Does The Thought of God Not Existing Terrify You?

[serenesam]

I'll start with myself. Yes it does. As a human being part of the human species, I can tell what human beings may be capable of and as knowledge and intellect increases, there is this potentiality of humans ending up destroying or decimating themselves along with other lifeforms on this planet. As Michel de Montaigne once said “I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.”

Now going into crazy territory of life after death and the assumption that a soul exists, I think even such an afterlife can be quite "not as heavenly as one might have assumed when one was alive in the physical corporeal form." Who knows what the political system is on The Other Side or the Afterlife whether it be communism, socialism, libertarianism, anarchism, dictatorship, monarchy, capitalism, anarchosynicalism, anarchocapitalism, fiscal conservatism, some kind of tyrannical or non-tyrannical system, etc. It could very well be heaven or hell or consists of some degree of both the good and the bad.

 

[say what]

Heck yeah.

For me, it's mostly the thought of never seeing my lost loved ones. That, in and of itself, depresses me. How can someone you love, cherish, and connect with be lost forever? The only way a loss like that has been manageable for me is believing in the thought that they are not gone, just simply on vacation or transformed into another state of being.

It also boggles my mind about the creation of everything. I'm very much a scientist and believe in the big bang, etc....but it blows my mind when I think about just how everything began to exist. There must be something that justifies how everything, or just something was in existence at the beginning. If not, then how can we actually exist? ...I have to stop...my mind is being blown.

 

[Love_Conquers_All]

Well, I personally believe and hope that it is lovism! To answer your question. In my natural finite mind I would say yes it is quite obliterating to my hopes and dreams. With the faith that I have received by Christ though, I am most assured that there is an afterlife and to reiterate it's full of lovez!!!

 

[barbad0s]

Not in the slightest. In the past I thought about the things mentioned here that would bother people, and then I accepted that they could all come true and got over it.

 

[the]

Well I personally would find comfort in there being no afterlife. I'd prefer to be nothing than have a 50% chance at burning forever.

if there is no god then I would have to reassess some aspects of my life. In the meantime I would just assume I had a high amount of luck.

 

[Shaqie]

I put God in the state of the absolute and quite honestly messed up MAYBE.
MAYBE he is real.
MAYBE he is not real.
There is no conclusive evidence he is out there, but also there isn't any stating that he isn't there. We simply do not have the conclusive knowledge to even jump into any understanding about him, only the ideas instead.

So … why should I be terrified of this?

 

[muir]

When people meditate they can get past their constructed ego identity and what is left is 'i am' awareness

The bible mentions this...'god' is 'i am' awareness

 

[Cornerstone]

Well I personally would find comfort in there being no afterlife. I'd prefer to be nothing than have a 50% chance at burning forever.

if there is no god then I would have to reassess some aspects of my life. In the meantime I would just assume I had a high amount of luck.

But that is YOUR idea about the afterlife being a 50/50 chance of UBERBBQ. You're allowed to think about the afterlife as something other than what the high priests say it's like.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

I am not so worried about there being no God, as the possibility of an eternal afterlife with only finite things to contemplate.

I think it would be hell to have an eternal soul, without some infinite truth/being to occupy it.

 

[the]

But that is YOUR idea about the afterlife being a 50/50 chance of UBERBBQ. You're allowed to think about the afterlife as something other than what the high priests say it's like.

Is this sarcasm?

 

[Cornerstone]

Is this sarcasm?

It depends how serious your original post was. I'm saying ideas about the afterlife that I consider to be more realistic are not very close to your description. Having a preference of nothing over an archaic Catholic dogma is understandable only if those were still the prominent 'credible' theories about an afterlife. I would prefer nothing over many religious depictions of the afterlife but it makes more sense to prefer something else rather than nothing...and there is a lot of 'evidence' to suggest it is much more complicated than 'heaven' and 'hell' that isn't coming from mainstream religions.

 

[LucyJr]

Heck yeah.

For me, it's mostly the thought of never seeing my lost loved ones. That, in and of itself, depresses me. How can someone you love, cherish, and connect with be lost forever? The only way a loss like that has been manageable for me is believing in the thought that they are not gone, just simply on vacation or transformed into another state of being.

It also boggles my mind about the creation of everything. I'm very much a scientist and believe in the big bang, etc....but it blows my mind when I think about just how everything began to exist. There must be something that justifies how everything, or just something was in existence at the beginning. If not, then how can we actually exist? ...I have to stop...my mind is being blown.

The second point you raised is called the problem of necessity in philsophy. There must be something that ground the existence itself, something whithout begining, because existence could not come for nothingness. It was this issue that lead to the development of the ontological argument for the existence of God. The nature of God is a metaphysical being, that can not be inexistent by necessity, and is the ground of all existence.
Its interesting that Aristotle come to this conclusion in his search for truth. The only difference is that Aristotle believed this great cause is within the universe. Now science has shown that the Universe has a beginning.

