Answer me this... Would you remain on the 3rd floor of a burning building, or take a chance and leap?
If you stay you would die for sure, but if you jump there is a chance of survival.
Whatya say? Would you stay or jump?
I'll just quote Paul (Hoth to you native sciforumers) - because he typed it all out before I did:
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Quote
riginally posted by Qzxtvbzr (philosophyforums)
If all else fails, you can always resort to Pascal's Wager: To bet on God is your only chance of winning eternal happiness, and to bet against Him is your only chance of losing. It is most reasonable to bet on Him.
I don't take an omniscient omnipotent omnipresent god seriously enough to call it possible (it's just a logical contradiction, I might was well call 1=2 a holy equation), but for those who do take it seriously I'd strongly suggest considering Paul's wager:
Scenario #1: There is a god who wants to be worshipped.
By being religious: You're stuck spending eternity with this being that treats you like dirt and demands mindless zombie-like devotion from its own creations, who it seems to have created just to bloat its own ego. Worse yet, with hundreds of religions in the world you're bound to end up worshipping the wrong one, and since this god creature cares so much about worship it's going to be very mad at you -- this being clear from its overbearing and aggressive nature in setting up the "worship me or suffer" system in the first place -- and will make your eternity as miserable as an omnipotent creature can.
By being an atheist: You either simply die or you get to go spend eternity with those who weren't interested in being worship-zombies and who are likely creative and interesting and intelligent people, and who will likely enjoy much more freedom than the ones stuck up in that other place under the oppression of the control-freak god.
Scenario #2: There is a god who doesn't care about being worshipped.
By being religious: You get eternal happiness but probably get scolded on the way in for wasting your time on earth on worship, and perhaps you feel a little regret.
By being an atheist: You get eternal happiness.
Scenario #3: There is no god.
By being religious: You get whatever feeling the act of worshipping gives you and then you get nothingness.
By being an atheist: You get whatever you do with your life, and then you get nothingness.
The only safe route is to be an atheist -- whether or not there's a god, the atheist wins in each case. The religious person has one chance to kind of win but have some regrets, and one chance to lose horribly. The atheist, on the other hand can't possibly lose... the atheist expects to end up with the neutral, but if he/she is wrong then could get a win.
Totals
Atheist: 2 wins, 1 neutral
Religious: 1 semi-win, 1 loss, 1 neutral'
Perfect.
No need to 'rip the argument to pieces' - it's barely an argument anyway.
-Distortion
