Belief in God (Abrahamic) is Logical

You still haven’t made a case for the Abrahamic God. To support Pascal’s Wager you still need to make logical arguments for the specific god or why would we choose one over all the others? You indicate how this might be done but do not demonstrate that one god is better than the next. Your box analogy doesn’t work For one it does not require any belief, which is the main requirement of your resolution. You essentially admit it would not be rational to believe the stranger. Also it would take you two seconds not a lifetime of dedication and we know that millionaires exist so the scenario is possible. "Your next paragraph is essentially saying there too many religions for us to accurately choose the right one to worship." Sure, but the fact that each culture invents it’s own God(s) supports my other points. We know that gods are made up. You have not brought up any evidence that the Abrahamic God was not arbitrarily invented, as we know so many other gods have been. “Unless there were an infinite amount of religions (which there aren"t), then it"s still statistically favorable to pick one and believe” There are an infinite number of possible religions. The general definition from Merriam Webster for religion is: 1. The belief in a god or in a group of gods 2. An organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods I demonstrated that religions are arbitrarily invented all the time so there are an infinite number of possible religions. With all the advancements in knowledge over the last century why do you assume we would be aware of the correct god? Since they are all arbitrarily invented what makes Jehovah unique? “This "narrowing down" is actually not nearly as difficult as you portrayed” Suggesting that you can narrow out all other gods is the same as suggesting that you have a great strategy for this debate without using it. If you can eliminate other gods why is Pascal’s Wager necessary or relevant? You are only asserting a particular God but you have not provided any evidence that suggests that the end result would be the Abrahamic Faiths. Why would you rule out religions that are not widely known or those that don’t exist? Just because something is popular in no way suggests that it is truer and our knowledge has drastically increased over the last hundred years. Your pet God does violate scientific laws which I’ll address later. “You would be angering EVERY God by not believing in any religion.” Another assumption, are all gods desperately in need our belief to massage their ego? Pretending to believe in one god for no good reason could just as easily anger the majority of possible gods. How do you know so much about the thousands of deities out there, none of them value intellectual honesty? Correctly identifying and accepting the truth is the basis of science and all inquiry and human progress. It’s not logical to believe in an afterlife which is needed to support your resolution Since we know that our personality is dependent on the brain and our brain is destroyed after death it is logical to conclude that we only have one short life to live and that any claim of an afterlife is false. Any time spent on a religion is wasting the one life we have. Its safe to say the few minutes/hours a day devoted to religion isn’t robbing you of an everyday activity, that rivals heaven/hell. Your time commitment is going up. The Old Testament introduces us to the Abrahamic God and His 613 [11] commandments that govern every aspect of life. You are instructed to spend the majority of your time meditating on the law (Deut. 6:7), give a significant amount of your money to the priesthood (Num. 18: 21), not cross breed cattle (Lev. 19:19) and not to wear garments of wool mixed with linen (Deut. 22:11). There are around 100 commands about various required animal sacrifices, 25 that cover dietary restrictions and 24 that govern sexual practices. Where are you getting this laid back easy going God that does not require any time? This is completely inconsistent with the revealed control freak. Belief in religions, especially Abrahamic, isn’t so much a deep profound feeling for God, as much as it’s the following of written guidelines I thought the changes to my lifestyle would be minimal. Belief is not a feeling or a choice. You’re trying to squirm out of your resolution. Now belief is following a set of commands? Since you did not supply your unique definition initially standard dictionary definitions of belief apply: 1: a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing [12] 2: something believed; especially: a tenet or body of tenets held by a group 3: conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence Since I can’t trust something that doesn’t exist you’re left with definition three and this is clearly what you were referring to in your resolution. If it is logical to believe than it needs to be possible. Belief without evidence is not a choice. As long as it has ANY chance (which based on scripture, it does), then its logically favorable to take up the wager, and try. No you’re advocating intellectual dishonesty that would somehow please an omniscient God. Wishful thinking has consequences. You are essentially arguing that the truth is not important but every area of advancement in the modern era has been due to accepting the facts we learn about reality not pretending. An argument that works for an infinite number of possible conclusions is not an argument that can be used to support any conclusion. Your argument can be used to support many gods and religious claims. An argument that supports multiple mutually exclusive positions does not get you anywhere. Your narrowing process should eliminate the Abrahamic God -His miracles violate scientific laws We are introduced to the Abrahamic God in the Old Testament, which makes several miracle claims that violate the laws of science. For 40 years God fed the wandering Israelites with bread that fell from heaven, see Exodus 16. Around 5,000 years ago in Genesis 6 God floods the entire earth without leaving geological evidence. In Joshua 10 Joshua commands the Sun to stand still and it does for around a full day. God creates the universe and all of life in 7 days in Genesis 1-2 contradicting what we know to be true about evolution. -He does not grasp basic morality God condones sexual slavery in Exodus 21:7-11 and general slavery in Leviticus 25:44-46. Exodus 21:20-21 says that you are allowed to beat your slave as long as he does not die within a couple days. The death penalty was commanded for minor offenses: anyone who worked on Saturday (Exodus 31:15), worshiped another god (Deuteronomy 17:1-5) or ‘cursed’ his or her parents (Exodus 21:17). The Old Testament condones genocide on multiple occasions. In First Samuel 15:3 God commands the Israelites to kill the Amalekites making sure also to kill the children and infants. Not only is God ignorant of basic morality but also why should I pick the evil untrustworthy God? -He created a hell when there are more humane options For an all-powerful creator there are better options: completely destroy sinners avoiding suffering, create a world where sin and punishment are not necessary or punish sinners individually based on what they deserve etc. His choice is unnecessarily cruel or incompetent and is inconsistent with his supposed concern for mankind. -He is completely incompetent with a series of failed schemes to help mankind God creates man. Man immediately sins and God kicks them out of the paradise Garden of Eden. Mankind quickly becomes so evil that God just decides to kill all of mankind except Noah and his family in Genesis 6. 150 years later God is concerned that mankind is challenging his authority so he decides to mix up their languages so they can no longer talk to each other (Genesis 11). Next God decides to make a covenant with a chosen people who are promptly enslaved by Egypt (Ex 1). God frees the Jews from slavery after a series of miraculous signs and supernatural plagues. Moses leaves for a few weeks and they immediately start worshipping a golden calf so God commanded the Levites (priesthood) to slaughter several thousand Jews. The Old Testament continues like this with every other generation rebelling and receiving God’s wrath until they are conquered and enslaved. How are these the plausible plans of an omniscient, all knowing omnibenevolent God? [10] http://www.merriam-webster.com... [11] http://www.jewfaq.org... [12] http://www.merriam-webster.com...