But What if You're Wrong?

"But what if you're wrong my son?" the priest asks... "If you die rejecting God and he exists, you go to hell. If you reject God and he doesn't exist, nothing happens. However if you believe in God and you're right, you go to heaven, if you believe and God doesn't exist, nothing happens."

The priest concludes "Therefore, it's far better to believe in a God."

This concept has been debunked so many times by so many different people it's not even funny. But I'm going to go through them one at a time to show how totally fallacious this argument is.

Rebuttal #1: God's not an idiot.
One of the problems with this line of thinking is that God somehow, despite being all powerful, cannot see that you're intentionally hedging your bets. So, you're not actually believing and worshipping in God because you believe, but rather, simply because you're afraid of the results. God's not an idiot and if it wants genuine worship and faith, you're not going to get it this way.

Rebuttal #2: God respects blind faith over intellectual inquiry.
So we know that God wants us to believe in him. Fine, I can accept that premise. But why is it that God would exhalt the faithful and put down those who don't believe because there is insufficient evidence. Think about it. A child with downsyndrome goes to heaven because he's not smart enough to have a question about God, but the majority of the top scientists in the world (93%) go to hell because they don't believe a book that makes claims about zombies? Please.

Rebuttal #3: Your faith may not be right!
Of course, the above statement only applies if your religion is absolutely correct too. I mean, what if Islam is the correct religion. Then the faithful catholic and the atheist are screwed. What if Hinduism is true, then the previous three are screwed. What if X is true, then the other y groups are screwed!

Rebuttal #4: Judging the person based on their actions
A just God will judge the person based on what they have done, not what they were able to conclude was true or unsupported. If a murderer can go to heaven simply by accepting and believing in God before he dies while an atheist that works to feed starving children goes to hell, I'd say that God isn't good and certainly not just.

This argument it typically called "Pascal's Wager" and is, unfortunately, the most common argument I hear from theists about their faith. It's sad, because it's such a silly argument to use.

What arguments have you seen or heard for the existence of God?

PS: Don't get the image? Watch the Superman movie again. WRONG!