Perhaps the best way to think about it would be: reversing the question that I always got: "What if you're wrong?"

It's pretty easy for an Atheist to respond to "What if there's a God". That's pretty fucking straight forward. Then I got everything wrong and St. Peter can be like, "Hey retard, guess what?" and I'll be like, "Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Look, how can you expect me to believe you exist when: X"

But I think reversing that question is a pretty painful one to a theist. What if, in a horrifying turn of events, I'm right? That there is no God. That there never was a God. That no prayer was answered, and never could be. That there was no afterlife. That there was neither a heaven nor hell. That there was no one to correct the wrongs of the world and bend it towards righteousness. That there is no objective morality that you can expect others to follow. That this one life was absolutely all you get. That no forgiveness can be given. That forgiveness can only be earned from your victims, and they get to chose whether or not to grant it. That every sin, immorality, and wrong action scars you permanently and forever defines who you are, even if you move beyond it. And worst of all: the world was never any other way than this. So whatever you did before you realized that this was the way of things, was wasted time and mistakes you can never get back.

It's a much more severe world than maybe anyone wants to live in. But I think it's true. And if there is a path of righteousness, then it must be a path built on truth. The world I describe is terrifying, but it also requires you to take the most responsibility, and force yourself to live in truth. You really do want to make sure that in a world like that, you don't leave your wife in a huff because you can't really know if she'll survive the trip to the grocery store, and the last thing you'll want to live with was being ashamed of how you treated her the last time you saw her alive... because there isn't a second chance.

A truthful path will be righteous, but it will also be astonishingly severe, and gruelingly difficult to bear, but it must also come with the best outcomes because you took responsibility to never make those mistakes and sins in the first place, because there was never a safety net to catch you. It's astonishingly... conservative.

If you kill God, you'd better be ready to take responsibility for that.

Perhaps the best way to think about it would be: reversing the question that I always got: "What if you're wrong?"

It's pretty easy for an Atheist to respond to "What if there's a God". That's pretty fucking straight forward. Then I got everything wrong and St. Peter can be like, "Hey retard, guess what?" and I'll be like, "Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Look, how can you expect me to believe you exist when: X"

But I think reversing that question is a pretty painful one to a theist. What if, in a horrifying turn of events, I'm right? That there is no God. That there never was a God. That no prayer was answered, and never could be. That there was no afterlife. That there was neither a heaven nor hell. That there was no one to correct the wrongs of the world and bend it towards righteousness. That there is no objective morality that you can expect others to follow. That this one life was absolutely all you get. That no forgiveness can be given. That forgiveness can only be earned from your victims, and they get to chose whether or not to grant it. That every sin, immorality, and wrong action scars you permanently and forever defines who you are, even if you move beyond it. And worst of all: the world was never any other way than this. So whatever you did before you realized that this was the way of things, was wasted time and mistakes you can never get back.

It's a much more severe world than maybe anyone wants to live in. But I think it's true. And if there is a path of righteousness, then it must be a path built on truth. The world I describe is terrifying, but it also requires you to take the most responsibility, and force yourself to live in truth. You really do want to make sure that in a world like that, you don't leave your wife in a huff because you can't really know if she'll survive the trip to the grocery store, and the last thing you'll want to live with was being ashamed of how you treated her the last time you saw her alive... because there isn't a second chance.

A truthful path will be righteous, but it will also be astonishingly severe, and grueling difficult to bear, but it must also come with the best outcomes because you took responsibility to never make those mistakes and sins in the first place, because there was never a safety net to catch you. It's astonishingly... conservative.