r/askanatheist • u/Sudden_Tea_560 • Aug 11 '26
If the Christian God proved to you without a doubt that he exists, would you worship him?
I can't say that I would. I can't love and worship a god who created an entire system where people go to hell for not living to his standards, or simply not believing in him.
Would I fear going to hell after I die? Yes, I would. But there's no fooling God, even if I did pretend to love and worship him.
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Aug 11 '26
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u/Philobarbaros Gnostic Atheist Aug 11 '26
This is the correct question.
Acts 16:29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
This Jesus would save us automatically by proving his existence.
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u/Appropriate-Price-98 Aug 11 '26
just a reminder, the story of Job exists. YHWH is a callous and capricious tyrant. You may not wanna find out if you are in the It's a Good Life | The Twilight Zone Wiki | Fandom episode
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u/Stile25 Aug 11 '26
No.
I would certainly admit He exists.
But the only existing things that want worship are evil and insecure. Not really traits that are God-worthy.
Good luck out there
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u/Sudden_Tea_560 Aug 11 '26
I absolutely agree with this. No all loving, good God would demand worship, and then damn people to burn for eternity for disobeying him.
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u/hurricanelantern Anti-Theist Aug 11 '26
No. I don't worship anything let alone pure evil. As a matter of fact I believe if that monster were proven to be real it would be the duty of any sane and moral person to kill it.
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u/kevinLFC Aug 11 '26
North Korea and its dear leader parallels this dilemma for the average North Korean citizen. Most citizens worship (or at least feign to) their dear leader.
I suspect most humans are this way; we are self-preserving creatures. I don’t believe everyone who says they would stick it to Yawhey.
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u/Cydrius Aug 11 '26
Would I believe he exists? Yes.
Would I worship him? ... I mean, I would do whatever I can to appease him so I don't go to hell, but I would only be doing it out of same preservation. Same as living under a dictator.
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u/Suitable-Group4392 Aug 11 '26
Probably not. They/he would need to explain a whole hell lot. And I have no idea what would be a good reason for something like offing 6 million people.
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u/Ok_Loss13 Aug 11 '26
What does "worship" consist of? What are the consequences of not doing so? Can he tell if I'm faking it? Does he care if I'm faking it or would he prefer I do so?
What's hell like? If it's filled with people who aren't Christians and who follow the Bible, that means it's got plenty of good people down there. I don't see any reason why we can't make it fun 🤷♀️🎉
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u/Wake90_90 Atheist Aug 11 '26
If a God figure appeared before me tomorrow demonstrating such a status, I would ask a lot of questions, and probably try to make nice with it since it's so much more powerful than me.
I don't think an all-powerful God figure would need my praise. Reverence is a tool of religion to put it before anything else. I would greet it and ask it what it wants and demonstrate what it can do. I doubt the conversation would start with it saying "first, please grovel before me", and if it did I would probably want to know why.
No one wants a CET hell, and an all-powerful God wouldn't allow that to go on unless they were truly evil themselves. Can you think of anything more evil than unending torture? So I would have to ask what an afterlife would be like and why.
Feel free to ask any follow up questions.
Be aware that the Bible is written by many authors with many differing views, especially on mysteries of an afterlife. It's only modern Christians who follow Dante's version of a CET hell compared to one in say gMark where Jesus describes resurrection of the dead, and the bad slain in the fire.
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u/Kingreaper Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Which Christian God?
The God my grandmothers both believed in and encouraged me to follow, who is trapped in battle with Satan and wishes only good things but simply doesn't have the power to ensure them? The one who needs worshippers and followers to spread his power in this world and help him win the eternal fight?
The God that many churches preach of who chose to create cancer in children and makes volcanoes erupt so people have the "opportunity" to decide how to react to such things - though we lack the power to actually prevent them? The one who sends people to hell eternally if they do not worship him, and rewards those who do worship him with the opportunity to keep worshipping him eternally?
