A Thoughtful Non-Christian's Response to the Question: "What if I'm Wrong?"

[Cudgel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iClejS8vWjo&feature=channel

[Peleg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iClejS8vWjo&feature=channel

I liked it.  I thought it was indeed very thoughtful.  But, you can tell he gets his observations from primarily a Protestant view of Judgment and hell and simply shows the weaknesses of that viewpoint.  He doesn't realize that Judgment Day is about the revealing of what we really are to ourselves.  This complete exposing of our true selves is a natural consequence of being exposed to an unspeakably holy God.  Think Isaiah.  Hell is not vengeance it's our reaction to being exposed to this God, His love.

The other problem is that he is using scientific, rational means of determining if there is a God or not.  As Hebrews says one must believe that there is a God and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  If you start out saying "God must prove Himself to exist using my standards" you're probably not going to get very far.

Anyway, I was impressed w/ this guy and appreciated his mature irenic presentation.

[Peleg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iClejS8vWjo&feature=channel

I meant to post one other thing.  This is a quote from The River of Fire that is appropriate to this guy's critique of what he understands to be Christian teaching.

What is salvation for Western theology? Is it not salvation from the wrath of God?

Do you see, then, that Western theology teaches that our real danger and our real enemy is our Creator and God? Salvation, for Westerners, is to be saved from the hands of God!

How can one love such a God? How can we have faith in someone we detest? Faith in its deeper essence is a product of love, therefore, it would be our desire that one who threatens us not even exist, especially when this threat is eternal.

Even if there exists a means of escaping the eternal wrath of this omnipotent but wicked Being (the death of His Son in our stead), it would be much better if this Being did not exist. This was the most logical conclusion of the mind and of the heart of the Western peoples, because even eternal Paradise would be abhorrent with such a cruel God. Thus was atheism born, and this is why the West was its birthplace. Atheism was unknown in Eastern Christianity until Western theology was introduced there, too. Atheism is the consequence of Western theology.

Atheism is the denial, the negation of an evil God. Men became atheists in order to be saved from God, hiding their head and closing their eyes like an ostrich. Atheism, my brothers, is the negation of the Roman Catholic and Protestant God. Atheism is not our real enemy. The real enemy is that falsified and distorted "Christianity".

[BoredMeeting]

The other problem is that he is using scientific, rational means of determining if there is a God or not.

It is quite common for atheists to note that there is no empirical evidence for the existence of God.

Of course, if there was such evidence, then believing in God would be a forgone conclusion and faith would be unnecessary.

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