Blaise Pascal's Wager addresses unbelievers with something like this: since nobody knows whether or not God exists, it would be best to err on the side of caution such that one should believe "just in case". Otherwise, God will or at least might be angry with the unbeliever and thus have more reason to condemn him to a very undesirable place after death.
This is a total MOCKERY right in God's face! How, you ask? This kind of pleading attempts to intimidate and manipulate unbelievers to place "some" amount of faith in God. But I thought God wanted ALL OF US! What are those of us that justifiably CAN'T commit 100% of their faith and belief in God to do?
Would God honor more 1) an unbeliever who boldly faces Him with honest, heart-felt doubt or 2) one who tries to delude Him into believing his "partial faith" was anything more than a half-assed, cowardly attempt to avoid punishment and/or curry favor with Him?
Perhaps the converse of this would be the more appropriate of questions. As in, who would God dishonor more? 1) An unbeliever who boldly faces Him with honest, heart-felt doubt or, once again, 2) one who simply tries to delude Him into believing his "partial faith" was anything more than a half-assed, cowardly attempt to avoid punishment and/or curry favor with Him?
Then again, if God is all-knowing, there is no way anybody could ever fool Him.
This is a total MOCKERY right in God's face! How, you ask? This kind of pleading attempts to intimidate and manipulate unbelievers to place "some" amount of faith in God. But I thought God wanted ALL OF US! What are those of us that justifiably CAN'T commit 100% of their faith and belief in God to do?
Would God honor more 1) an unbeliever who boldly faces Him with honest, heart-felt doubt or 2) one who tries to delude Him into believing his "partial faith" was anything more than a half-assed, cowardly attempt to avoid punishment and/or curry favor with Him?
Perhaps the converse of this would be the more appropriate of questions. As in, who would God dishonor more? 1) An unbeliever who boldly faces Him with honest, heart-felt doubt or, once again, 2) one who simply tries to delude Him into believing his "partial faith" was anything more than a half-assed, cowardly attempt to avoid punishment and/or curry favor with Him?
Then again, if God is all-knowing, there is no way anybody could ever fool Him.
I agree with you, Jesus made it very clear you are either with me 100% or not at all. Besides if you are only believing in something just in case it happens to be true you don't really believe it. It is the same thing as wearing a seat belt in case you get in a wreck even though you don't really believe that you are going to get in a wreck. You would also only be believing out of fear; fear is no way to start a healthy relationship and it will eventually fade.
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