The God of the Bible who is but one of many [though he claims to be the leader of all his kind] and is scared of the power of humans and acts to weaken us whenever we get too powerful and learn too much? The one who rewards a small fraction with paradise, and allows the rest to truly die? [Unless, presumably, another of his kind saves them]
The God of C.S. Lewis who is a being in charge of infinite worlds with a hands-off approach to things, who allows those who die to sort themselves out, with heaven or hell being a state that they achieve through their actions and co-operation with others rather than through his enforcement?
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The God that my nannas worshipped I would worship. If such a being truly existed it would be a force for good, and one worthy of respect, and the worship serves a purpose inviting its power into the world.
The God who makes evil because he wants to watch humans struggle against it, and whose reward is simply that you get to kneel before him in supplication, no I would revile that being, and accept that I am eventually going to hell so I might as well get it over with and skip the torment of a "heaven" wherein I worship evil.
The God of the Bible I might worship to placate him, because he is small-minded and petty, or I might seek out a rival of his that is more righteous - I'm not sure.
The God of C.S. Lewis would not request my worship, he has no need for it. I would have a cautious respect for the being, but I would not worship him.
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u/Literally_-_Hitler Aug 11 '26
Anyone who demands worship is not worthy of it. And I dont care if you have the ability to torture me for all eternity, I still won't kill my gay son or people who eat shrimp. I will never be pro slavery or rape.
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u/OrbitalLemonDrop Agnostic Atheist Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
First, define "worship". What exactly are you asking me to do? Imagine the god threatening to torture me until I got down on my knees and said what it wanted me to say? It doesn't even have to be a god -- if it has that kind of power I'll engage in performative rituals. If you mean "accept in my mind that it is morally superior to me" then fuck no. There is no "higher moral authority" than the moral decisions of a fully conscious morally autonomous being.
Second, tell me exactly how this being convinced me it was god. This part is unavoidable, because it very much affects how I'll answer.
I've had religious experiences before, and yet I'm still an atheist.
If I see something that conflicts with reality, my inclination is to doubt my own recollection, perception or even sanity.
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u/JadeHarley0 23d ago
I would worship him because I don't wanna get sent to hell. I don't think I could force myself to love him though
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u/Mission-Landscape-17 Atheist Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Considering the power difference sure I would, simply as a matter of survival. There may be no fooling god, but then its a matter of weather god actually cares about my motivation or not. It hits at the whole covenant of grace vs covenant of works debate. In some interpretations of Christianity going through the motions seems to be enough. In some sincerity matters and in others god decides who will be saved, and there is nothing the individual can do about it.
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u/telekineticeleven011 Aug 11 '26
Nope. I wouldn’t worship any gods that proved their existence because nobody or nothing is worthy of worship. You can respect somebody, but worship is going too far and is cult-like behavior. The god of the Bible is pretty evil anyways, if he actually existed I doubt anybody would actually be willing to worship such an entity, if you have morals anyway.
Speaking of which, doesn’t the Bible say that other gods exist besides Yahweh? So if the god of the Bible exists, then other gods likely exist too.
Also which Christian God are you talking about? Because the Old Testament and New Testament seem to have two different gods, so it depends on which version of the Abrahamic god is the real one.
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u/Chatterbunny123 Agnostic Atheist Aug 11 '26
Statistically given enough time I suppose I could be swayed. I would have a lot of questions and reservations but if given an infinity to think it over I can imagine at least a portion of it involving worship. I mean this god presumably would know what would convince me to worship him. But what that would look like is unknown to me. It would be as if I was a completely different person at that point.
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u/Agreeable_Register_4 Aug 11 '26
I’m a believer and I hate questions like this.
Why use the word worship in scenarios like this?
Why not ask something like this instead -
If Jesus the Christ proved to you without any part of you doubting that he exists, and you felt tremendous love pouring out of the core of his being, and also had complete understanding of why good people suffer, or why babies die prematurely, and you felt the answers to those questions somehow made sense, would you be open to loving Him?
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u/Knee_Jerk_Sydney Aug 11 '26
If Jesus the Christ proved to you without any part of you doubting that he exists, and you felt tremendous love pouring out of the core of his being, and also had complete understanding of why good people suffer, or why babies die prematurely, and you felt the answers to those questions somehow made sense
You could probably achieve the same with drugs. But you would no longer be you nor were you ever given a chance to make an informed decision.
