If this were true, I'd do all the things that my heart desired. I'd aim to be as rich as I can get, date and sleep with the best looking girls of the world, get everything I wanted to get, do everything I wanted to do, and then die. My motto would be "eat, drink, and be merry; for on the morrow you die."
I aimed for that life in the past. I thought that was what life was about until Christ sought me and showed me my need for Him. I'm STILL amazed by this whole salvation thing!
Wow . . . you must have been rich. Flirting, fornicating and philandering is usually the privilege of rich and wealthy people.
They've got the power and money.
Me? I'm broke. But I'm thinking that even if I had a million dollars I still wouldn't do it. Money can't buy immortality or invincibility. If I did that people could starting thinking that I'm a "bad person." I don't really want that to happen. I'd get a bad reputation.
I might do that in a virtual reality simulation of the real world, since it's just a game. But life isn't a game. It's the real thing. It's not a simulation. This is the reality in which we exist. There is no reality outside of this reality. I need and want self-respect and I have to earn it.
What if I die from a heart attack tomorrow? What if I get killed in a car accident? Life is too precious, too sacred to muck around with.
What's the point of sleeping with girls when there's no love?
What if God didn't exist? Well, I wouldn't be vain, narcisstic or start sleeping with girls. I would be just as conservative. Think about it. You want a woman that can love you don't you? Actually, it would be worse if God didn't exist. God is my match-maker. How am I supposed to find the woman that belongs to me if God doesn't exist? Where is my future heading? What's my destiny? Romantic love (which is a combination of give and take) is pointless without God. That's because I don't have the power to make that love reach its full potential. I'm not the centre of the universe. There are other people living in this world, people with a mind of their own. I have to content with that. The exception is emotionally strong people. But I'm not superman.
I've had to work hard to get the life I've got now. It's not a free lunch for me. Life is miserable without God. I would rather die than live. The only reason why I don't want to die now is because I haven't achieved my full potential. I want to die with dignity, so in a sense I have to finish what I've started in this world. It's a fact of life that I have to work. I can't live extravagantly, nor can I choose to die at this instant. I have to take the narrow path because living extravagantly and indulgently leads to corruption, but committing suicide deprives me of my personal dignity. So I have no choice but to fight on. Ever onward!!!
Life is a battle. It's a war. I spend my whole life fighting dragons and demons that take the form of personal problems. God gives me a break. He's my sword, my shield, my refuge, my friend, my comrade. We walk, march, stand and fight together. If I fall into a big hole I say, Lord help me and he helps me out.
I would pretty much do the same thing as I'm doing now whether or not God existed. The only difference is that with God, there is hope of escaping this nightmare world.
Thanks for answering! But no one has answered the question yet. I'm sorry if Im not asking correctly, but I just want to know why someone who would opt for being the result of years of chance, aka, evolution, and who would believe that their life is meaningless since they came from nothing and will ultimately go no where, why would they choose to be moral at all? It doesnt make sense to believe one way and live opposite to that belief.
I hope that answered your question.
Oh -- why
would they? I don't think there's a reason at all!!! They just happen to choose to believe that there is no God.
According to my personal experience, I would choose morals regardless of whether God existed. I simply seek a relationship with God because I'm hoping for paradise at the end. I conclude from my own, subjective experience that because it doesn't affect my moral choices, that there is
no reason whatsoever for choosing either way -- that God existed/did not exist. Whether I was atheist or Christian, whatever argument I give you for being atheist/monotheist is of no consequence.
Suppose you're playing a ball game. When do you
choose to reach out and catch the ball? Do you perform calculations to decide when is the
most optimum instant? The answer is, if you're a normal human being, you don't perform
any calculations. You naturally reach out when it looks like it's the right time to start acting.
That's just like the question of when
thought is translated to
action. What's the science behind it? Where does it all begin?
I would choose to believe or not believe for no reason at all, provided I am not
hoping for something beyond this life. But
I am hoping for something beyond, so I am inspiring myself to believe. Otherwise, I wouldn't believe. Without hope, there is probably no motivation to believe anything.