I had a conversation with a "born-again" Christian last night. He rattled off one of the worn out Christian mantras I've heard before, which goes something like this: "If you are wrong (as a non-believer), you burn in hell for eternity, but if I am wrong (believing in Christ) I loose nothing."
I think that is an extremely arrogant approach. I told him, suppose the experience of God exists only in the present, as I believe. Suppose the past and the future are completely irrevelvant and even more, distracting from this God that exists in this moment. If you live your entire life with a religion that asks you to focus on a God that walked the earth long ago to save you from yourself, and also to focus on the future, of how you are among the chosen people who will be saved when God comes again, are you really ever in the present moment? Furthermore, if your religion is evangelical in nature, doesn't that take the focus away from yourself and put it on others? If you believe as I do that God can be found with inward focus, then you won't find God.
So, if you are wrong, what have you lost?
You've lost God.
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First of all, "loose"? You used it in the title and in the body so it doesn't seem to be a simple typo. You don't LOSE anything in this argument.
This evangelical you met is bringing up the old Pascal's Wager argument for God. It goes like this: If you believe, then you get eternal bliss. If you are wrong, it doesn't matter. If you don't believe and you are wrong, you go to hell, whereas, if you are right, nothing lost. So, you might as well believe.
Here are 2 refutes to this dull argument: 1) God is omniscient so how can faking to believe in him help? Would God prefer us to pretend to believe in him? This is the loving God who is so insecure that he threatens us with eternal damnation otherwise. Do we just wake up one day and decide to believe in him just as some people "decide" to be gay? Is God that gullible? Okay, 2) what if God turns out to be a different God like the flying spaghetti monster (my favorite) or one of the Hindu Gods and what if he is jealous about your believing in some other God? Ask yourself this, are you sure you believe in the right God (and the rest of the world who worship various deities are wrong)? Well, if not, then you could be in a heap of trouble.
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