What If It's The Other Way 'Round?

[mibn2cweus]

What if it's the atheists that go to heaven, for their integrity of conviction, for refusing to believe for the sake of convenience and for their unwillingness to accept sacrifice as a means by which justice can be achieved? What if the promise of salvation is actually a test to determine how far you're willing to go and what you're willing to accept in the hope of acquiring the unearned and undeserved? What if heaven is reserved for those willing to face whatever punishment they deserve preferring to pay whatever is necessary to satisfy whatever debts they have incurred? What if the God you believe in is able to distinguish between the hero and the coward and of treating each of them accordingly?

Just a few thoughts I've had. What do you think?

[Old_Geezer]

If they don't then they failed the entry exam.

"What if heaven is reserved for those willing to face whatever punishment they deserve"

"What if the promise of salvation is actually a test to determine how far you're willing to go and what you're willing to accept in the hope of acquiring the unearned and undeserved"

[naomi24]

Actually mibs, the more I think about that, the more I think you're quite brilliant. I mean ... God always was a bit of a joker ... prone to playing tricks on people. What if that is his piece de resistance?

[naomi24]

OG, non-believers don’t hope to acquire that which is unearned and undeserved. The religious do that by way of sycophancy.

[goodlife]

The evidence is that God does exist, that he has revealed himself, his name and his purposes through his Word, the Bible.
If don't believe the Bible and don't apply, you are guided through the pitfalls of this life in believing a lie

To illustrate this difference, made by these existentialists to argue against the traditional proofs for the existence of God; atheism is simply taken for granted. Such atheism could explain the morbid gloom, the heightening anxiety, and the sheer absurdity of life that one often finds in existentialism .

The absence of God makes death an absolute, an absolute that is regarded by some as an absurd stupidity, by others as a ludicrous monstrosity extreme emphasis on the dark side of human existence.
Yes frustration, annoyance, and sorrows are part of all human living, but existentialism seems centered on them. There is very little joy and gladness in atheism.

[naomi24]

Goodlife, //There is very little joy and gladness in atheism//

Do you speak from experience?

[andy-hughes]

goodlife - // There is very little joy and gladness in atheism. //

Reading back on your posts over the years, compared to mine, I would say that I am having an absolute blast as an atheist, whereas I have yet to meet a more humourless doom-laden obsessive than you, anywhere.

How would you know what joy and gladness there is in atheism?

[SparklyKid]

If don't believe the Bible and don't apply, you are guided through the pitfalls of this life in believing a lie

Change the "don't" to "you" and you are quite correct.

[andy-hughes]

naomi - we cross-posted again, and agree again ... people will talk!!

[mibn2cweus]

//How do atheists opt to face punishment when they don't believe it?//

I wouldn't expect this is meaningful to someone who hasn't experienced this kind of child abuse themselves, but I'm not alone in having been threatened throughout my youth and beyond with eternal damnation for daring to think about it. Having subsequently learned to reason and realising the absurdity of it all, the nagging memory of that kind of childhood indoctrination often persists throughout one's lifetime. It would not surprise me to learn that this might qualify as a form of post-traumatic syndrome.

[waterboatman]

What difference would it make? none!

[waterboatman]

The bible is just an over rated story book.

[emmie]

mr em, wouldn't have gone to heaven, a total non believer in every sense,

[naomi24]

Mibs at 04:54 Thu, I hope Theland reads that, He doesn't believe me when I tell him it happens.

[TrevorThePug]

If by the way I have lived my life I end up in some form of 'heaven' I'd be surprised to see any religious people there with me.

[andres]

How on earth anyone can even think there is an after-life is beyond comprehension. If there was the heavens would be top heavy with billions and billions of supernatural beings . Just imagine meeting up with Adam and Eve or your own parents who died when they were very young and now you have died at the age of ninety. Do spirits age or die? For goodness sake just live your lives now without worrying about what happens after death.

[rowanwitch]

Like it, even if there's no heaven it's a great way of looking at it. Who should be rewarded the sheep or the goat that treads its own path. I vote goat every time even though it means butting my head against the woolly minded faith brigade as they follow one another down the chute to the slaughterman

[Ellipsis]

> What If It's The Other Way 'Round?

Engaging in whatiffery is the first step towards theism ...

[naomi24]

How you work that out is anyone's guess. Ellipses. Whatiffery is far more likely to lead to rational conclusions which is why whatiffery isn't something the religious ever dare indulge in.

[naomi24]

*Ellipsis*.

[mibn2cweus]

//Mibs at 04:54 Thu, I hope Theland reads that, He doesn't believe me when I tell him it happens.//

Naomi, seems to me I have not suffered the worst of it. One only need look to see what the consequences of conceding to religious ideologies have been in the minds of contributors like Goodlife, Locusts, Fiveleaves, and the like. If I indulged in pity it is not for myself I would waste such time.