Question: The Cost of Being Christian
There is one argument for belief in God that I have heard more than any other.
Basically, it goes like this: If God does exist and you choose not to believe in Him, you are screwed after you die and will be spending eternity in the torment of Hell.
If you choose not to believe in God and are wrong, you pay for your mistake by spending eternity being tormented in Hell. But if you choose to believe and are wrong, you haven't really lost anything. So why take the chance? You might as well hedge your bets by believing -- just in case.
Well, on the surface this seems like a valid argument. After all, it's kind of like buying insurance -- "just in case."
But is it really true that being a Christian is a "win/win" situation? Does believing in God really cost you nothing if you end up being wrong?
Let's take a closer look at this proposition. If you buy insurance and never use it, you have only lost whatever investment acquiring the insurance required. We can apply the same idea to the choice to believe in God. If you come to the end of your life and discover your belief was misplaced, what has it actually cost you?
Growing up as a Christian for the first twenty years of my life, I think I can fairly accurately estimate the cost of being a believer.
First let's look at your investment of time:
- Attending Weekly Worship = approx. 5 hrs/week
- Additional Bible Study = approx. 3 hrs/week
- Personal Devotion (reading bible, studying religious material, etc..) = 1 hr/day or 7hrs/week
- Time Spent in Prayer ("Speaking to God") = 15 mins/day or 1.75 hrs/week
- Additional Time Spent Discussing or Thinking about God = 1 hr/week
At the end of the year, you will have spent 923 hours of your time, or approximately 38.5 days involved in thinking about, talking to, or learning about God.
Assuming that you have a lifespan of 80 years, and allowing that you don't begin to devote yourself seriously to your faith until you are 20 years old, by the time you die you will have given over 6 years of your life devoted to your religious belief.
So in response to the argument that you might as well believe because at least there's nothing to lose if you're wrong, is, in my opinion, definitely faulty.
Based on these figures, if at the very end you find that there is no God after all, you will have wasted over six years of your life on that mistaken assumption. You would be better of if you took up smoking, as it costs you fewer years and less money -- and at least you'd look cool.
But time is not the only thing you give up in pursuit of religious beliefs. The Bible explicitly instructs Christians to give 10% of their income back to the church.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average yearly income for a family in America is around $42,000/year. Ten percent of that is $4,200 per year.
Again assuming you begin your devotion at age twenty, and live until the ripe old age of 80, that adds up to $252,000 over the course of your lifetime.
So, have you lost anything if you choose to believe, only to find out you are wrong in the end? I would consider 6 years of my life and $252,000 a pretty steep price.
And of course this doesn't include the doubt, fear, and emotional strain that many believers experience over the course of their lives. Nor does it include the lives that are lost because of wars and other violence inflicted for religious reasons.
So in response to the initial question I posed at the beginning of this post, my answer would be that mistaken belief in God is a very, very expensive choice. You'd better investigate thorough before buying that insurance.
--Eric
3 comments:
that's a funny way of describing it but God said that all you have to do is believe. being a christian is difficult coz struggle is a part of it, but God gave us hope and we have to hold on to it. we don't have to base our belief on christian people we see around coz people fail. that's what i learned. a "christian" guy almost molested me- that's when i turned my back to God. but God was still good to me. He still makes me happy.
ahh, i never responded to this comment. the argument i was addressing in this short essay was the one of believing in god "just in case" it is true, however since you brought it up, i DO think that when considering the truth of christianity you should examine the actions of those who believe. the actions of god's believers is a direct reflection of the influence of that belief.
but unfortunately, I see more evil than good. Narrow mindedness, anger and righteous ideology. Just look at the terrible, despicable acts of the supposedly infallible Catholic Church. And if you think that is only in the past, you should watch the documentary "Deliver Us from Evil" about the thousands -- THOUSANDS -- of children who have been abused by clergy, and the Church's actions to both cover it up and condone those actions.
Jesus said that you can know a christian by his "fruits" -- his actions. I would also say that you can understand the character of god by how he is expressed by his believers. and for the most part that is not a pretty picture.
I am not condemning christians over any other group. rather i think that it is proof of the non-existence of god that evil is NO less prevalent in his believers than in non-believers.
in fact, evil seems even greater among god's believers. i see greater pride, judgment and less compassion for others.
if god is real, and truly inhabited those who believe in him, i would expect a more dramatic reflection of this reflected in their actions and character. yes, people are not perfect, but believing in god does not seem to make them grow any closer to perfection.
when a believer is good, you must always suspect an ulterior motive. but when an atheist does a good deed, what other reason can there be than that he desires to do good?
i believe that the historical person of Jesus had an admirable message, but the religion that has grown out of it is more harmful than helpful.
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