My youngest son likes to ask, “Whats the downside to believing in God?”
“Whats the downside to believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins?”
If you believe and He doesn’t exist,then you are no worse off;but if you don’t believe and He does exist,hope He gives you another chance to change your mind.
It's hard to see how anybody would get into heaven for believing because of Pascal's wager. In fact, it's equally possible that there is a god, in fact, but he actually punishes believers, because he's crazy (he did, after all, not only kick Adam and Eve out of Paradise, but he created a world for them that had all manner of awful things in it-- from one extreme to the other-- thanks for smallpox and ebola, God!).
>>My youngest son likes to ask, “Whats the downside to believing in God?”
“Whats the downside to believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins?”<<
Great questions to ask when witnessing. I like “Why is it such a bad thing that God is in control?”
Either way, the answer is the same. Accountability. The lost don’t like to think that they will be held accountable for their sins on their last day.
You said: My youngest son likes to ask, “Whats the downside to believing in God?”
“Whats the downside to believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins?”
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I believe in God and that Christ died for my many sins, but I don’t care for this formulation. True faith and belief can’t be just turned on that easily. For many (most?) of us belief in God comes naturally. To me, it is obvious from casual observation of the world. But that doesn’t get me all the way home to believing in “our” God and that Christ died for our sins. That takes a level of faith that can’t be (in my opinion) decided on the basis of “no downside.” I agree that there is no downside (except trying to give up sins, which can be pretty fun while being committed) to belief in God, but true faith and belief requires sincerity with oneself. Many seem to have trouble with this, for reasons I can’t yet explain.