We need to figure out our best wager

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
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Here are a few facts/assumptions:

  1. Over 86% of the world believes there is an afterlife, and most of them have a certain set of things they must do to have a fun afterlife
  2. Most of those people, are closed minded about their religion - and refuse to even think to think about any religion other than theirs being correct (In Islam it’s a sin to think that there might not be a god LOL)
  3. Most of those religions cannot be logically disproved - after all, how can we ever prove that there is NOT an omnipotent dolphin under my bed not wanting to be seen
  4. NONE of those religions can be logically confirmed
  5. If anyone BUT the atheists or buddhists or people who don’t believe in hell are correct, then AT LEAST 53% of the world is screwed! FIFTY THREE PERCENT OF THE WORLD IS GOING TO HELL - if the omnipotent dolphin under my bed exists, everyone except me is going to dolphin hell! :laughing:

If you disagree with any of those facts please let me know.

Don’t we need to find out which religion makes the most sense? o.0
Although none of those religions cannot be directly logically proven, we might be able to get a few thousand philosophers to examine every religion out there and try to weed out the ones that are logically messed up. Then we can analyze history to see more… and finally maybe come up with the best religion?

Think about it - OVER HALF THE WORLD believes in something other than what you believe in - maybe, just maybe - they’re right? And if they are, and they believe in a hell, you’re GOING TO HELL (sorry :smiley:). Don’t we need to stop being so closed minded and look for the best religion to wager on? Maybe there isn’t a God, but if there is - I want to lower my chances of going to hell, as do many people I’m sure.

Finally, my question: why aren’t we hiring thousands of open minded philosophers to look for best religion to place our wagers on?

Note:

  1. (for people who want to get me saved by Jesus): please don’t remind me how closed minded you are and tell me how to get saved by Jesus… I’ve already prayed the “save prayer”, and if it worked, YAY :banana-dance:
  2. I do realize that there might not be a God - but most people on the world don’t seem to agree with that, they might be right :-k
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Then that majority is likely to believe that their religion is a wrong religion, as discussion of its merits would disclose its irrationalities and/or false data. They cannot be atheist, and probably not agnostic, because if either, they would not be likely to be religious at all. Iow, they knowingly have a wrong religion in order to displace one that they consider to be the right religion.

That’s very easily determined, by looking under your bed.

If the earth is flat, there could be an unviewable dolphin holding it up- and people believed that the earth was flat, and believed in such things, before circumnavigation, or even before men went into space. So what is absurd in one era is not absurd in another.

Argument from analogy is always fallacious, but particularly when one is forced into something deliberately absurd, like a flying spaghetti monster in what might be called the Hubble Age. It’s a circular argument, in effect. “A deity is like a spaghetti monster, a spaghetti monster is inconceivable, so a deity is inconceivable.” But deity is eminently conceivable, and more than conceivable, and has been since the beginning of human history, and is no less so today.

Or disproved. That’s the thing about religions, one can make up anything one likes, on a wet afternoon on the back of an envelope, as long as it is not too easily disproved, which requires no more than common sense. Even after manifest disproof, like prophecy of the end of the world that isn’t, there are still faithful adherents. Something drives them on, regardless.

Maybe the religious 86+% already have the answer?

3

What?
People believe that what they believe is incorrect?
I couldn’t follow that. None of it.
An atheist or agnostic is not likely to be religious at all…That’s like saying a woman is not likely to be a man…

Did you miss the part where it’s simultaneously omnipotent and NOT WANTING TO BE SEEN.
Alright, follow with me here, this can be a confusing thought process: Imagine that you can do whatever you want, and what you want is to not be seen.
You’d probably figure our some way to not be seen, by using your omnipotent powers…no?

He already said that man.

Bad post bro.
Bad post.

4

Good heavens, no. I must keep off the lemonade. What I meant to say is that people believe is incorrect that which they say they believe.

No. Many people hide under beds when they don’t want to be seen- or so I’m told. Not dolphins, very often, I suppose. It’s the stairs, I expect.

That’s what I thought, but then why hide under a bed? Maybe dolphins are not as bright as they’re made out to be? Maybe you can be omnipotent and not realise it for some time, just as you can be infallible and not realise it for 1800 years.

