• CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    edit-2
    15 hours ago

    Don’t believe in God, until you’re standing at the pearly gates. St Peter hates this one weird trick

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      edit-2
      14 hours ago

      To be fair, that’s a very Southern Baptist way to look at it. If you’ve ever read a Chick Tract (I’m so sorry), you’ll know that many end with someone who lived mired in sin earnestly repenting and believing in God right before they die, and it’s shown to work. Some other branches of Christianity, notably Catholicism, relax the emphasis on belief and put more stock into your actions while you lived – although they also believe most but not all sins can be pardoned if you confess and perform penance.

      However, I would suggest that believing in God because of Pascal’s wager is:

      1. Obviously idiotic (this part we all know). There are an infinite amount of gods you could believe in that would have the belief requirement. Even if you assert that it’s a belief in “a” god, how are we supposed to know it wouldn’t be some god who values empirical reason and would look down on this belief? These infinitesimal odds you’re wasting your only known life on aren’t even strictly positive.

      2. Something the God of the Bible probably wouldn’t appreciate? Within the shared fiction of Christianity, he knows exactly what’s in your heart, and I’m sure “I’m cooperating just so you give me the goods” doesn’t play well. Granted that’s kind of on God for being an abusive parent and threatening eternal damnation to anyone who doesn’t, but I’m still sure he doesn’t like people who game his abusive system for selfish ends.

      • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        11 hours ago

        I was hoping to find and share an image macro of Leela and Nibbler discussing the meaning of life, with Leela remarking, “So every religion is wrong!”

        Unfortunately, all I could find is Leela/Nibbler porn. Lots and lots of it. Goddamn, humans. We should be lucky there’s no judgemental god watching us all.

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          14 hours ago

          Seconding that Chick Tracts are comedy gold (Exhibit A). They’re so feverishly deranged that they become an unintentional parody of evangelical Christianity. Solidly “so bad it’s good”.

        • UnspecificGravity@piefed.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          13 hours ago

          They used to get left in the bathrooms on Washington State Ferries pretty reliably and I got together a pretty good collection. The first one I read was the classic Dungeons and Dragons one, this would have been pretty close to its first publication too. I wish I had kept those.

          • smh@slrpnk.net
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            12 hours ago

            I used to get them as a kid, trick or treating. I kind of miss them in a messed-up nostalgia way.

        • 4am@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          12 hours ago

          There was a table in the NYC subway many years ago that had thousands of them and they were handing them out. I definitely took a couple, knowing full well what they are, for the sheer novelty.

          Also to give them a few less to hand out to someone who might be susceptible because fuck em

    • BenVimes@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      14 hours ago

      “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives,” so goes the old hymn.