Quote (GLYC123 @ May 27 2011 02:57am)
Basically is.
It says that you have a choice to choose to believe in God or not.
But if you choose to not believe in a God, when the afterlife comes, you're banished to an eternity of hell?
For me, this doesn't seem like much of a choice. It's like putting a gun to a persons head and asking them to do you favors. :\
Just my 2 cents. Was kinda curious on other peoples thoughts.
This seems to be your argument:
1. If free will exists, we have the free choice to believe in God or not.
2. We do not have the free choice to believe in God or not.
Therefore, free will does not exist.
This is a logically valid argument because it is a simple modus tollens argument, and the conclusion follows from the two premises. However, this is not a logically sound argument, which is a valid argument with TRUE premises. However, you analogy of the "gun to the head" is your reason for giving your second premise, which is not a good justification. Here is why.
If somebody is to hold a gun to your head and tells you to make a particular decision, you STILL have the choice to say no, you will just be killed. Assuming you want to stay alive though, you might say yes. However, what if somebody held the gun to your head and says, "you must choose to save your wife, or to save yourself." Do you then have NO OTHER CHOICE but to save yourself? Clearly not! You can still choose to save your wife, even though you will die if you do so. The same concept applies to Christianity and other world religions.
Ultimately you do have the choice to believe in God or not. Since you realize the problem of eternal damnation, then perhaps it is worth some of your time to examine whether or not Christianity is true. The resources are available and now is the greatest time in history to study Christian apologetics and Christian philosophy.
One last note: Even if you have a problem with the fact that individuals may go to hell if they do not believe in God, that does not undermine the truth of Christianity. It says nothing about if the Resurrection of Jesus, for example, was a true historical event. This is an emotional objection, as I have shown, and not a logical one. Here's the thing GLYC123, I have a problem with this idea of people going to hell, but I am a Christian! All that it does is strengthen my commitment to God to reach this world with what I believe to be the logical, rational, true, spiritual truth. Let us not let our emotions overbearingly get in our way in our search for the truth. I hope this helps you. Any questions?
