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I remember when I was about 18 I had an intellectual, spiritual crisis. I asked myself the question "What if I'm wrong?" about my religious beliefs. I put this under philosophy because, with faith, there is no chance of solid, irrefutable proof and it wasn't about whether or not I should just go with my intuition. It was about what it would mean to me, intellectually, if my entire concept of the world were false, whether I knew it or not.

jimbo;941037 wrote: well koanie first let me say how nice you on fg :D



the thing that i always thought was if you dont believe in god and you are wrong about it ... major mistake ouch :-3



but if you do believe in god and you are wrong so what you will hardly know about it will you and at least you have lived a good life doing good things not much wrong with that is there :-6



i know beyond any doubt in my mind that there is something after death by visitations and someone on fg had a vision of something belonging to someone that had died and there is no way she could of known that unless.....:-3:-3


I have a real problem with this kind of thinking because of faith and belief based on fear. Fear of "What if I'm Wrong". Somehow that just does not seem logical to me. I am a non-believer and refuse to play the "What if I'm Wrong" game. To each his own however.

I am truly happy for you Jimbo.

koan;941029 wrote: I remember when I was about 18 I had an intellectual, spiritual crisis. I asked myself the question "What if I'm wrong?" about my religious beliefs. I put this under philosophy because, with faith, there is no chance of solid, irrefutable proof and it wasn't about whether or not I should just go with my intuition. It was about what it would mean to me, intellectually, if my entire concept of the world were false, whether I knew it or not.


What would it mean to you, intellectually, if your entire concept of the world were false?

It's something that's been going around in my mind for a while. For a moment or two it can seem liberating, alive and exciting...but, for the most part it terrifies me.

theia;941117 wrote: What would it mean to you, intellectually, if your entire concept of the world were false?

It's something that's been going around in my mind for a while. For a moment or two it can seem liberating, alive and exciting...but, for the most part it terrifies me.


I'm not sure I understand what you mean by concept of the world. Could you explain?

hmmmmmmmmmm if we don't believe in god, what will happen?

Odie;941207 wrote: hmmmmmmmmmm if we don't believe in god, what will happen?


If one believes that not believing in god will cause them everlasting pain and anguish, then their belief is founded primarily on fear, and that is wrong in my opinion.

Isn't questioning what you believe considered a crisis of faith?

I think these internal conflicts are what help us to know ourselves more deeply and help cement our faith more firmly.

It's a question of faith unless you are considering your choice of actions as the relevant concern. To detail an example:

What if I believe that burning a green candle and chanting the name of an Enochian angel will bring money instead of going out and looking for a job and I followed through on that but, as it turned out, I was wrong? If I didn't receive the money I needed it wouldn't prove I was wrong as the reason might be that I just didn't have strong enough faith, mispronounced the name etc. The philosophical question involves not whether or not I was correct but whether or not my beliefs can affect my actions in a way that has serious negative consequence if I am wrong. Is anything lost?

If you expand that candle scenario to a life size scale involving leaving family and friends estranged, possibly failing to meet responsibilities... if there are such things that we owe society... there are a lot of philosophical questions that come into play.