 

[say what]

The second point you raised is called the problem of necessity in philsophy. There must be something that ground the existence itself, something whithout begining, because existence could not come for nothingness. It was this issue that lead to the development of the ontological argument for the existence of God. The nature of God is a metaphysical being, that can not be inexistent by necessity, and is the ground of all existence.
Its interesting that Aristotle come to this conclusion in his search for truth. The only difference is that Aristotle believed this great cause is within the universe. Now science has shown that the Universe has a beginning.

I am certainly behind on my science, and it's not a topic I really know...but is there now something before the big bang?

 

[sprinkles]

I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

 

[Nixie]

I do not follow organized religion of any kind. So, no, keep your god and your jesus.

Typically, it seems, any conversation speaking of "god" revolves around tenants of Christian faith by default.

 

[say what]

I do not follow organized religion of any kind. So, no, keep your god and your jesus.

Typically, it seems, any conversation speaking of "god" revolves around tenants of Christian faith by default.

I find religion vs. spirituality very difficult. I also don't follow any organized religion (although I was raised Catholic, thus, while I don't believe in Christianity, but spirituality takes on many of it's representations...for example, I believe in a higher purpose, which in my mind is often represented by the imagine of Jesus...but it doesn't hold the principles of Catholicism).

I actually didn't take this question to be a question of religion, but yet of faith/spirituality. The thought of a higher purpose not existing does bother me...it's a mind bend, but also it would impact some of my fundamental beliefs/ethics - karma, life after death, etc.

 

[toska]

No. I grew up in an non-religious household. I didn't even understand the concepts of god and religion until I was about 12 -13 years old. My mom claims that Christianity ruined her childhood, so she tried to shield me from knowing anything about religion in general.

 

[Jill Hives]

I don't see the existence or non-existence of God as anything to be feared. Maybe it is naive of me, but I have faith in the universe. I feel what is happening to cause life to exist and time to move forward is a benevolent force and that fearing death and spending time worrying about afterlives is a huge waste of my energy.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

Heck yeah.

For me, it's mostly the thought of never seeing my lost loved ones. That, in and of itself, depresses me. How can someone you love, cherish, and connect with be lost forever? The only way a loss like that has been manageable for me is believing in the thought that they are not gone, just simply on vacation or transformed into another state of being.

It also boggles my mind about the creation of everything. I'm very much a scientist and believe in the big bang, etc....but it blows my mind when I think about just how everything began to exist. There must be something that justifies how everything, or just something was in existence at the beginning. If not, then how can we actually exist? ...I have to stop...my mind is being blown.

The second point you raised is called the problem of necessity in philsophy. There must be something that ground the existence itself, something whithout begining, because existence could not come for nothingness. It was this issue that lead to the development of the ontological argument for the existence of God. The nature of God is a metaphysical being, that can not be inexistent by necessity, and is the ground of all existence.
Its interesting that Aristotle come to this conclusion in his search for truth. The only difference is that Aristotle believed this great cause is within the universe. Now science has shown that the Universe has a beginning.

I think that when we are speaking of God, identifying 'something' prior to the big bang is not necessarily helpful, because it may well be the case that the big bang did not emerge from anything: ie. the big bang came from nothing: it simply started to exist.

The ontological indicator of the existence of God, is the very existence of the big bang, and everything between then and now. The universe, as we know it did not and does not have to exist, yet it does. Whatever is the cause of its existence, that is what we call God. The Aristotelian description of an indicator for the existence of God is refined by Thomas Aquinas: God is not so clearly indicated by a regression in events to a time when there was nothing - because the universe may indeed be eternal; rather, the existence of God is indicated by the existence of the universe - that there is a causing principle in respect of its existence.

The universe does not exist by necessity, ie. it could easily have been otherwise. However, given that things exist, the existence of existence itself is necessary. This necessary, non-contingent existence is what we call God.

So, relating it to the OP: I am not concerned about the possibility that God may not exist - because if anything does exist, which it clearly does, then God must exist. I am more concerned about my continuing existence: both as a possibility that I may cease to exist; and as a possibility that I may never cease to exist. In the latter case, I think connection with an infinite eternal is the only bearable way to proceed as a finite eternal.

 

[Gaze]

So, relating it to the OP: I am not concerned about the possibility that God may not exist - because if anything does exist, which it clearly does, then God must exist. I am more concerned about my continuing existence: both as a possibility that I may cease to exist; and as a possibility that I may never cease to exist. In the latter case, I think connection with an infinite eternal is the only bearable way to proceed as a finite eternal.

Yeah, I think someone is better off believing in the existence of God than not. The idea that I'm just going to cease to exist without any rhyme or reason, and simply lights out is a little too scary to imagine. If I at least can envision an afterlife with a superior entity, who is in control, that thought is more bearable.