Is it better to worship a god to get to heaven than not to?

The problem is 'all the emphasis' on God's benevolence is set forth by those same people who give the rules for heaven; to believe the one but not the other with no further means of information is effectively just believing that which you want to believe

sorry about the semantics earlier, i should have said 'one' rather than 'you' in the above, for the record

No hard feelings, and you were correct - I'm just as much of a semantics stickler (it's why my sentences are so long and convoluted ).

My basic view, though, is that what preachers say about God or heaven (or what any church leader says - heck, even what the pope says - and ofcourse assuming that either exists in the first place) means little, really. Because if God wants to go against what they're saying and decide to treat people of all religious views equally and judge only by character, as I believe he would, then he'll do it, and there's nothing any human can do about it.

And my view of that particular potential deity as benevolent actually doesn't come from the church's statements - they're contradictory enough in that department for me not to take it at face value - but from my own observations. Frankly, the human race having not just survived, but thrived through the last couple of millenia is one of the more unlikely things that's ever happened in the universe. Anything but a very benevolent deity probably would have wiped the slate clean and started over by now.

You seem to be taken as given the fact that God exists, an idea for which there is no evidence. Further, you posit a God that is distinct from all the Gods described by religions. I find this difficult to understand.

Perhaps you feel that internal feelings are evidence of the extenal, or that 'there's no smoke without fire' or some such? Just trying to pin down what you mean by evidence

Note: This thread is in danger of going of topic, we have to be particularly careful in the religion forum as things do tend to gravitate towards certain areas. Take a look at sone of the other topics and you'll see what i mean

im not going to read the whole thread but as far as im concerned there is only one god no matter what faith your from. God knows whether you are just blieving in him to get in to heaven or if indeed you do beleive in him as he is in all of us.

Assuming God exists then that is true by definition

Hmm...I thought I had been obvious my position. I'm not really religious. All I've said in here has been said under the hypothetical situation "If god and heaven as depicted by traditional Christianity exist", and dealt just with Christianity for the sake of simplicity (because my explanations are far too long already ). But I've never really "believed" in any deity.

And I never mentioned "evidence" - I know perfectly well that there's no evidence for or against the existence of God, and that there probably never will be. In fact, that lack of evidence is the cornerstone of my arguments that science and religion aren't mutually exclusive.

And yeah, this is getting off-topic. We should both probably stop jawing and let other people have a say.

This threads been dead awhile, so i'll carry on. You're right you said 'observation', most people consider first hand observation as iron clad evidence (unless it comes from somebody else, then it suddenly becomes subjective )

I just feel many unconsciously absorb religious ideas which they hold despite claiming not to be religious. Your saying a 'potential' diety is benevolent in your 'observations' just threw me. Anyway, other threads for that, glad there's someone else who's going to pop in here, it's pretty quiet usually

Ok people in our fascination over these otherwordly figures,we can easily skip over christ's charge:Behold,I am coming as a theif suddenly and unexpectedly. Blesses is he who watches and keeps his comments.

No. What if another God punishes you for not believing in "Him", or God just plain punishes you for believing in "Him" for such a stupid reason?

I think any God that punishes people for worshipping another God, in a world as religiously confusing and screwed up as ours, is not really worth worshipping anyway.

Its better to find your own path and believe if it feels right, don't believe just for the sake of believing....after all we are all different

Right, because the first person I'd consult on theology and philosophy is a guy who's paid to explode peoples' heads from a great distance.

Stop acting like your own melodrama helps your case.

Whether there's a god or not doesn't ride entirely on your experiences. There are people in much worse positions that have seen much worse things; there always are.

Nothing is 100% certain.
You cannot prove there is a god and no one can prove that there isnt a god. It's down to the individual.
In my case... Heaven for the weather and hell for the company