Phat writes:
What if it were true? Would you do anything different than you do now?
Absolutely I would do some things differently.
And others... well, I would like to say "not so much..." but it is hard to guess at how such knowledge would make me act. Perhaps a great deal of things would change.
For one, I would have to very quickly adjust my thread:
I Know That God Does Not ExistWith the new information that thread would be entirely incorrect and in need of an update.
Would you accept that you were a sinner and ask God into your heart? Or would you simply say "that's cool too!"
This would depend on exactly which sort of God is shown to exist.
Is it the God who committed genocide in the story of Noah? - I would have a great deal of reservations before accepting such a being into my heart. But, I still wouldn't be closed off - I'd just have a lot of questions that would require clarification. Some paths would lead me to accepting this God, others would lead me to rejecting Him.
Is it a God who puts love above all else? - I would be greatly excited to have such a God in my heart, if He would have me.
If you found absolute proof that the way you were living now would send you to a lake of fire sometime in the future, would you do what you needed to do to change course or would you challenge the authority of the law that sent you there?
This is a loaded question.
I will answer with (hopefully) clear examples:
One of the "ways I live now" is that I do what I can to take care of my wife. She's a wonderful girl who has a mental disability (PTSD from being badly abused when she was younger) and a variety of physical ailments (nothing life-threatening, but certainly a few that are... more than most have to deal with.)
If one of the things I "need to do to change course" is that I must leave my wife - then no, I would stay with my wife and accept my fate in the lake of fire. Laughing the entire time at the fool in charge that setup such a wicked system.
Example #2:
The sorts of things I "need to change course on" in order to avoid the lake of fire include themes such as:
-going to church often (at least once a week - preferably more)
-giving more to the poor and helping others more than I'm doing now (my current excuse is that I do give to the poor, but what I don't give I use to help myself and my wife live a comfortable life. Not an exaggerated life, but a comfortable one.) However, I would be willing to hurt my wife "just a bit more" in order to give "just a bit more to the poor" if my eternity was threatened with a lake of fire. Without such a threat, I see no reason to hurt my wife.
I would do such things in order to avoid a lake of fire.
But, really, they would be done "in order to avoid a lake of fire." Not out of any increase of personal charity or feelings of love for others. I'm not sure if that's really a good thing or not.
There are certain things I'm willing to do in order to avoid certain punishments, for sure.
However, they would not make me want to admit such a God into my heart very much.
Such things do not seem to come from a source of love. But more of a source of vanity.
One can be a part of the community and help those around them without having to "go to church."
One can give what they are able to charity without hurting those they have responsibilities towards.
Forcing people by threat in order to ensure they meet some strange level of acceptability seems - immature, rather than reasonable.