If God Did Exist…What Would You Ask?
What if God did exist?
Here are a few questions that many of us just might want to ask:
Would you ask God… to cure all illnesses and end all physical pain?
Would you ask God… to prove that he/she is all-knowing and omnipotent?
Would you ask God… to remove Christianity and Islam from this world because they are not good examples of his/her love or at least punish them for murdering their non-adherents?
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Would you ask God… which religion is consistent with his/her views?
Would you ask God… if Heaven and Hell are real?
Would you ask God… why he/she allowed Christians and Muslims to torture, harass, persecute and kill your “chosen” (Jews)?
Would you ask God… if the Bible really is “his word”?
Would you ask God… to prove his credentials?
Would you ask God… “why did it take you damned long to show up??”
Would you ask God… were we actually created as we are today or are we the result of human evolution?
Would you ask God… if he/she likes George Carlin’s edgy humor?
Would you ask God… if he/she likes this blog?
What other questions might an atheist ask?
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How’d you do that with the screen in the cartoon? Did you draw the image?
I found the main pic of God looking on Google and I found an old screenshot on my pc. I used “Microsoft Picture It!” and put them together, rotated, etc.
It’s tacky…just the way I like it.
I would ask – What do you want me to do?
Ha ha ha! I’d have lots of questions for “him,” the first one; are you an atheist?
Why are you so frigging obstinate about not “revealing” yourself? Why all the secrecy and cloak-and-dagger crap? Why not gawd-up and show up? Oh, wait….
Wow, I’d have a ton of questions to ask like:
1. Why did you let the Holocaust happen? What was your great plan in that?
2. What happened to the gods and goddesses of the past?
3. Why is the Devil more powerful then you are?
4. Why do you work so hard to make people think you don’t exist?
5. How did life on Earth begin?
6. Why do people commit horrible acts in your name while claiming you are a being of love and peace?
I could go on, but I think those should get the ball rolling.
Those are all legit and poignant questions.
Thanks. I’d really love an answer for #1. Why would God create Hitler with the plan to one day commit The Holocaust? Did the Devil do it? If so, why would God not stop the Devil from creating Hitler?
I’d ask,
“Dude! WTF?”
Seriously.
I would ask, Lord, why can’t I do something as funny as this?
Damn, Candace, you beat me to it! WTF would be EXACTLY my question.
Do you get turned on when people yell out your name during sex?
I doubt I would actually ask any questions since the answers would probably be as lame and confusing as the bible. Why waste the time trying to get to the facts when you can see that there is no way anything could answer these types of questions without exposing theirselves as frauds.
I’d ask: “So, which one are you then?”.
Which god? I think my reactions to Thor would be very different from my reactions to Ahura Mazda.
Who created you?
one question i’ld ask him… how did you make the universe with such an old computer? lol
Maybe because Commodore was created and doesn’t evolve.
When’s it my turn to play god?
I’d ask:
Do you really care about what people do or have you even notice that we have evolved?
I’d ask god to get some therapy for his insecurity issues, the lack of impulse control and egotistic demand for worship.
Seriously dude, you need to learn to be confident in your abilities enough to not worry about what other people are thinking, believing and doing with their genitals.
Nina
Quite sure those were directed at god, not you.
Oh, deleted comment I was replying to. =\
I’m confused. I think the “dude” the previous poster was referring to was G-d, not you, Mark, especially when read in context with her first sentence, unless I’m misreading your response.
I’d ask god why he is such an asshole.
Great blog mark, nice thought!
If you’ve read my blog you know I have too many questions, lol, so I have dozens but two spring to the top.
After all this time, that omniscience thing has to have become a pain – a real punchline killer!
So, has anything any human ever did, really surprised or impressed him?
And, with the eternal boredom of no surprises, how does he keep it real?
I would ask IT why people throughout history have had so many different conceptions about the nature of, identity of, means of paying homage to, IT. I would also ask why so many people who have believed in IT in the past have felt the need to flatter IT in such an over-the-top manner, including human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, and numerous other forms of ostensible cruelty that has been done to glorify IT. I would expect my question-and-answer period not to go well and to conclude with my telling IT to sodomize itself, possibly using part of ITs omniwhatever!
The Christian god? I’m going to have to go with “what the hell is wrong with you?”
The questions you really should ask:
God, what if I am wrong? Am I doomed to an eternal hell?
If the Bible is correct and there is a hell, then I have found a way to escape eternal damnation and found the one true way for eternal life.
