Accounting For Your Sins
If I had a penny for every time a Christian has told me that I would one day stand before God and have to account for my sins, I would be a rich person. Even after I inform the Christian that I don’t believe in God, the question is still asked as a “what if.”
So what if God does exist and when I die, he stops me at the gate and demands that I account for my sins. First, we have the issue of defining sin. If sin is simply a synonym for wrong-doing, than I don’t have much of an issue. As a person who tried his best to live a moral life, I am not all that worried about justifying my moral and immoral action. I try to do the best I can given the knowledge that I have at the time.
However, if sin is defined in a more fundamentalist way such as a transgression against God or as an action which separates us from God, than I couldn’t care less about it. I don’t recognize the existence of God or in the hypothetical, God’s authority.
If any account of the Bible is to be believed, then it is clear that God is not a moral being. His character as portrayed in the Bible is that of an all-powerful dictator. I do not think that such a character is praise-worthy. I don’t concern myself with the threats (however real they may or may not be) of dictators… even all powerful ones. If not obeying God means a one way trip to be tortured for all eternity in Hell without any opportunity for parole or reprieve, then so be it.
Plato talked about this in his book the Crito. In the book, Socrates has been sentenced to death by poison for the crime of corrupting the minds of young people. Socrates professed his innocence, but was found guilty anyway. His student Crito had bribed the guards so that Socrates could escape his unjust punishment. But Socrates refused to leave his cell. Instead, he told Crito that it was always better to receive an injustice than it is to do an injustice.
This concept from Plato has always resonated with me. If some all powerful deity wants to punish me unjustly, then it is better to take that punishment than to act in a way which I believe to be unjust even if such an action were to spare my immortal soul from eternal torture and guarantee my immortal soul a place in blissful paradise for all eternity. The fate of my immortal soul (a concept I don’t even believe in) amounts to a threat and bribe. It would be immoral to let such things dictate my moral actions.
If a god really does exist and this god really wanted me to follow him, then he would have written a more moral Bible. He would not demand worship and praise. Such a deity would have to earn respect not use threats and bribes to coerce obedience. I don’t care how all-powerful such a deity is. The fact is that with power comes responsibility and based on the Bible God has not taken on that responsibility.
