Interesting thread

I was on another forum where I found this thread, I thought it was interesting and it invoked some thought, so, I decided to see if the same thing would happen here.

Weirdesky
Involved Poster Religion: Agnostic
Political Stance: No Preference
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 78


World P or world Q?

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Would you rather live in a world where everyone believes in god, but he doesn't exist (P), or a world where nobody believes in him, but he does exist(Q)?
I'd prefer world Q, because I'm tired of living in world P.

I wouldn't get your hopes up for rational thought here...

However, I do not know how a christian could possibly answer this. It's a little biased toward athiesm(sp?). Though, I guess I would choose P...

I'm an adamant atheist but I think Q would be cool. Real life is kind of boring, though I don't know if it would be cooler than a world where nobody believed in God and he really didn't exist.

i don't think either is very suitable. if god exists or not doesn't matter anyway so we can skip that part. now, is it better if people believe in him or not? i think it would be a major problem if EVERYBODY believed in god but for most people it's better to have a god.

so probably it's world R for me, god's existance doesn't matter and everybody who needs one anyway believes that there is one.

Well I don't have to ask if you believe in God.

Abe Vayoda said:

I wouldn't get your hopes up for rational thought here...

However, I do not know how a christian could possibly answer this. It's a little biased toward athiesm(sp?). Though, I guess I would choose P...

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Two christians on ous site answered differently. One said world P because the consequeces of living in world Q is eternal damnation and the other said world Q because there's still a good chance God could reveal himself.

Gustav said:

I'm an adamant atheist but I think Q would be cool. Real life is kind of boring, though I don't know if it would be cooler than a world where nobody believed in God and he really didn't exist.

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Why would that be cool. Isn't the greatest possibility that God does exist and we don't actually die. I'm agnostic but this is definitely the reality I prefer.

I dont think a world where everyone does one thing or the other is very, lets say suitable that will happen, but if I was forced to choose I wouldnt know what to choose, if taken moderately the religion can be a good thing, as all of them give very important values that will improve our society, this will happen with or without the existance of god, if on the other hand we didnt have religions, we would lose those values, but would win "the existance of a god" in which we havent believed in, but at least there is one, really its just making my head go round and round, let me be happy with my catolithism, going to church on sunday, etc, we will all see if there is god or not, at some point of our lives

Ps. Id choose the first world, even though there was no god, thanks to those values which religion has tought us, we will have helped others, and helped our society, so even if there is no payback at the end, I think its more, lets say honorable way of life. Which please by all means not be taken as that those that dont believe in my religion dont have these values, as they can be learned from very separate sources, its just that from my view, religions are very good supporters of these ideas.

JeremiahGateFan said:

Why would that be cool. Isn't the greatest possibility that God does exist and we don't actually die. I'm agnostic but this is definitely the reality I prefer.

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The reason I wish people didn't believe in God or in any religion is because too many people die over it. The world would be a lot less interesting though. If nobody ever believed in any religion there would be no pyramids. And we would also be very overpopulated right now, but if so much time wasn't spent on religious matters then we might have the capabilities to go live on other planets by now so overpopulation wouldn't be such a problem. There's really no way we could know what to expect in a world where religion never existed because religion is such a major variable in human history.
Of course it would be cool not to die. It would also be cool to be Spiderman. After thinking about it I'm going to say I would rather know actual reality than believing in God when he doesn't exist or not believing in God when he does exist.

If I understand Wierdesky's intentions, in these realities the people have reached the same conclusion about the universe. If people did that, I doubt there would be war over it. I see either of these as I deal as far as belief stucture goes alone.

As far as how we live, I don't see how it matters whether or not God exists. As for beliefs, I'm happy as it is; religion is the opiate of the masses..

This is a very interesting philosophical question.

People do bad things in the name of "God". They fly airplanes into buildings. They strap bombs to their bodies and detonate them on crowded busses. They protest at the funerals of brave soldiers with signs that say "Thank God for dead Soldiers".

People do good things in the name of "God". Mother Theresa administering to the 'poorest of the poor'. Pope John Paul working tirelessly, until his death, for world peace.

People do bad things without "God". (insert what ever you want here).

People do good things without "God". 'Doctors without Borders', UNICEF, OXFAM.

So does it matter if it's P or Q..........?

It doesn't. It really doesn't.

I think this question is really a conundrum.

so I'm not going to vote...............(Just like in the Presidential election).

I suppose it depends on what the god is like in world Q. Is world q a paradise provided by the god, and never questioned by the people. Or do they have free will without knowing what consequences await them after death?

I choose world p and to worship the microscope. It provides me more comfort and answers than the bible.

To monkey: If that's the way you see it than woulnd't world Q be superior in that at least there, there is a God. And by the way, "booh" non-voter. Of course, honestly, when they give us a choice between one evil and another evil, this isn't really a democracy, its an aristocracy. On the forum I call home, I have mentioned my beliefs about this which is that our government should resemble the Roman republic, except instead of having a senate, the people should be the people. The only reason a democracy is not perfectly direct is because of two factors, speed of messages and vastness of country. If you had an infinitely small country(one person) the democracy would be perfectly correct. And if you're speed was infinitely fast(and with the internet it is), you should be able to have a direct democracy. Anyway, on to the next poster.

I suppose it depends on what the god is like in world Q. Is world q a paradise provided by the god, and never questioned by the people. Or do they have free will without knowing what consequences await them after death?

I choose world p and to worship the microscope. It provides me more comfort and answers than the bible.

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I think it is supposed to be referring to an Earth the same as ours, except where everyone's come up with the same conclusion. I think the second one is right. They have freedom to choose Theism, but they chose atheism. And they are unaware of the consequences that await them afterdeath.

temple of john said:

I went with Q. I would rather know that he is there. I do believe strongly in God and know there must be something else out there.

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you are right, there is a world beyond the internet. we are really out here. me, roundshort, clinton, monkey, finn, ..., literally all of us.

how did you find out?

Jay R. Zay said:

you are right, there is a world beyond the internet.

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Hateful lies!

*ahem*

I voted the second one, just because worshipping something that doesn't exist seems like a huge waste of time. Plus, god brings an afterlife, so go eternal existance! Wewtsauce!

rotothirteen said:

Plus, god brings an afterlife, so go eternal existance! Wewtsauce!

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he hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

Jay R. Zay said:

he hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

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I see where you are coming from here, but what I realized and posted in the other thread is that there are two different possibilities for world Q. If God revealed himself at one point, than the people would be responcible and thus, punished. If God never revealed himself, the people weren't responcible.

JeremiahGateFan said:

I see where you are coming from here, but what I realized and posted in the other thread is that there are two different possibilities for world Q. If God revealed himself at one point, than the people would be responcible and thus, punished. If God never revealed himself, the people weren't responcible.

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punished for what? this whole god-punishing-man thing seems very childish behavior to me for a god. this guy can do everything and yet he prefers to behave like a huffy child - this seems unlikely to me. but also this whole hide and seek game is very childish. if he wants us to believe in him, he should send us a definite message. if he doesn't do so, it's his problem.

I agree completely and I have brought this up on a Christian forum. As a matter a fact, if you don't mind, I may quote you. You articulated that thought very well.