Mark. This has some very good points for discussion.

[mark francis]

All the states that have lotteries need to have a winner once in a while. The odds against willing a Powerball lottery range from about 175,200,000 to 292,200,000. But every state knows that to keep the suckers and saps buying their almost totally worthless tickets, they need to have a winner every once in a while.
How well does God know math? Assuming he is omniscient and therefore knows everything, he must be pretty good at it. Plus, he also knows the future, so he would obviously be able to pick the perfect winner to convince people that people actually go to Heaven.
As is is, there are more people on this planet that know what a Cola Cola is and what to do with it than are aware that Jesus exists and what to make of him.
It would make perfect sense for the Know it All Deity to realize that an occasional personal appearance of God or perhaps just one person returning from salvation would greatly cause people to believe more strongly.
There was this kid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Came_Back_from_Heaven

But God chose a six year old kid named MALARKEY? Does that sound like the name that an omniscient deity would choose? MALARKEY?

Gambling is for crooks to take advantage of rubes who don't understand odds and cannot recognize the wicked schemes of thieves.

 

[Gabriel_Bell]

Gambling is for crooks to take advantage of rubes who don't understand odds and cannot recognize the wicked schemes of thieves.

I am totally opposed to legalized gambling, but that is not the issue here.
The issue is how to lure people into "investing" in a cause where the evidence of success is very lacking.

If God wanted to promote obedience to his religion, he certainly has been quite ineffective.
He appears as flaming shrubbery and says, "stop worshiping gilded livestock and I will give you real estate", and then causing them to lose it to Assyrians, N=Babylonians, Greeks and Romans.
He says. "Once you screwed up and I knocked down your tower and made you all speak different languages".
And he says, "If you look back at the destruction I have caused, I will turn you into a pillar of salt."
And he says, "I will drown each and ever living creature (well not the fish)" except eight of you.
Then he becomes a human and gets himself crucified and has a very unpleasant weekend. And 2000 year later, despite promises, he has not returned.

And keep in mind that the Biblical character called "God" s omniscient and KNOWS THE FUTURE.
He knew when Mohammad was born that the entire Middle East was going to be lost to Christianity.

You know I am not making stuff up.

 

[Boris Norris]

Gambling is for crooks to take advantage of rubes who don't understand odds and cannot recognize the wicked schemes of thieves.

You're gambling that you will receive eternity and because there's no evidence, the odds against it are enormous.
You didn't think of that?

 

[Gabriel_Bell]

You're gambling that you will receive eternity and because there's no evidence, the odds against it are enormous.
You didn't think of that?

Again, why should I believe that a loving god who is invisible, intangible, inaudible and mute would want to punish me for being unable to detect him?

If God designed humans, he designed them in such a way that they were imperceptible to all the senses that he designed us to have.

If there is a God, it is not identical to the Biblical character called "God", who punishes people who cannot believe he exists and rewards them with a chance to sing his praises eternally in the Choir Celestial.

How do you think you'd feel after singing God;'s praises constantly for say a century?
Why would God even want to hear his praises sung daily?

 

[mark francis]

You're gambling that you will receive eternity and because there's no evidence, the odds against it are enormous.
You didn't think of that?

A famous missionary martyr once said, "He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep in order to get what he cannot lose."

 

[Boris Norris]

A famous missionary martyr once said, "He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep in order to get what he cannot lose."

I don't care if god himself said it, it's bullshyt.

 

[Gabriel_Bell]

A famous missionary martyr once said, "He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep in order to get what he cannot lose."

This does not seem like a terribly rational statement. Perhaps he was famous for saying something that made more sense.
In what way was he martyred, by the way?

 

[mark francis]

This does not seem like a terribly rational statement. Perhaps he was famous for saying something that made more sense.
In what way was he martyred, by the way?

Jim Eliot penned the words but he no doubt was not the first to utter the words. Jim Elliot was one of five American missionaries murdered on day in the jungles of South America.

Jim Elliot Was Not the First to Say It | SHARPER IRON

sharperiron.org

Jim Elliot Was Not the First to Say It​

Douglas K. Kutilek Wed, 10/19/16 12:00 am
Jim Elliot
Books

Image​

Reprinted with permission from As I See It, which is available free by writing to the editor at dkutilek@juno.com.
“He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
That quote is universally associated today with the name Jim Elliot, one of five American missionaries who were martyred in South America in the 1950s. He had indeed written them in his journal, and they convey a profound truth. But they did not originate with Elliot. Almost those precise words were spoken and written centuries earlier.

 

[Gabriel_Bell]

It is very far from a profound statement.

 

[Boris Norris]

Jim Eliot penned the words but he no doubt was not the first to utter the words. Jim Elliot was one of five American missionaries murdered on day in the jungles of South America.

Jim Elliot Was Not the First to Say It | SHARPER IRON

sharperiron.org

Jim Elliot Was Not the First to Say It​

Douglas K. Kutilek Wed, 10/19/16 12:00 am
Jim Elliot
Books

Image​

Reprinted with permission from As I See It, which is available free by writing to the editor at dkutilek@juno.com.
“He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
That quote is universally associated today with the name Jim Elliot, one of five American missionaries who were martyred in South America in the 1950s. He had indeed written them in his journal, and they convey a profound truth. But they did not originate with Elliot. Almost those precise words were spoken and written centuries earlier.

To keep him is no use, to lose him is no loss. Me.