Yet if I am wrong, and there is no hell or heaven, then all I have done is waste my life, which means nothing anyway if you are atheist.
I would rather risk believing a lie for the sake of Jesus giving me eternal life, then believing “nothing” and risk eternal damnation.
Just because I can’t see air, I know it is there, because I am breathing.
Just because I can’t touch the stars, I know they are there because I can see them.
We cannot see God as we see each other, but we can see him through creation.
To not believe the existence of a complex planet, solar system, human body, even the existence of a single-celled amoeba would be foolish, would it not, because no one denies the existence of any of these? So if these things exist, then what caused them to exist? Spontaneity?
It is much harder to believe “spontaneity” of existence. I am not one that is too proud to admit that I will never understand God fully. Yet, if you think about it, humans cannot even understand ourselves (how we tick) so why should I be so proud to try to figure out the existence of God?
All that being said, I enjoy your perspective of atheism (which even well educated Scientists should get a kick out of). Atheists and Creationists alike would bloviate for hours.
Not all theists subscribe to human souls entering Heaven or being cast to Hell.
Believing in God or Jesus “just in case” is not an honest belief.
That’s like saying that not all people subscribe that a tomato is actually a fruit. Even though it is a fruit, not a vegetable. Does it make it any less factual?
Should I avoid crossing the street “just in case” a car ran a red light?
Should I believe in all gods “just in case”??? Why stop at one god?
Valid points. But really would you cross the street blindfolded? That would be foolish. Yet to believe something blindly is more dangerous than believing with your eyes open. Open to the bible, that is.
I submit that what you ask, Pascal’s “what if I’m wrong” wager is utterly meaningless. And I find it amusing that you appear to think no one here has heard that gem before. Let me ask you this. What if we’re both wrong, and when we die we end up in front of Ba’al? Ba’al is going to be mighty bull$hit at you Christians for what you did to his worshipers. As is any other god besides the single one in whose basket you’ve placed all your eggs. At least I won’t have actively joined any group that offends them. And yes, I think it is every bit as likely that I will die and meet Zeus or Thor as it is that I will meet your god.
Thank you for the thumb down on my other comment, though. I shall return the favor.
Why didn’t you just say “I subscribe to Pascal’s wager” instead of burdening us will all that reading and yourself with all that typing?
Jeez!
If there is no God, then why are we here? Why do we exist?
There is no god, and there is no particular reason.
The “existence for purpose” bit is religious rhetoric and mythology…both created by humans.
“Individual purpose” is fueled by human drive and learned from society.
zman, I struggled with that one myself, back when I first started questioning religious beliefs. It seemed incomprehensible that “all this” would exist “for no reason.” My human brain SO wanted to have a reason for everything (which, by the way, is how religion was invented in the first place, if you think about it.) There doesn’t have to be a reason or purpose for anything; it is only our curious human nature that thinks there “must be” purpose. Look at it this way for a second: we live in a universe where GALAXIES collide, regularly. Our own Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda (I think it’s Andromeda; someone correct me if I’m wrong.) This means that every life form on every habitable planet and moon – we’re talking somewhere in the gadzillions here – is going to have a very, very bad day. There is no more “purpose” in this total wipeout of humanity and whatever other living beings in existence with us than there is a “purpose” in the total destruction of an ant hill by, say, a wildfire in the forest. If you look at the realities of what goes on around you, you realize that this is, indeed, a shit-happens universe of terrible beauty. Life is precious. Don’t waste it trying to appease some man-made Bronze Age deity.
Actually there can be seen a purpose in a wildfire. If you go to an area hit by wildfire a few years after it has gone though you will find very few signs it was ever there but all kinds of signs of life. Generally even more signs of life then there was before it went though.
That’s not a purpose. That’s an after effect.
You are right the world will end. That is according to God’s purpose. When the rapture takes place, I guess you’ll say aliens did it. And you will remember a post by zman. Why do people believe in aliens more than Christ when there is more proof of his existence?
Glad to see you reasoned all that through, zman.
There is zero proof of any of your religion. At least UFO people have grainy video of shiny things they can pretend are spaceships.
And frankly I think it’s vile and disgusting to be looking forward to your monster Egyptian-baby-killer god ending the world.
That only makes me laugh! That’s like saying all germans are racist because hitler ordererd the Jews killed. Sure there may be fanatics who have claimed religion for political gain, financial corruption, and many more horrid occurances. But God gave us free will to sin. The bible says ” all have sinned “. He did not create humans as robots to serve him. And yes, God is a “he” not a “she”. lol
… What on earth are you replying to? If you’re talking to me, the comment I made about actual real human beings was that it disgusts me to see people looking forward to the end of the world being brought about my your monstrously evil god. Are you saying you aren’t, in fact, looking forward to this rapture of which you speak?
