One day I was watching an episode of the US sitcom Young Sheldon. The protagonist, Sheldon, is a super smart 9-year-old kid who lives with his family in a small town in Texas, and who happens to be an atheist, while his mother is very religious.
Sheldon's mum regularly takes him to church with her, and in one such occasion the local minister, while delivering his sermon, makes this argument, which I've heard before: "Either there's a God or there isn't. But even if there's only a 50% chance of God's existence, I'll take those odds."
I've always sensed that there was a logical fallacy in that argument, but I could never quite articulate it. Luckily, little Sheldon did it for me.
He raises his hand and, prompted by the minister, says: "Your argument is flawed because you're confusing possibility with probability. When I go home later, either there's a bag with a million dollars on the kitchen table or there isn't. Does that mean there's a 50% chance I'll become a millionaire?" Very well put, Sheldon.
If there isn’t a god, then there’s nothing to worship, and we can just get on with our lives. I’ve heard people say “If you don’t believe in God and the afterlife, what do you live for? Why don’t you just kill yourself right now?”
What a daft question. It’s precisely because I think there’s no afterlife that I value this life. This is the only life I’m ever going to get. I have to make the most of it.
People often say “all good things must come to an end”. That’s certainly true, but it’s more than that. It’s precisely the fact that things come to an end that makes them good in the first place.
As Stephen Fry said, would you like to read a book that never ends? Would you enjoy a meal that goes on forever? Emily Dickinson put it beautifully:
That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet
But what if there is a God? Setting aside the obvious question “which one?”, I still wouldn’t worship him. Why should I? I try to be a good person and I try not to hurt other people. (I can’t even do light bondage.) Isn’t that enough?
Why would God still want me to worship him, to pray to him, to adore him, to sing his glory, to kneel, to prostrate myself? What sort of God would want that? Also, how does all of that make the world a better place? It doesn’t. All we have to do is love each other.
Some religious people would say that that is not enough. I still have to do all of the above or I’m going to Hell.
If that’s the choice, then fine, I’ll burn. I’ll burn for eternity. I’ll take comfort knowing that I never bowed to a celestial tyrant, and knowing that many free, independent spirits are there with me.