True 'nuff, dude, but supported by an invalid argument.

Oh, well. I hope this is better. :slight_smile:

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Be a man. Stand on your own two feet. Don’t give that up for the comfort of numbers or the fear of Hell. It’s a false comfort and a spirit suppressing fear.

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I’m not seeking the comfort of numbers, but rather the comfort of intelligent people analyzing each religion out there and letting me know which one is the best bet. I only have one lottery ticket, so I should pick my numbers based on a wise hypothesis - and not go with my baseless guesses.

Hell is truly something scary - and I think not fearing it would be a stupidly brave act. To me; being a man for <=125 years, is not worth risking to spend eternity in hell (however absurd the idea of hell sounds)

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This is Christianity as magical thinking. All you have to do is recite a magical incantation and Presto! all will be well in the “hereafter.” I guess this is what pop culture religion has brought us to. ](*,)

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Leisure,

I’m not seeking the comfort of numbers, but rather the comfort of intelligent people analyzing each religion out there and letting me know which one is the best bet.

Do you not count yourself among intelligent people?

I don’t think Heaven would be worth it to me if I had sold my spirit out of fear. And to be with all the other sellouts… No. To quote the television show Heroes:

[i]Linderman: Trust me. This is the path to salvation.

Nathan: It’s not my path. Not if you’re leading the way.[/i]

And I think any God worth the name would understand.

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So…you basically want a religion match.com?

If that’s all it takes, then here you go.
beliefnet.com/Entertainment/ … Matic.aspx

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  1. Secular Humanism (100%)
  2. Unitarian Universalism (85%)
  3. Nontheist (82%)
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  1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
  2. Nontheist (89%)
  3. Secular Humanism (89%)

This quiz just tells me which religion I WANT to believe in, and which religion matches with my personal baseless guesses about God’s ways. I’m not looking for a religion to make me happy or calm (if it were that I would go with buddhism), but I want to know which religion the open minded world thinks has the best chance of being correct.

I’m a really agnostically agnostical agnostic. I’m not sure if God exists. I’m not sure which God exists - could be the spaghetti monster. I’m not sure what God wants us to do. If a religion states that just tracing a dolphin in the air with my hand once a week and making a dolphin noise before every meal will get me to heaven - I see nothing wrong in believing in that. I’m not sure what the afterlife is like. I’m not sure whether souls exist. I’m not sure what the consequences of sinning are. It could be that sinning gets people to heaven and doing good deeds sends them to hell - I don’t know, I see nothing wrong in believing in that.

If I die right now and Jehova’s Witnesses were correct, I might be good to go - but that’s just my random guess.

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Which painting from all of human history has the best chance of being the most artistic?

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So hell would be a very good place, a place of leisure, if not ecstasy; heaven would be full of toil, terrors and alarms, unsafe, violent, anarchic. Nothing wrong in that.

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That’s a nonsequitur ochaye.

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Shame you can’t remember the reason.

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Your reasons were all apparent. They just weren’t good reasons.

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Still can’t remember. Never mind, it’ll come.

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I don’t think you really understand what a nonsequitur is.
Your post was a good example of one.

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OH GOD DO I REALLY HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU?

You said that a place that is occupied by people who have done good deeds in the past is necessarily a good place, leisurely, full of ecstacy.
What if…there are…you know…people torturing them there?
Did you consider that?

You said a place that is occupied by “sinners” is necessarily full of toil, terror, violence.
You can’t possibly think of any way to make sinners pleased?
Maybe one sinner likes to torture people.
YOU CAN JUST PUT HIM WITH ALL THE GOOD-DEED DOERS! THAT COULD BE HIS JOB!
Maybe other sinners like to have sex.
They can do that.
Etc.

You’re not very imaginative.
It didn’t take much for me to discount your nonsequitur.

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Possible, I suppose. Or, you’re in such great difficultes in justifying your interruption that you have to cast aspersion on my education. :slight_smile:

Though actually, you have a point. I don’t accept ‘nonsequitur’. It gets an invalidating red line, because non sequitur is acceptable.
:slight_smile:

If only you could remember why!