And before you start protesting me calling your god on his intolerable behavior, remember that HE murdered all the Egyptian firstborn children according to your vile book, not his followers. HE drowned everyone on earth except for one family. HE sent bears to dismember 42 little children who teased Elisha for being bald. You are worshiping a god who thinks being ripped apart and eaten by bears is an acceptable punishment for children who tease a bald man. You are worshiping a god who thinks it’s ok to tell someone to make a human sacrifice out of his child just to see if he’ll do it. Sure an angel stopped Abraham, but I’d bet good money that Isaac was not amused. And nobody stopped Jepthah from murdering his daughter.
Your very own holy book says that your god personally murdered hundreds of thousands of people, and ordered the deaths of millions more. Satan, on the other hand, killed ten. He killed Job’s family at your god’s encouragement because they made a bet about how much they could torture the guy and still have him worship your psycho-killer god. Who is the evil one again? Or don’t you bother to read the distasteful parts of the Old Testament?
So again, I say what the hell is wrong with him?
Do humans have photos or film footage of God? NO!
The ONLY original evidence of Christ is from the New Testament. Any other accounts of his existence are after the NT, and NT based.
The new testament is made up of many different books and accounts of Christ that match up strikingly similar, even though these books were writen in different regions. The bible is noted as one of the oldest historical documents and is noted to be a historically accurate document. I seriously doubt anyone here has read the entire bible. Actually is a great literary read also. What is sad is I know a theology prophesor who claims he’s never read the whole bible.
Strikingly similar?
Only 2 of the 4 gospels speak of his “virgin birth”.
For such a miraculous birth, it seems rather unimportant to be included in all 4 gospels.
BTW..
What is YOUR purpose for commenting here??
Your existence here is determined by me, the Creator of this blog.
If it’s so historically accurate, why are there no contemporary accounts anywhere of some guy wandering around performing miracles. Why can’t archaeologists find evidence of the supposedly massive walls of Jericho? Why was there not a single shard of pottery or any other scrap of evidence in the desert where the Israelites supposedly wandered for forty years? Sure some of the places in the Bible are real. New York is real too, but that doesn’t mean Spiderman lives there.
I have read it in its entirety many times.
Do you know everyone here?
You’re just ANOTHER arrogant Christian that assumes that everyone wants your bullshit religion.
Christianity will cease to exist as a major religion and become just another chapter of human mythology like the Roman, Greek and Norse God legends.
“The new testament is made up of many different books and accounts of Christ that match up strikingly similar”
One book completely omits the “fact” of him being born from the rape of a child, by a ghost.
“The bible is noted as one of the oldest historical documents and is noted to be a historically accurate document”
Is noted by who or what to be historically accurate? And which parts? The one about the earth being flat, or the one about the sun revolving around the earth? Or maybe the one where the earth is being held up by a string? Or that delightful one about your all loving God flooding the earth and killing everyone and everything that wasn’t inside a Bronze Age boat, including the dinosaurs, 6000 years ago.
There’s little to nothing which is historically accurate in that deluded old book of Jewish fairytales!
Because the existence of extraterrestrial life is far more probable than the existence of an invisible friend.
And there is little (if any) verifiable proof that Jeebus the man really existed, let alone the gawd-man.
Further, such purported “proof” that exists, such as the babble, is so full of holes and contradictions that it is wholly unreliable.
@John_Poson26
That’s not true. Most scholars at this point believe the history in the books of Kings for the most part is accurate, with some exceptions and modifications, as many of the king’s existence and events recorded in the book has been confirmed by outside sources.
I’m in the position to dispute whether or not some of the information about the kings, Jewish or otherwise, might have some essence of historically accuracies. But the bible as a whole, is just made-up fucking bullshit, mainly everything else in it is!
Maybe you would like to enlighten us with some of this proven existence of these Biblical kings???
David? Solomon? Saul?
Any personal effects?
@Mark and :
Here is a list of artifacts of historical relevance to the Bible on good old wikipedia: link.
The Assyrian and Babylonian invasions mentioned in Kings and multiple Prophets match up with records from those cultures talking about their conquests. Omri, Ahab, Ahaz, many other kings, as well Canaanite kings, and other less important figures mentioned in the Bible have been mentioned in outside Canaanite, Egyptian and other regional sources, as well as in archaeological finds within Israel (seals and stuff like that).