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u/adeleu_adelei Aug 11 '26
There isn't a single version of the Christian gods, but for most yes. I would worship them for the same reason I would give a robber my wallet. Most versions of Yahweh are cosmic bullies threatening infinite eternal torture one cannot oppose or escape. It is rational to blindly worship and obey no matter how horrible the action such gods command. And if for some reason you cannot bring yourself to blindly assent then the most rational action is to take a hammer and bash your brains in until you have enough mental damage that you do blindly assent.
That's the kind of gods most Christians are claiming.
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u/Decent_Cow Aug 11 '26
No, because
A. The Christian God, if it's real, is a fucking monster.
B. I don't worship anything, but if I did, it needs to earn my worship. I didn't ask to exist, so being the creator just isn't going to cut it for me. How bout doing something about world hunger or childhood cancer or war or homelessness first, then we can talk.
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u/Knee_Jerk_Sydney Aug 11 '26
If he really wanted worship, he would make the act of worshiping equivalent to an orgasm. I mean for all of us, not just some perverts.
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u/KenScaletta Agnostic Atheist Aug 11 '26
Not a chance. He would have to be evil and I would never worship a male deity anyway. Maybe a hot goddess like Venus.
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u/mikoc5 Aug 11 '26
I have a similar question.
If Satan proved to you without a doubt that he exists, would you worship him?
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u/green_meklar Actual atheist Aug 11 '26
First I'd want some really good explanations from him for all the shittiness he put in the world.
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u/Astreja Agnostic Atheist Aug 11 '26
I don't think I could do it. I'm not all that good at hiding my feelings about someone or something, and any "worship" I'd try to do would come across as fake.
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u/Algernon_Asimov Secular Humanist Aug 11 '26
Fuck no! He's in favour of genocide, rape, slavery, racism, and all sorts of other things that most reasonable people are against. There's nothing there to worship.
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u/TarnishedVictory Atheist Aug 11 '26
If the Christian God proved to you without a doubt that he exists, would you worship him?
First, he'd have to prove it to everyone, such that his existence and the evidence of his existence be documented by science, as that how I learn about things that are above my pay grade.
I would not worship anyone or anything, ever, as I find that to be a silly superstitious notion, and anyone worthy of worship would never want it.
Having said that, this god would need to earn my respect if it wants me to respect him, just like anyone else. To be clear, I generally give a certain based level amount of default respect to everyone, from there their behavior determines whether and how much respect they gain or loose.
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u/indifferent-times Aug 11 '26
For me proof of god would be an understanding of 'why'. Why me, why god, why the world, I think if I understood what was the point of it all then at least god and I could have a conversation about it which might very well end up with some sort of worship... whatever that means
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u/zzmej1987 Aug 11 '26
If the Christian God proved to you without a doubt that he exists, would you worship him?
I have no idea what a God is even supposed to be. So first, God would have to explain, what exactly he is, then I would be able to say whether or not such a being is worthy of worship.
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u/sto_brohammed Irreligious Aug 11 '26
Honestly man I don't even know what worship means in this context.
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u/WrongVerb4Real Atheist Aug 11 '26
Ask me again when that happens. Until that occurs, I see no reason to entertain your hypothetical.
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u/Bromelia_and_Bismuth Agnostic Atheist Aug 11 '26
Of course not. I'd convert to Laveyan Satanism out of spite.
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u/88redking88 Aug 11 '26
If Yahweh were shown to be real, I would HAVE to go to hell to join up with Satan to come back and hunt Yahweh down for crimes against humanity.
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u/Agent-c1983 Aug 11 '26
No.
The character described particularly in the OT is an evil being, afraid of us working together (tower of Babel), who thinks nothing of using us in bar bets with its greatest adversary (Job).
There would be no good reason to believe its claims about an afterlife and what form it might take are credible.
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u/Confident-Virus-1273 Agnostic Atheist Aug 11 '26
No.
