GUH wrote:
[quote].Once you're mentally strong enough, perhaps you could turn your mind toward considering whether there's actually a Big Guy in the Sky, whom you need to propitiate by avoiding food and drink during the daytime.
...you know, given that there's no actual evidence for a BGitS. (And no, the fact that people have perpetuated the susperstitions that were around 1400+ years ago does not count as evidence.)[quote]
ydtk, I would hate to have to see you deny the existence of God, then find out, come the afterlife, that the "Big Guy in the Sky" is the one to judge you...
I'm sure I'd hate that too!--but I'm not worried.
I can not force you or anyone to acceptance the existence of God or the Day of Judgement...
Thanks (sincerely) for this; but there are tons of believers who would *love* to be able to force such acceptance. And no, not just Muslims, either.
...nor can I bring "scientific evidence" that either exists.
I appreciate your honesty. (Again, sincerely.)
Call it superstition or whatever you'd like...
Superstition is fine; "fear" works, too.
Life is short, ydtk; can you imagine if you were wrong?
Ah, Pascal's Wager. Can YOU imagine if you were wrong?
What if there truly *were* a supreme deity, but not the one you worship? And what if that deity were getting royally pissed about all these people who worship a false god--just as people worshipped Ba'al, say, with complete sincerity for thousands of years?
And what if that deity, jealous of the worshippers' praise going elsewhere, decided to condemn all "false believers" to eternal torture upon their deaths, while just letting nonbelievers die and be done? I dunno, sounds pretty ominous...
I mean, as long as we're hypothesizing in the absence of evidence.
[As] I said, I won't force you to accept the existence [of] God,
And again, thanks!
...but I've said what I've had to say, and you can't force me to abandon God...
Nor would I try. If you were hurting people because of your god-belief (or using it to *justify* hurting people), then I'd try to stop the hurting itself; but I have no problem with whatever a person believes, as long as s/he doesn't hurt others in the process.