The historicity of David, Solomon, and Saul are still in question, but many of the other Kings have been established. It’s safe bet that the ones who haven’t been confirmed through extrabiblical archaeological evidence (excluding David, Solomon, and Saul) probably existed. There are two Steles that supposedly use the phrase, “House of David,” which is the first mention from an outside source of a possible King David. However, there is a lot of controversy around those readings, and even if it did say House of David, it doesn’t necessarily prove that a real David existed.
Whoops! I must have forgot to add the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artifacts_significant_to_the_Bible
Artifacts Significant to the Bible
I want to qualify my statement a little bit. I hope everyone realizes I am not saying the Book of Kings should be read as actual history the same way one would read a text book of history. It clearly is a theological-political literary text that uses events from history to make certain theological and political points, hence all the time spent on how the King’s behave and the success or failure of their reign in accordance with their religious devotion.
However, what I am saying is that many of the king’s Omri onward and many of the events mentioned in the Book of Kings do in fact seem to have a real historical basis based off extrabiblical archaeology finds. Many of these personages did exist and historical events associated with them did in many cases occur.
Just wanted to make that clear so there’s no confusion.
Caesar is mentioned in the New Testament, but yet it not a history book.
Impartial supporting evidence, please.
I think some comments in this thread may have commented on the total lack of archeological evidence for just about anything the bible mentions. How can anyone, with a straight face, claim that the bible is a “hisorically accurate document”! The nerve to lie like that! A bible that has a woman being made from a man’s rib, a talking snake, an ark to deal with a great flood, the parting of the waters, and so on, nonsense piled on the top of nonsense, and it’s even UTTERLY BORING to read (and hence it’s in no way, shape of form, any kind of reasonable literature), is a book very much written by very primitive people with imagination rich in superstition and preoccupied with controling their their tribal way of life. It galls me to have to waste my time talking about that silly tome at all. But the final joke is on me! Here I am writing about it! Damn!
It gives us something to rant about.
We wouldn’t have to talk about it if people like zman weren’t determined to force it upon us whether we’re interested or not.
And I agree with you. Literature?? I like my literature to make sense. The Bible has plot holes you could drive a truck through. Sideways. On fire.
Ranting is great! The real reason I was first here was on the church billboard blog, but was also interested in understanding the mind of an atheist. I do have one question though. I have always believed atheist have no moral compas, meaning believing nothing is good or bad….do atheists have morals and where do they come from? Instinct? Just wondering…please don’t take offense to this as I only wish to understand.
Our morals are learned from our family and society from which we reside.
Let’s talk about Vermont….
http://www.nicic.org/Features/StateStats/?State=vt
By coincidence, Vermont also has the highest number of atheists and non-religious in the U.S.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:uopXmjn1TtMJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism+atheist+adherents+vermont&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
In other words…..religion does not create a higher moral standard. It is only hype.
We do pretty well on that account here in Massachusetts, too. We are the single most left-leaning, liberal state in the country, and we also have the lowest divorce rate. Yay, us! We certainly kick the ass right off of Texas in the family values department. Oddly that suddenly didn’t matter to conservative Christians during the 2004 election.
… Are you saying your church posts up edicts to go browbeat the godless?
Wow. I would never, ever go on a Christian, Muslim, Jewish, pagan or any other religious website and start telling the members they need to believe what I believe.
I have no idea why you would think atheists have no “moral compass.” My morality comes from empathy, and my humanistic beliefs come largely from Gene Roddenberry (also an atheist), via Star Trek. With a little George Lucas/Star Wars thrown in for good measure, I guess. (Yes, I’m serious.)
You don’t get your morality from the bible, either. If you did, how would you know whether your god was the good guy or the bad guy? Did you just take the book’s word for it?
Anti-atheist themes are used by Christian clergy to keep their sheep from leaving the flock….and keep the money flowing to their pockets.
I think there is “instinctive morality” or “biological morality.” For example, nurtuting young at the expense of ones own health and freedom; not interbreeding with other species; mostly infertile issue when interbreeding does occur, etc.
Instinctive behaviors favor survival and propagation. If such behaviors fit Man’s notion of “morality”, then there you go.
@Mark
No reply button. So I’ll respond here.
Sure, but the mention of Caesar is like one line in a book that is essentially about the life and times of Jesus. The Book of Kings is basically about those kings. However, all of that is beside the point as the question was the historical accuracy of the Bible, not whether the Bible should be read as a history book; it shouldn’t. Although in certain cases it does shed light on real historical events. The original poster I replied to said:
“There’s little to nothing which is historically accurate in that deluded old book of Jewish fairytales!”
