That would not be an unreasonable thing to do!
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.
If there is no God or Jesus never lived or the dust of his bones are mouldering away in a tomb in the Middle East there is no point in 'believing'. If I am wrong about believing this I am never going to know anyway, at death I will cease to exist.
If, however, the above statement is true and it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment I would have thought it only sensible to think about whether we are here by chance or choice, whether life has meaning, are we in a moral universe despite initial appearances. Religious questions. Where does a sense of injustice or that the world is not as it 'should be' come from.
No-one here is going to avoid dying. If there is no God the discussion here of who is 'right' is pointless. No-one is ever going to have to give an account of themselves and what they have done in this life anyway. Death annuls everything. The Saviles of this world aren't resting in peace, they don't exist, and if a human court never got them they got away with all the evil they have done. If evil could ever actually be said to exist.
If, however, God exists there will be no escape. If you think this is a strange line of reasoning to go down it is because I have seen the footage of angry people in the States, and it has struck me ever more forcibly that they don't seem to have given any thought whatsoever that they might one day have to give an account, there might be an objective standard of right and wrong.
I have my problems with American evangelicalism in some areas, but they are absolutely right to add a moral dimension to the debate over this, and that what we do in this life actually matters.
Wow , you really think we can't have a sense of right or wrong without a 'God' figure in our lives??
Is the only reason atheists are not causing utter mayhem in the lives of others , is because of the secular rule of law.
Otherwise we'd have no moral code or humanity??
Absolutely there's a moral side to this debate.
Insisting that women carry unwanted pregnancy to term with all attendant problems arising from that..
When a safe effective way of terminating them is available??
Highly immoral, and unjustified.
The people angry about having womens rights threatened with being taken away, after they fought so hard for them, are angry about just that.
And probs very angry too, about the lying and hypocrisy that got those 'justices' into their appointments..
Not because they 'haven't thought about judgement day'..
You don't actually need an external god or fear of judgement day to work out what is or isn't humane, or the better option.
You need thoughtfulness, understanding, awareness, empathy even.
Not a book of rules of one religion or another supposedly interpreted, and funnily enough always written by men or a man.
Ah yes OK I see now, I can stand down with my ire...
This is all about Men's Gods, and their 'agents' judging other men..
Judging their violence, their hypocrisy, their mistreament, and neglect of the disadvantaged.
Their despoilment of our one livable planet..
So they can stay away from women's business then??
As a woman I'm free of all this judgement by men stuff already .
Phew
