subject: Why should you fear God if you do not believe in God? [print this page] Why should you fear God if you do not believe in God?
Why should you fear God if you do not believe in God?
Fear is one of our strongest impetuses that man can exercise with very clear reactions. It prompts humans to think in a certain way, to act in a certain manner and to change our mind. Fear of your father or mother when a small child is natural and normal. Fear of animals or something else for a child is normal.
The fear of a child when you shout at him is also normal. Fear is exercised always at certain levels as fear of the enemy, of your teacher, of your boss, of your sergeant and of police and state. It is a deterrent for everybody to do wrong and encourages humans to do what is right, in the eyes of the society.
The instinct of fear, among the 32 instincts that we have and elaborated by Yung, expresses itself by retracting or running away, or crying, or losing breath or any other means of expressions, like attacking the source of fear for example and demolishing it. Fear is an inner built system to protect man and preserve his life from danger and doing harm to himself. Fear of suicide for example is normal but the subject overcomes his fear at one moment and attempts to take his life.
Fear of being attacked, being killed and losing one's life is one of the most common features of fear and is dealt with either by running away or attacking the subject of fear. This is evident in battle fields or in the danger zones of big cities. Insecurity prompts fear until you achieve security and then you fear disappears.
But fear is ready at any moment to appear and your reaction to it is spontaneous, by retreating, attacking or simply freezing in your place as a result of panicking.
But, fear of God depends totally whether you are a believer or disbeliever. Those who do not believe, and there are some five billions of people in the world today if you make you own calculation, have no fear of God and they do not feel any fear of the day of reckoning. This is because they have no proof for God's existence and lesser still for the day of judgment.
Then, according to them they do not need to fear God for God does not exist and God, in this way, does not cause a threat for them. But they fear hurricane and prepare for it by either running away from its path, or taking refuge in some place. People are afraid of fire especially if they are cornered in some place where firs threatens to take their life.
Disbelievers do not fear doomsday for there is no evidence for such a day. If they were sure that doomsday is coming for sure then they would fear it and prepare themselves for it. This is what believers in God and doomsday do. They are afraid of God for they know exactly what He can do. They are afraid of doomsday and prepare for it by belief, worship, obedience and doing what they commanded to do, everyone according to his, or her, own religion.
But, when an individual, be it a believer or not, is threatened really to be tortured by being burnt in fire and he shall suffer atrocious death, for one reason or another, then this individual practices fear and does everything in his power to avoid such a fate.
If humans, especially disbelievers in God, can imagine, with a little bit of thought, that shall suffer burning in eternal blazing fire in the hereafter, and realize this for a moment , then they would certainly change their minds and conform to religious precepts of acknowledging God, worshipping Him, believing in doomsday and do good and shun evil.
But, alas, most human beings do not believe in God and hence do not believe in doomsday and hence think they shall never be resurrected and be judged according to their deeds and beliefs in their worldly life.
These, with a little bit of reflection on the universe, its creation and themselves, they would realize how plausible is the religious argument, and that there is God that must have created the universe. They would realize that their birth, growth and death are but indicators for the plausibility of the existence of God and the plausibility of a day of reckoning and they shall be brought up again, like they were brought about in the first time and shall be judged the final judgment.
Fear is prompted by ignorance of something, but doubtconcerning doomsday also creates fear. Doubt whether there is God, and ignoring what is going to happen if doomsday happens to be reality prompts many humans to believe and take heed.
They would realize the plausibility of that the power that has brought them to this life can recreate them once more and judge them. Otherwise, what is the meaning of life and what is the meaning of death, good and evil, fear and hope?
