Looking for an honest and objective answer from P&R

[mrveggieman]

I know that I am asking for the impossible but I am looking anyone who has the guts to answer this. Most of us on here have strong feelings one way or the other on their religious beliefs. Let me give you this. Say you are a (fill in the name of your religion) or you are an atheist. Lets say that you converted thousands of people to your chosen religion or if you are an atheist you deconverted thousands of people from their religion. Now lets say God makes himself know to all and proves without a shadow of a doubt that he is God. He also says that the religion that you were converting people to (or atheism) is completely false and that everyone who you converted and has since died will be dammed to hell for all of eternity and there isn't anything that can be done about it. My question is how would you feel knowing that you have all of those peoples blood on your hands?

[habsheaven]

First, I would be estatic to know that I will live in some form or another for all eternity rather than my prior belief that "when I am gone, I am gone".

Second, I couldn't care less about all those being damned. If I ever convinced anyone to convert to a non-believer then that's on them. They had a mind of their own and made their own LOGICAL choices based on what evidence actually exists.

Finally, why should I care if the guy in charge is the one responsible for their damnation?

[mrveggieman]

First, I would be estatic to know that I will live in some form or another for all eternity rather than my prior belief that "when I am gone, I am gone".

Second, I couldn't care less about all those being damned. If I ever convinced anyone to convert to a non-believer then that's on them. They had a mind of their own and made their own LOGICAL choices based on what evidence actually exists.

Finally, why should I care if the guy in charge is the one responsible for their damnation?

You wouldn't feel bad if you were the one who told them about atheism and talked them into leaving their religion to ultimately find out that there were indeed correct and now have to suffer eternal damnation because their turned their back on God?

[habsheaven]

You wouldn't feel bad if you were the one who told them about atheism and talked them into leaving their religion to ultimately find out that there were indeed correct and now have to suffer eternal damnation because their turned their back on God?

No, if God doesn't care, and he is the ALL KNOWING one, why should I?

[AUTaxMan]

I know that I am asking for the impossible but I am looking anyone who has the guts to answer this. Most of us on here have strong feelings one way or the other on their religious beliefs. Let me give you this. Say you are a (fill in the name of your religion) or you are an atheist. Lets say that you converted thousands of people to your chosen religion or if you are an atheist you deconverted thousands of people from their religion. Now lets say God makes himself know to all and proves without a shadow of a doubt that he is God. He also says that the religion that you were converting people to (or atheism) is completely false and that everyone who you converted and has since died will be dammed to hell for all of eternity and there isn't anything that can be done about it. My question is how would you feel knowing that you have all of those peoples blood on your hands?

This is a very strange hypothetical, but my answer is that I would feel terrible.

[PackersFan1208]

I would say to God "Well isnt your religion based on forgiveness? or just whatever you feel like at the time"

[sportscardrage]

For me you couldn't feel bad. Like someone else said people do have their own mind. Its the entire you can lead a horse to water phrase. In the end we all are on this planet alone and must make our own decisions. Besides that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care if I damned a mass amount of people if it meant that I was damned to hell as well, I might be focused on myself a little bit more.

[Star_Cards]

hmm...interesting question. I would also think it was pretty cool to have 100% proof of a God. I don't think you could say that you had blood on your hands from the people that you converted being damned from your conversion. I think ultimately in any faith situation an individual has to know that it's not 100% what influential people of a faith tells you.


I think another interesting question would be how one would react to learning that their faith, something that they take so personally and is such a huge part of their lives, was proven to be fiction.

[gatorboymike]

I'd feel crummy that others were being punished because of something I did, although habs has a point...ultimately, they were responsible for their own decisions. But I would still feel at least partly responsible.

Of course, if this god you're talking about turned out to be the Christian god, well then, we all already know he's all about punishing people for stuff other people did. Funny how that fact seems to escape the "personal responsibility" crowd.

[OnePimpTiger]

This is a very strange hypothetical, but my answer is that I would feel terrible.

Agreed. To me, it's a simple answer...I would feel horrible. Yes, everyone has a brain and can make their own decisions...but everyone is influenced every day many times over, whether they care to admit it or not. Everyone can be and is influenced and if I influenced people to their ultimate demise, to whatever degree, I would feel horrible.