Storylines

Posted 11:35 AM by Tim
Um. I finished the NaNoWriMo novel. Should have said something about that. Thought that I had.

Anyway, on to today's babble. I had this thinking going on, thought I'd share it in a sort of play fashion.

Bob: Hi! I'm Bob, I'm a devout Christian.

Dan: Hi! I'm Dan. I'm athiest.

Rick: Hi! I'm Rick, I'm agnostic.

Bob: Aren't you guys worried about going to Hell when you die?

Dan: No.

Rick: Sort of. If there is one, that is.

Bob: Why not? The bible says, if you don't believe, you'll go to hell.

Rick: Doesn't it also say that even if you do believe, if you don't repent you'll go to hell too?

Bob: Yes. That's true.

Rick: So, you'd need both, right?

Bob: Yes.

Dan: Look, explain this to me. If I don't believe in God, and I also don't believe in the Devil. Then there's no way that I'm believing in Hell - other than as an interesting metaphor. So. You're telling me that when I die, I'll go to a place that doesn't exist? Isn't that the same as being regular dead anyway?

Bob: No. That's not right. Just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean that it's not there. You believe you have a soul, right?

Dan: No.

Rick: Yeah. Or something anyway.

Bob: So, you're saying you don't have a spiritual side at all, Dan?

Dan: I don't believe in that otherworldly-mumbo-jumbo stuff. No Heaven, no Hell, no gods, no angels, devils, creatures of the great beyond and no souls. Its all stuff made up by people who didn't have a more rational explanation for things going on around them.

Bob: What? Its the word of God, man. People were inspired by Him to write these things and they were collected and put into the Bible.

Dan: Hogwash. The whole Bible thing is just a bunch of stuff people wrote that got collected together because it fit together. There's lots of other stuff from the same period, in the same vein that didn't get included. Look at the Torah or the Quran. Same basic story, different content.

Bob: Those aren't right though. The Bible is the only true book of religious belief.

Rick: But, isn't that what the Muslims and Jews say too?

Bob: Yeah, but they're wrong.

Rick: What makes them wrong, and you right?

Bob: The Bible tells us that we're right.

Dan: And the Quran and Torah say the same thing. We're not getting anywhere here. What you're telling me is this: You're right because you believe what this book tells you, and it tells you that you're right. Even though, other people believe book that tell them the same thing. For some reason though, you're right and they're wrong.

Bob: Yes. It comes down to faith. If I believe, and have faith, then it must be true.

Dan: And you don't see any problem with that sort of thinking?

Bob: No.

Rick: I do. I mean, each of the religions keep telling me that they're the right one, and all you need is faith to see that that's the case. But, if they're all saying the same thing, what happens to me if I make the wrong choice? I'll go to Hell, right? I mean, if I pick Christianity, and it turns out that the Jews were right, then I'm gonna go to Hell, yeah?

Dan: Yep. If there were anything to any of this.

Bob: No. Because the Jews don't have it right. They're wrong.

Rick: But how can you be so sure?

Bob: Faith.

Rick: Don't you have any doubts?

Bob: Sure, now and then. But with faith, you move past those doubts.

Dan: You mean with more rhetoric and the convincing of other people, you drown out rational thinking.

Bob: No. With faith.

Dan: Like I've already said. We're going nowhere. I think you're wrong, you think I'm wrong and neither of us is going to move. You've got your faith, and I have my rational thinking. At least, from my point of view. Rick here, doesn't seem to have either - or he wants both.

Rick: I want to believe in something. I mean, I believe there's probably something out there, but I don't see any proof of it.

Dan: There isn't anything. That's why there's no proof.

Bob: There's proof everywhere. Look any anything that is. That's proof.

Dan: You only think that's proof because that's what you believe. I say it's not proof, because there's nothing to suggest that it is proof - other than belief.

Rick: So, Dan's saying: There's no God because there's no proof of God, and there's no proof of God becuase there is no God. Sounds circular to me.

Dan: No worse than what Bob's been saying: I believe in God, so he exists for me to believe in Him. That's just as much a circle. That's why we're not going to get anywhere. Neither of those circles allows for anything else. I'm not going to budge from my point and he won't, even can't budge from his.

Rick: And I need more time to figure out who, if anyone, is right.