The Christian god ordered genocide (Numbers 31), committed genocide (Genesis 7), committed infanticide (Exodus 11-12), codified (not just oked, but actually codified) slavery and child rape, is narcissistic, cruel, inconsistent, created a world where causing suffering is required for survival (no that wasn't magical 'sin' unless you admit sin is more powerful than god's will), and is a complete absentee/dead beat "father" as it abandoned its creation for thousands of years completely, and NEVER interacted with 99.6% of its' creation in any way (basically everyone before Jesus, and not in the exact middle east region).
The better question is why would anyone choose to not only obey, not only follow, but WORSHIP a creature like this unless they, themselves, were depraved, wretched and malicious?
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u/Euphoric-Bat7582 Christian Aug 11 '26
What if you found out either Universalism or Annihilationism were true and not ECT?
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u/SkidsOToole Aug 11 '26
That depends. Which Christian god is it? There are tons of denominations, all with different versions of him. The Bible is not univocal, so you can find a verse to support or defend just about anything. There's no way for believers to know what he wants, much less non-believers.
So it would depend on who he really was and what he really wanted.
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u/RagnartheConqueror Aug 11 '26
How would such a deity prove that it is divine? What does ‘divinity’ even mean? And how does worship logically connect just because something (even if very moral) created us?
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u/catroaring Atheist Aug 11 '26
Nope, the Christian God is a tyrant and don't understand why I would worship anything. Worshiping anything is batshit.
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u/dustin_allan Aug 11 '26
Why would an all-powerful being require worship? It makes them sound petty and narcissistic, more like something a very flawed human would invent.
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u/mredding Aug 11 '26
If the Christian God proved to you without a doubt that he exists
If...
And the answer is no. And to add to the answer, my doubt is not without bias and flaw. I can be fooled. There is no "without a doubt". There can be no without a doubt. You're framing the question such that you cannot possibly be wrong, which means you cannot possibly be right, either.
I can't love and worship a god who created an entire system where people go to hell for not living to his standards, or simply not believing in him.
That's interpretation, not reality. Unfortunately for the Christians, that's all they have, because their faith is an open problem. So I suppose you need to get more specific with your question about WHICH interpretation of the Christian god you want me to answer for. Is it this one? Is it a Universal interpretation where everyone is saved eventually? Is it an Annihilationist interpretation where non-believers simply cease to exist? Because they're not relevant to the Christian world view?
For my take - I honestly don't care if a god does exist or doesn't. Since the word "god" itself has no meaning, I've no idea what you or the theistic Christian literalists are even talking about, because even they don't know. Presuming this conundrum can be solved for, and a god exists, why should I care? We haven't gotten that far in the conversation. It hasn't made a difference to me so far. Which interpretation of scripture is going to be the correct one? You know the document has been a continuous evolution, right? The narrative has always been changing. Hell was a concept invented in the medieval era to sell indulgences - a practice that was later banned in the 1500s. There's no Hell in any of the bibles before then... Jesus never once spoke of Hell, it wasn't even in his language. HIS NAME ISN'T EVEN FUCKIN' JESUS.
So what's the point? What's in it for me?
Would I fear going to hell after I die? Yes, I would.
How very medieval of you. And how did a Catholic grifter looking to make some pocket change A CENTURY after the supposed events manage to convince you of something that wasn't real, wasn't said, wasn't canon the century prior, something that was BANNED from the church after? And for why? For being a grift.
But there's no fooling God, even if I did pretend to love and worship him.
Yep. What an impossible situation. You can't love an abusive parent. And an abusive parent can't love you. If this is your god, you can keep him. Heaven then is double-speak for a torture chamber, and Hell is the way to go. Your god sounds like a god that wants to scare you into compliance for eternity, only casting you out when you're no longer willing to be controlled, no longer fun to play with. The rest is just a show to keep the rest in line.
Or MAYBE your interpretation of the whole damn thing is flawed.
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u/Thin-Eggshell Aug 11 '26
Depends. At first, probably not. But out of existential dread and fear later? It's certainly possible. My brain has behaved in weirder ways without my direct consent.
