“The risk of eternal damnation is simply too great to gamble in my opinion.”
I just have to answer this one more very good, good question.
Here’s my non-branded atheism concerning this: IF there was a God, and I am only giving it the teeny tiniest of chances, but I acknowledge that astronomical chance. THEN I further believe that He/She is probably not concerned with whether or not I was convinced of His/Her existence based on what I see on this earth. He/She will have had much more important and less egotistical things on His/Her mind. Besides, who wants to spend eternity with an egomaniac personality that is so self conscious that they really think, “Love only me, Worship me, etc..”
Maybe I choose to not want to be around anyone like that. Especially not for an eternity. I’ve been burned by that kind before.
And I don’t mean that in any ugly way if that offends anyone, please forgive my crude explanation. And please be gentle with me because I am being honest about how I feel...
Okay, so think of it this way. We're on the Earth, which has a breathable atmosphere, a relatively mild temperature range compared to the rest of the solar system, plenty of water and other life to provide food. Now what if we had the capability to will ourselves into deep space just because we took Earth for granted and didn't particularly feel comfortable enough in its confines. We would die a horrible death if we decided to do so. Would Earth be to blame?
Also, you might want to look up what is considered worship in Christianity. It's not just singing and bowing down. And if you look at instances of worship in the presence of God in the Bible, He never commands people to worship Him.
[[Maybe I choose to not want to be around anyone like that.]]
I thought perhaps that might be the case- and if so, then that would make you not an atheist, but someoen who simply defies someone you don’t care to get to know
[[THEN I further believe that He/She is probably not concerned with whether or not I was convinced of His/Her existence based on what I see on this earth.]]
I’ll have to dissagree here whole heartedly- He DID care enough about what you think that He gave His only Son to die for yours and my sins as the final sacrifice and propitiation.
[[He/She will have had much more important and less egotistical things on His/Her mind.]]
How is it egotistical for God to love us? I woudl htink it would be egotistical to refuse someone’s love stating in effect that “I don’t need you- I’m fien all on my own”
[[Besides, who wants to spend eternity with an egomaniac personality that is so self conscious that they really think, “Love only me, Worship me, etc..”]]
He didn’t say that- He layed out hte truth by stating that IF we choose to love something other than Him that we are subjecting ourselves to the desires of hte Evil one, and we’d be subjected to al lthe ills that come with such a descision- while it might seem like ‘freedom’ at first to reject God, and ‘go it alone’, the reality is that we’d be rejecting the love of the God who created us and prefering instead to serve sin.
God of course loved us enough to give us hte choice- Free will, to beleive what we want, but He also made it very clear that we either choose forgiveness of we live with our choice if we choose not to beleive Him.
Is a parent being ‘egotistical’ when htey tell a child “Don’t touch that stove” and hte child adamantly shoots back “Why?! You can’t tell me what to do!” and hte parent says “Because I love you and don’t want you to get hurt”?
The child can either decide they don’t need their parent tellign htem what to do, and touch the stove, or they can listen and be spared-
you’re not being crude btw- your quesitons are idneed hoenst- Many people do indeed feel God is nothign but a big egostistical, even maniacle God who does nothign but demand, and it does indeed SEEM this way- until you begin to see that His ‘commands’ are actually quite similar to what any good parent would ‘command’ their children to do or not do- they do it out of love- not egomania.
I dunno if you’ll take hte time to read some of the following site- but the dude is quite smart, and he tackles many of the common complaints of those who see God as a big bully Here’s a link to common objections about God:
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/objedex.html
As I said, He’s a smart dude, and really explains htings quite well and accurately- in ways we don’t see at first- I thought I knew quite a bit about certain issues, but this dude really opened up angles I’d never seen before on certain topics- Soem of his tpics get a bit invovled, and a bit deep- but if you have hte time, they are WELL worth reading htrough-
Not tryign to preach at ya- or push you in any direction- but I just htink that a few of your objections might be covered by his topics- and beleive me, I’ve had many of the same objections both before AND after salvation- I’ve put God htrough hte ringer many times in my battles with Him- and have what I think are many of the very same objections you might have- so I’ve been htere- been htrough it- severely quesitoned His goodness and caring- beleive you me!