So I’m not sure what the relevancy of the Bible = a history book in the modern sense, fits into the conversation.
I’m not exactly seeing how the two statements (yours and John’s) contradict each other. He said it wasn’t historically accurate; you said there were real places and real people in it. Are you saying that makes it historically accurate? Do I need to mention Spiderman and New York again? Or better yet, Troy existed. Ithaca probably existed. Does that mean The Odyssey is historically accurate? Or The Illiad?
If you’re not saying the Bible is historically accurate, then I don’t understand where the difference of opinion lies.
The question of historical accuracy or historicity always presumes to erase the supernatural elements as part of its inherent methodology as supernatural elements are beyond the scope of history. So the question should be if we ignore the Cyclops and deities and such, did a real historical figure named Odysseus fight in the Trojan War and get lost for ten years at sea before returning home?
Have you seen any evidence that a real Odysseus actually existed? Achilles? But Omri apparently did, Ahab, etc. The Iliad really only corresponds loosely to historical events and possibly certain aspects of Mycenaean culture.
Parts of the Book of Kings depict real events, real kings, and real places. Basically the stuff of history (people, places, and events). When you’re asking if something is historically accurate you’re in fact asking whether these people actually existed, the places actually existed, and the events actually occurred. So one reason why your spiderman comparison doesn’t work is we’re talking more than just places for starters.
The question is basically the same, if we ignore the supernatural elements in the Book of Kings did many of the events it depicts actually happen, did the people it mentions actually real historical figures, etc. The answer seems to be in many cases, yes, as confirmed by outside sources.
So I think it untrue to claim “There’s little to NOTHING which is historically accurate in that deluded old book of Jewish fairytales!” (emphasis mine).
When someone makes a claim like that without any qualifications then they’re basically suggesting that they don’t really think any of the Bible is historically accurate or true. However, Biblical archaeology has vindicated the idea that Kings like Omri, Ahab, the Assyrian invasion, the Babylonian invasion, the kings responsible are in fact historically accurate and real, and therefore such a statement doesn’t stand up to the archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean we should read the Book of Kings as actual history, at least, not in an uncomplicated fashion because it does contain theology and political propaganda, and sometimes distorts events slightly for those purposes. In other words, it has plenty of historical accuracy, but this is NOT a neutral history. I think since there is clear historicity to many of the events this proves his uncompromising statement untenable, however, my statement that one should still be careful in reading Book of Kings or any Biblical book as history in the modern sense of the word doesn’t support or negate his argument one way or the other. To put another way, it’s not a history book, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it lacks historical accuracy.
Does that answer your question?
I do agree that some historical information is in the bible. You yourself have pointed out how little there actually is in the bible. Most of it is like the historical fictions my mom likes to read. People can always write stories with real places and events that happened and then add their own characters. If you can only point to a few of the books as being historically accurate then I have to side with the others that say for the most part it is fiction.
More or less. I guess I just disagree with you, then.
Would you consider Titanic to be a historical movie? It really sank, and I believe they got the passengers names right. But I would consider it a fictional movie about a real-life event. (Granted, I’m the one person on earth who hasn’t actually seen Titanic, so maybe it’s more accurate than I’m assuming.) Because if you do consider something like that historical, then by that logic every book and/or movie set in, say, WWII is historically accurate. And so is every western that calls the president by name.
Oh, but thank you for the explanation! Sorry I forgot to say that in my other post!
I don’t claim that God doesn’t exist, therefore the thing that I must tell you, is This ‘Famous’ Pig’s Behavior, to myself a symbol & a repetition that those, who believe in Its Way of thin-king, are, what they don’t seem to be: A bunch of ignorants, for instance my Danish mother to ask me to treat myself like her ‘chosen compromise,’ soemething, she approves of, so that I can of course & only become & believe in & as much as possible about, what I sooner
didn’t know, didn’t think, if I could control & force myself to feel like any good part of, since she was totally envious of me, especially laborally spoken, greetings, ‘J.A.,’
I’d ask why would he be such a sadistic prick to create life. Because life = pain. (But it’s much more consoling to think that there is no sadistic prick up there, just a process which doesn’t care about pain, just reproduction, so it’s lucky that all the evidence supports that
)
P.S.: If God did exist, I’d make a statement: Take an f-h., greetings, ‘J.A.,’ so I can find it out.