“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence whatsoever.”
There is much truth to this statement. The thought of being tormented for eternity is a powerful motivator to blind obedience. In reasonable moments one thinks of hell sa remnant of tales told in ancient times by primitive people who feared everthing they did not understand. Oh yes! The boogey man “boogey man” will get you if you don’t say your prayers or do your chores. The idea of hell is at once preposterous, frightening and antithetic to justice tempered with merch.
But then the atheist idea of death being nothingness is very scary for some. But why? Actually you can’t experience “nothing” if you are not alive. Nothing = non-existence. Before you were conceived did you feel anything? Fear, joy, boredom? No there was no “you” to have feelings. You did not exist. You were oblivious. The atheists asserts that death is the same oblivion. Not so bad when you think about it.
Then there is heaven. Something to be really excited about. But I wonder if an ETERNITY of anything good or bad might be torture. I mean eternity is a long time, especially toward the end. An eternity of bliss and love, sorry it just does not do it for some people. I would rather have ups and downs and interesting things to do and not just sit around all day filled with love and joy. It sounds boring.
You make an extremely astute statement: Eternity is forever. As mortals with a beginning and an end, we cannot comprehend that. So, once again, we turn to scripture for a better understanding.
But as it is written: "What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,"
1 Corinthians 2:9
So, what do we know? We know from those who have had a near death experience that they did not want to come back.
You said, “But then the atheist idea of death being nothingness is very scary for some. But why? Actually you can’t experience “nothing” if you are not alive. Nothing = non-existence. Before you were conceived did you feel anything? Fear, joy, boredom? No there was no “you” to have feelings. You did not exist. You were oblivious. The atheists asserts that death is the same oblivion. Not so bad when you think about it.”
The “peace” of nothingness. A billion years and a nanosecond, should feel the same, according to that.
This is an ignorance comparison, and supposes that Christian faith rests on just words. It does rest on the Bible, but the reason the Bible became the Bible was ultimately believing its words and its gospel result in life. I was raised devoutly religious (RC) but had no interest in what the Bible said or meant until after i became born again, and then my hunger to know what it meant became nigh insatiable, and this was not because i was in some cult of strong church, much less in the “Bible belt”, but it was really the Lord and me - a truck driver with a radio tuned to the Christian station.
“Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine, wryly comments that no one has ever met a dead guy who came back to report on the afterlife.”
But, there is a dead guy who came back to report on the afterlife. That’s the point here. The point is not that Christians insist that they believe on their position without evidence, the point is that atheists reject evidence which doesn’t fit their preconceived notions.
I was an agnostic. However, the question has to be, if scripture is correct, and the account of Christ dying and coming back to life is correct, then the choice is simply to believe. That’s it.