible, 3) pray. Now you don't need to do all those things at once and he hasn't set out a detailed way it should be done. doing one of those things is better then none and doing all three things is better then doing one thing. but those things help build a relationship with God. Now how much time has this cost you? 2 hours at most? maybe 4 hours? Well lets assume you are super Christian and you put in 16 hours a week... Okay that was 10% of your time for the week. 10%!!! Remind me again... How much of your money are you saving for retirement? anyways... I'm getting sidetracked. Id say 2 hours a week would make a pretty good friendship with God. That is only .1% of your time in this life... Now if you are wrong and God doesn't exist, is it really a waste that you spent .1% of your time on something that didn't matter? I say No. It was a smart insurance investment, you just didn't collect. But good thing you were covered.
Now assume God doesn't exist. Well you now have .1% more of your time for the rest of your life. Sweet! oh wait... how much time do you waste a week? anyways I am getting distracted. Now lets say you were wrong on this assumption. Holy shit you are screwed. Wouldn't want to be in your shoes....
The moral of the story is - Christianity has low premiums and high returns. You are not out much if you end up not collecting which is a possibility.
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Travis' Response:
> Yeah, but you are only covered for one god. Other religions offer the same low premiums with high returns. Also 2 hours a week is 1.1% not 0.1% of your life. And it really makes more sense to look at a percentage of your free time. So rather than looking at 2/168 you should look at 2/100 which is 2%. Now consider all the other religions you need insurance for and 2% for each and you are not left with much. On top of that many religions have rules about getting insurance from the others (see your story about god getting pissed at those people with the idols.) And it is just as likely given the knowledge we have of afterlife (absolutely zero) that god will not let in people that worship him because he does not like stalkers or is just sick of you and wants to meet new people that he did not know as well while living on earth and so instead just takes non worshipers into heaven.
My theory is that if there is a god and a heaven, god is probably a pretty decent guy that just wants us to be good people. If I have lived a life where I tried to not hurt others and treated others as I wished to be treated, he will probably let me in. I imagine god to be a fairly rational entity that would not exclude me for not believing in him because surely he will recognize that giving a rational being (humans) no proof of something's existence, it is only natural that they will not believe it exists. If I am wrong, then god is no entity I feel is worthy of my worship/admiration/etc... and I will accept the consequences of it later. But I will stand by my convictions that such a god is an ass.
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Joel's Response:
I am covered under many many religions. Islam, Mormonism, Catholic, Baptist, Protestant, etc... Basically if any church follows the bible then I am covered. If there is a god and it isn't the bible god then I may not be covered. But usually those type of gods are more easy going. Now people who would say that I am not covered under a certain bible following church, I am able to point out that I more closely follow their religion then probably 80% of their church. Bottom line is that I don't follow my church, and I don't let the church run my life or tell me what to do. I try and get my direction though prayer and the scripture. Thus if a church follows the bible I will be consistent with them. Besides the most important thing one can do is to try and love god with all their heart. Find me a church who follows the bible and will argue that... anyways I do the best I can at that so I'm doing what is most important according to god, the word, and supported by all bible following churches. Now your theory on god is cool and dandy, but what sorta sucks about your theory is that it requires a LOT more faith then others. I mean you have nothing to help base that theory on other then your own personal thoughts on something that we cant possibly understand. My belief requires a lot of faith too but at least I have something physical to help me base those beliefs on... namely the bible. and the bible says just being a good person wont cut it. You need to try and have a relationship with god by loving him with all your heart... if you can do that, then you are in. I'd be willing to bet you that prayer every night would go a long way and would help you out in the end. A prayer a night is 2 minutes or less... and a cool prayer is "god, if you can hear me... I struggle with the belief in you but if you exist then help me out. Let your will be done in my life and help me come to know you better. Its really though for me to believe with all this doubt. Help me. In your blessed and holy name I pray. " how hard would that be to start? I bet you get some answers but it might take many many years... but every night saying that cant be too hard and I have no doubts that it will help you in the end. I know I have prayed that prayer many many times. And just imagine if you are facing god in the end of times and now you have something to say... "I tried very hard to come to know you. Did you not hear my prayers?" but I bet he will...
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I have sworn upon the altar of God,
eternal hostility against every form of
tyranny over the mind of man. -Jefferson
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