I had a conversation with a co-worker the other week that tripped me up. I was talking with a Christian that had absolutely no interest in discussions about whether God exists or not. He strongly felt that belief in God is a matter of mere belief, and at any rate, if God doesn’t exist, it really doesn’t matter; he’s led a life of peace and goodness, and his (false) belief has made him a better man.
I can’t say I agree, on either count. I’ve written about my thoughts on his first response–that belief in God is a matter of mere belief not based on evidence–elsewhere (one and two and three).
As far as his second response, I really struggled to reply to him at the time, simply because he was so confident and stalwart in his proclamation. I tried to make a few small replies, but I got nowhere with him. I’ve since had some time to think about it.
I hold the question of God to be one of supreme importance. Why does it matter whether God exists or not?
First, if God really does exist (I’m assuming the God revealed in the Scriptures), then there is real, objective meaning and purpose in life. There is a God that not only created the world and imbued it with meaning and value, but He loves each and every one of us. Finally, He has provided a way for us to know Him intimately. Evil, suffering, and death are dealt death blows by God Himself, and thanks to the Empty Tomb, the grave does not have the final say in our lives.
These are no small benefits.
On the flip side, if God does not exist, you or I might have a meaning in our lives, but this is only a relative meaning. Objectively speaking, the universe came into being via a mindless, purposeless process, and is doomed to either a heat death or slower, more mundane death. The world will end with a whimper. The DNA dictates our existence, and genuine free will is hard to come by. Even though we might try to foist a meaning upon such an existence, it is tantamount to shuffling chairs on the Titanic. Death is the end, Hitler and Mother Theresa’s destiny is ultimately the same, and unjust men win most of the time.
All this does not mean that we should merely hedge our bets and assume God exists, but it does put the choices in perspective. The question of God is no parlor poker game.
The strangest thing is that most people will readily sacrifice all that God offers so they can maintain their own autonomy. True story.
What I’ve considered so far, though, was not the central focus of my co-worker’s comment. His focus was not, “what are the stakes if he is right?” but “what are the stakes if he is wrong?”
If the atheist is wrong, there is no morally neutral unbelief, intent comes before content, he dies in his sins, only to literally meet the Person he spent a lifetime denying….things will get considerably worse from there.
If the theist is wrong, though, he is an idolator. He has spent his time, energy, and talents chasing and grasping onto a foolish falsehood. He has attempted to persuade others to put their hopes in a facade, to give their livelihoods towards something that is, at best, a psychological placebo.
This does not mean we should forever withhold belief in either direction. That, after all, is not possible in the long run…you will always live like one or the other is true. In addition, if you were lost on a high, snowy, freezing mountain, and you came to a fork, you could not remain agnostic for very long. You’d have to decide quickly, for you would not survive after the sun went down. It is the same for us spiritually.
All this does not tip the scales either way as to which side is more reasonable, but it does help us zero in on the stakes involved. Either way, believing in a falsehood has dire consequences. Ignorance is not bliss.
See the following related post:
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It sounds to me as though your work mate has found peace. I wouldn’t worry too much if God does not exist it is quite likely that our concept of self is merely a false consciousness also and we can all like Pinocchio say I wish I was a real boy?
What this means is that if we believe in a spiritual world we can not be wrong about that because if we are wrong we as selves do not exist in order to be wrong.
We can check facts all our life and only the physicists seem likely to prove the existence of God yet they won’t be able to tell which God he is even if they do.
For many years I mocked the statement “I know in my knower” spoken by a pastor I really respected I will now tell you the same thing this is the only place we can know there is no final proof.
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