February 16, 2011

Spoiler Alert!

I hate spoilers! It drives me nuts to find out what happens in movies, games, books or TV shows before I am supposed know. I want to have the complete experience, I want to discover information as the author(s) intended. So if you have seen, read or played something I plan to but have not yet done so, please don't tell me anything about it.


If for some reason you must tell me something at least keep it spoiler free. Gamers have a little tag line they always toss on reviews, and comments, 'Spoiler Alert'. It is sort of a short hand that says the following will give away some amount of story, it is a sort of reader beware. It is a tag line I look for, and normally stop at. I tend not to cross the spoiler line.

A strange thing that I have noticed lately is that a sort of spoiler alert mentality has become the prevalent way many approach thinking about God. Some don't want to know if God exists because it might require them to make changes in their lives, others are so sure you can't know 'for sure' they treat trying like a waste of time. Either way, they don't want to know, they don't want the surprise spoiled.

Spoiler Alert!! If You Read This You'll Know All The Movie Twists

In many cities for the past few years free thought groups have been running atheist bus ads. One ad some time back said, "there is probably no god so stop worrying and enjoy your life." Since then that slogan as shown up on billboards, t-shirts and  just about anywhere else people can put it.

I must say I find this attitude troubling.

Whether there is or there is not a god is a rather serious question to get settled. It is true there are a lot of different religions. And if you take into account all of the sects with in religions the number of very different claims about God is staggering.

Some like Judaism say there is only one God, others like Hindus say there are countless gods. Some like Islam say God is completely removed from the world he created, others like Buddhism see parts of the divine in everything.

Christianity of course supplies its own answers to who God is, what his nature is, how he relates too/ his desires for humanity, the earth etc. Each faith has points of overlap, some more than others, but each has many differences.

But the one thing that every religion has in common, is they all give dire warnings to those who do not take their teaching seriously. Failing to adhere may result in eternal punishment, ceasing to exist, being reincarnated as a lower life form, and on and on the consequences go.

Now obviously everyone can't be right, and I am willing to admit it is possible that everyone is wrong. But given the fact that the stakes are so high, is it really wise to be so caviler towards the existence and nature of God?

I mean given all I have learned, thought through, prayed about and experienced when I get to the other side of eternity I am expecting to be face to face with Jesus. In reality I am sort of banking on that. After all, if I end up face to face with Zeus I likely am in trouble.

If there is or if there is not a god, is simply to important of a question to shrug off, this is one surprise I really rather have spoiled.

3 comments:

  1. Sort of a modern take on Pascals Wager. Nice. I only wonder how this sits with what you wrote in "Would You Rather"

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  2. Thank you for this blog. Is there or isn't there a God? In all the complexities of life, I know only one thing for sure, and that is that He exists.

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  3. Jared- The "Would You Rather" was zoning in on people who decided God's existence or non-existence because of preference. This one is more about being blissfully ignorant. If anything both people have committed the same error, they are just using a different method.

    Both are coming to a belief without any meaningful reflection, or any exploration. One says 'I want it to be this way so it must be', the other says 'I can't be bothered to check so I just hope things work out'.

    Bonnie- Thanks for the read and comment.

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