Convince Me: Questions for Christians and Atheists

To start off, I'm a Christian turned Agnostic...or rather I should say a very poor Christian turned Agnostic. I was never any good when I claimed to be Christian. I didn't believe anything more than 60% of the 10 commandments and that God existed. And despite believing in God's existence I never really "loved" him. I was (and still am) more terrified of him than anything else.

Over time I just grew to dislike what I was being taught in church and Sunday school and decided (to my mother's great dislike) to not go to church anymore. So now I'm a self described agnostic who's still stuck with this awkward and irrational (or perhaps very rational...) fear and slight disdain for a being I'm not sure even exists. However, to me agnosticism is a pretty annoying to position to stay stuck in. A continual "I don't know" isn't a satisfying enough answer for me. I think that there is a single answer that exists for any objective question. And when it comes down to the existence of God the answer can either be yes or no.

So this will be set up with two separate lists of questions, one geared towards Christians and the other towards Atheists. It's a bit of an experiment if you will. A part of me wants to be convinced one way or the other and this is the best way that I can come up with. So before I set this up I must set up my rules for how this will be handled:

1) No flaming or harassing others on the basis of belief. I don't want to see ridiculous, unnecessary arguing or flame baiting among anyone. Any rude, hateful comments will be hidden immediately. Basically, if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Remember that there are human beings on the other end of the computer screen. Don't abuse your anonymity.

2) No sarcastic "cool story, bro" type comments. No one or two word comments. I'm looking for well thought out discussion based comments.

3) Atheists can answer the Christian questions and Christians can answer the Atheist questions so long as the answers aren't sarcastic and mean spirited.


Questions for Christians

1) In regards to hell, should it ever be someone's sole reason for wanting to convert to Christianity?

Now whenever I state that the only reason I have to consider converting is this idea of hell as a place of pure torture, I always get this "Oh, you shouldn't convert just because of that!" sort of answer. However this idea is very confusing. One thing that Christians are supposed to be doing are "saving" people from going to hell, yet they don't think that a person should convert solely because they're afraid of hell. Why? Is it somehow wrong to turn to God because you afraid of the punishment that might be suffered after death? So is it really that wrong to believe because you don't want to deal with the alternative?

2) Also in regards to hell, what is it? Is it a place of pure torture or is it just separation from God? Or perhaps some mix of both?

I've heard them both. That hell is this extremely painful place of physical and mental torture forever and ever. Or that it's a separation of God and a place for people to wallow in their sins for all eternity. If hell is a place of mental and physical torture then yes I admit that does scare me. If it's a separation from God and a place where people continue to sin for all eternity, well that really doesn't seem that different that now. It's not nearly as worrying to me. I don't understand what scares people so much about just that.

3) In regards to God's omniscience, power, etc., is he really?

I admit that I wanted to find a different way to word this question, however this is the best and simplest way I could ask it. I ask this question a lot because I never find the answers I get to be satisfactory for too long. I always end up reading something or thinking of something else that makes me question the previous answers I get to this.

I still question this concept. He created everything (including us) knowing that we were going to disobey him. He created Satan knowing Satan was going to disobey him. Why? None of this "because it's the only way that we could have free will..." jargon. I've read that and heard that time and time again. This just leads me to ask, why then is free will entirely necessary? I don't believe it is. It seems that free will was a personal choice on God's part. It isn't a necessity. If I were made to be without the ability to, would I even know it? Would I really care? Probably not.

Before creating the angels, He should've known that one (Satan) would betray him. Before creating Adam and Eve, He should've known that they would "betray" him (despite their lack of knowledge of good, bad, right, and wrong). He gave them free will so he should've foreseen that happening.

4) What is heaven?

I hear more about hell than heaven when it comes to details. Hell is this fiery pit of despair where sinners dwell in their sins for all eternity. It's dark, scary and you don't want to go there. But what about heaven? What's it supposed to be like? And what if you went there and saw no one you knew...? Would it be possible to be lonely even though God's there (my personal opinion is that it would be)?

5) Why are you right?

Pretty self explanatory question. However no "because the Bible says so" or "because I was taught so" sort of answers. What knowledge or experiences have you gained/had that says to you that this world view is the correct one?

6) On mixing politics and religion...

Christian beliefs seem to be the only ones that get pushed forward in political agendas. Why should your beliefs be pushed onto others? Do you feel like religion is ever used to push forward laws? I'll leave it at that.

7) Why are you a Christian?

Were you taught it? Did you convert after some event in your life? If that's the case, what was it in your life that made you convert? Did you convert during a happy period in your life or a sad one (only answer that if you want to...I know that sometimes the back stories can be tough and you may not want to say it)?

8) Any last words, thoughts, etc.?

Anything you'd wanna add extra to what you've said above.

Questions for Atheists

1) Why are you right?

Exact same question for you guys as for Christians. Only I wanted to start this off with this one. I generally have more questions for Christians than for atheists anyways because Christians have a lot of confusing doctrines to deal with. So why is your world view the correct one?

2) Do you find depressed or relieved thinking/knowing there's no afterlife?

Oddly enough, I've heard both views from Atheists on this. Some feel that it is a little bit of a depressing thought that there is nothing else after this life. Most feel relieved. That way they can treat this life with the utmost respect and live it to the fullest because they know that once this life is over with...it's over with.

3) If you are like this, why do you have such a disdain, bordering on pure hatred, for theists? If you are not like this then there's no need to answer this question.

I have a huge disdain for militant theists. But my disdain for militant atheists seems to be a bit stronger. I don't understand why there is a need for some atheists to call theists stupid, ignorant, and all other sorts of names because they believe something different than they do. The reason my disdain for militant atheists is stronger than that for militant theists is because theists are usually doing what they do because they are instructed to in some way by their god to spread the word. Atheists who do the same thing (I'm only talking about some if you do not fit into the "militant" category then this does not concern you) don't have a real reason. They come across as extremely self-righteous. So if you are like this, why are you? Why shouldn't someone who holds theistic beliefs be considered as smart as someone who doesn't? Admittedly, this question has nothing to do with anything...I'm just very curious about the attitudes some atheists seem to have towards theists/theism.

4) Why are you an Atheist?

Were you raised in an atheist home? Did you convert after some event in your life? If that's the case, what was it in your life that made you convert? Did you convert during a happy period in your life or a sad one (only answer that if you want to...I know that sometimes the back stories can be tough and you may not want to say it)?

5) Any last words, thoughts, etc.?

Anything you'd wanna add extra to what you've said above.