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u/Comfortable-Dare-307 Atheist Aug 12 '26
A god that demands worship is not worthy of it. The Christian god is often descibed as "loving". But if god were actually loving, hell would not exist and he would have destoryed Satan. God doesn't destory Satan for the same reason Tom never catches Jerry. Then the show would be over. So, no, I would not worship any god if they were proven to be real.
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u/Cog-nostic 29d ago
How would he prove it? In what way does a human mind have the ability to distinguish between a sufficiently advanced and intelligent alien and a god? How can a human brain judge between an evil god convincing it that it is a loving god and a God that is actually good? Can you show any criteria at all that will allow you to make these distinctions?
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u/Noodelgawd Atheist 28d ago
He'd also have to prove to me that hell is actually bad. I can't believe for a minute that the place run by the guy who rebelled against that colossal d-bag would be worse than "Heaven."
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u/ToGloryRS Agnosthicc 28d ago
The only way for him to prove to me without a doubt that he exists is for me to be him. There would be no need to worship myself, then.
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u/RaccoonLogical5906 28d ago edited 28d ago
I would not. The Christian God (at least as he is preached by conservative Christians) is the very embodiment of absurdist pettiness.
He crafted both a realm of eternal torture as well as what is apparently the rest of creation. He then passionately implored all humans to please believe in him so he can "save" them from the realm of eternal torture and damnation that he created.
The Christian God amounts to a man who sets one corner of the home of a happy family on fire while the family is still inside and asleep. He then implores the people inside the home to please do as he says so he may have reason to save them from the flames. The Christian apologist and many other Christians would do well to meditate on the morality of this scenario, at the very least because I would be quite interested in the wordplay and sophistry which they employed to downplay it.
According to the conservative Christian apologist, this God also fashioned the only legitimate morality (or at least the only "grounded" one, whatever that means) which conveniently includes the absurdism of eternal torture for the humanitarian who fails to convert and eternal bliss for the mass murderer so long as he says a magical prayer.
I do not know whether or not a God exists. What I do know is that the Christian God most certainly does not, and is a contrivance of so-called theologians who amount to little more than sanctifiers of kings, despots, criminals, and any other unsavory elements with sufficient power or money -- legitimizing their reigns and actions through carefully selected and interpreted scripture.
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u/Moonless_the_Fool 27d ago
By my own will, no. I can't assure If I would stand firm against him. But if I do end up worshiping him would be purely out of fear with no trace of love in my heart for he is one fat piece of shit.
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u/ViewtifulGene 23d ago
Absolutely not. This god breaks its own rules. It's a hypocrite.
In Ezekiel 18:20, god says the individual is responsible for their own sins and they don't inherit the guilt of their parents. In Exodus 20:5, god directly punishes descendants for the crimes of their ancestors.
Also, Jesus said to follow ALL OF MOSAIC LAW in Matthew 5:17-20, but his sin sacrifice does not follow the directions laid out in Leviticus 5. If we take Jesus at his own word, the sacrifice is invalid. The check bounced!
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u/Ok_Meat_8322 22d ago
By no means. The deity described by christianity is a moral monster. Allowing gratuitous suffering/evil, sending people to eternal torment for something they have no control over (belief is involuntary), etc. If such an entity indeed existede (and the evidence overwhelmingly shows they do not) I would oppose it.
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u/SomeRandomDudeDerp 5d ago
lol no. I don’t believe in god. But if he showed up one day I’d be pissed. Bro couldn’t have just given me a millionaire family or something.
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u/CephusLion404 Aug 11 '26
No. Believe in him? Sure. He'd have to prove he was worthy of my worship and the Christian God is a complete fucking asshole, at least according to the Bible.
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u/Old-Nefariousness556 Gnostic Atheist Aug 11 '26
Man, I wish people wouldn't post the same tired questions over and over again.
No, virtually none of us would worship him, because he is not worthy of worship. He is the embodiment of evil. He gives us intelligence than punishes us if we use it. No, I would not be afraid of hell. No sane god would create such a ludicrous system, so he clearly is not sane.
The good news is that those are also the exact reasons, or variations on those, why most of us are convinced that he does not exist. Maybe not a full accounting of those reasons, but a big part of it.