Topic: Should we wager that God really does exist?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: July 31, 2004

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:  I don't think threes a god. I'm a Christian (please forgive my spelling) and i've been thinking. when we die what if there is nothing what if we've wasted our lives praying and worshiping god. when we die what if its just blackness nothing no thinking no hearing you will be totally gone. I cant even imagine it! There are millions of religions and who's to say there wrong? Some people are even willing to die for there god (note 9,11)what if a group of people a long time ago just made it up so they would feel better about dying but then it got out of hand and became a big religion. please help me i don't know what to think. could some one help me?

Answer: 

What a great question! Of course, I think you're wrong because I'm pretty darned sure that God does exist! But still, I'm so glad you're thinking about these kinds of issues.

Some great minds have thought about the question you're asking. Saint Anselm http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/anselm.html gave one very famous "proof" for the existence of God. Saint Thomas Aquinas http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas3.html had five "proofs" which philosophers think make the case for the existence of a Supreme Being. But honestly, neither of these two Saints finally and absolutely "proves" that God exists.

The closest thing that we can get to "proof" that God exists comes from within our own hearts. There is a "small, still voice" within us that comes as close to 'proving' the reality of God as anything can. Amid all the noise and distractions of daily life, we have to figure out ways to make ourselves quiet enough to hear that voice, but -- I promise you! -- it's there if we will just listen for it!

You're certainly right when you say that lots of people have done lots of really rotten things in the name of religion -- ours (unfortunately) included. But just because people do sinful things doesn't "disprove" that God exists.

In my opinion the real miracle is that in spite of the bad things that have been done in the name of religion, God continues to do wonderful, loving, miraculous, compassionate things for us through the very religious structures and institutions that have been all too often misused!

And finally, what if there is nothing after we die? Well, I don't believe that at all. I am convinced with my whole heart that God is real and that life-beyond-death is real.

Another great thinker, Blaise Pascal http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/, said a long time ago that if there's nothing after death, then we will just be dead and will not have lost anything from the time we've prayed. But, he went on, if we "wager/gamble" that God does not exist and so fail to pray, and then, after we die, we find out that God does exist, don't we run the risk of losing everything? Pascal has a good point! We don't have anything at all to lose by spending time in prayer and worshipping God.

Blessings to you!