Is fear a good reason to become Christian

[Jichard]

There's a fallacy called an appeal to fear where one tries to defend a belief, claim, etc. by appealing to fear (for example: by claiming that the belief calms one fears). This is a fallacy since fear has nothing to with whether a claim, belief, etc. is true, justified, etc. An appeal to fear may also be an instance of a fallacious appeal to consequence, where one thinks a belief, claim, etc. is true, justified, etc. since the belief, claim, etc. has positive consequences in terms of calming one's fears.

Given the above discussion, fear would not be a good reason to accept Christian beliefs. However, some people disagree.

Fear of death is an excellent reason to be a Christian.

So I'm curious: Is fear of death a good reason to be Christian?

I'm particularly interested in what Christians have to say on this, since:

Fear of death, fear of punishment in the afterlife, etc. are not good reasons for being a Christian. Even many Christians can admit that.

[robrecht]

My wife is fond of saying, 'fear or love'. In other words, if I understand her reasonably well, whenever one is confronted with fear, once can always choose love instead of fear. One can always overcome fear with the choice to love instead. Does that answer your question?

[whag]

My wife is fond of saying, 'fear or love'. In other words, if I understand her reasonably well, whenever one is confronted with fear, once can always choose love instead of fear. One can always overcome fear with the choice to love instead. Does that answer your question?

I don't know if it answers his question, but I'm certainly puzzled by it. The fear DE was referring to was existential in nature, particularly referring to his fear of hell.

[robrecht]

I don't know if it answers his question, but I'm certainly puzzled by it. The fear DE was referring to was existential in nature, particularly referring to his fear of hell.

Sure, but the fear of hell is nothing compared to the love of God. Perfect love casts out all fear.

[Jedidiah]

There's a fallacy called an appeal to fear where one tries to defend a belief, claim, etc. by appealing to fear (for example: by claiming that the belief calms one fears). This is a fallacy since fear has nothing to with whether a claim, belief, etc. is true, justified, etc. An appeal to fear may also be an instance of a fallacious appeal to consequence, where one thinks a belief, claim, etc. is true, justified, etc. since the belief, claim, etc. has positive consequences in terms of calming one's fears.

Given the above discussion, fear would not be a good reason to accept Christian beliefs. However, some people disagree.


So I'm curious: Is fear of death a good reason to be Christian?

I'm particularly interested in what Christians have to say on this, since:

The very best reason to become a Christian is because it is true.

[Tassman]

There's a fallacy called an appeal to fear where one tries to defend a belief, claim, etc. by appealing to fear (for example: by claiming that the belief calms one fears). This is a fallacy since fear has nothing to with whether a claim, belief, etc. is true, justified, etc. An appeal to fear may also be an instance of a fallacious appeal to consequence, where one thinks a belief, claim, etc. is true, justified, etc. since the belief, claim, etc. has positive consequences in terms of calming one's fears.

Given the above discussion, fear would not be a good reason to accept Christian beliefs. However, some people disagree.


So I'm curious: Is fear of death a good reason to be Christian?

I'm particularly interested in what Christians have to say on this, since:

Fear is a primal instinct that served us as cave dwellers and it still does...provided that the fear is based in reality. But there's no good reason to think that the fires of hell are real, they belong to a more primitive era of humanoid gods that must be appeased...OR ELSE!!!

[Jichard]

My wife is fond of saying, 'fear or love'. In other words, if I understand her reasonably well, whenever one is confronted with fear, once can always choose love instead of fear. One can always overcome fear with the choice to love instead. Does that answer your question?

I don't think it answers my question. To see why, suppose I told you Allah loves you. Would that, by itself, be a good reasom to become that Muslim who beieves that Allah exist? No. And that's because saying Allah loves you gives you no reason to believe that Allah exists. It would give you a reason to care about Allah if Allah existed; but that's not the same as giving you a reason to believe that Allah exists. I'm making the parallel point for fear of death: fear of death is not a good reason to be Christian since it does not provide one with a reason for thinking that Christianity is true. I'm seeing if people agree with that, or if they take some other position on the question of: fear of death a good reason to be Christian?

[Jichard]

The very best reason to become a Christian is because it is true.

That doesn't answer my question, though.

Is fear of death a good reason to be Christian?

[ShrimpMaster]

The fear of death is not because persecution is a centrally aspect of Christian teaching. Not to say that American Christians are familiar with persecution in this way but they at least are confronted with the idea of death for what they believe in. A fear of divine judgement would be a rational basis for accepting Christianity and it would be more natural as a human is confronted with their own personal moral failure and God's holy nature.

[robrecht]

I don't think it answers my question. To see why, suppose I told you Allah loves you. Would that, by itself, be a good reasom to become that Muslim who beieves that Allah exist? No. And that's because saying Allah loves you gives you no reason to believe that Allah exists. It would give you a reason to care about Allah if Allah existed; but that's not the same as giving you a reason to believe that Allah exists. I'm making the parallel point for fear of death: fear of death is not a good reason to be Christian since it does not provide one with a reason for thinking that Christianity is true. I'm seeing if people agree with that, or if they take some other position on the question of: fear of death a good reason to be Christian?

I think my wife's point is that, when one is faced with fear, one can and should choose love instead. I can't speak for Darth, but it sounds like he is already presuming that Christianity is true. Fearing hell already presumes it exists. Likewise, loving God already presumes that God exists and is therefore able to be loved. So I guess this does not answer your question. Sorry.

[Leonhard]

So I'm curious: Is fear of death a good reason to be Christian?

First of all fear doesn't have to be emotional, though the emotion will many times be there. Fear is a respect of God's righteousness and justice, and the ultimate consequences of the kind of life you live on your immortal soul.

Fear, is a sufficient reason to become a Christian. Its a good motive, based on a rational fear of possible consequences, and a desire to avoid them. Its already a kind of love of God, if only in respect of His terrible justice. As such the Catholic Church teaches that this motive suffices for attrition, which is necessary for the remitting of sins in the sacrament of penance (confession). Combined with a desire to stop committing grave sins, the person can receive absolution and may then enter the body of Christ.

We should all have some fear of God.

The ideal image of the convert is that of the tax-collector who beats his breasts, not even daring looking up to Heaven and saying "Lord have mercy on me a sinner." This person loves God, and is sad that he's sinned, because of God's infinite goodness and majesty, which he has violated. This kind of contrition is called perfect contrition, and would be the best example of a convert.

[Jichard]

First of all fear doesn't have to be emotional, though the emotion will many times be there. Fear is a respect of God's righteousness and justice, and the ultimate consequences of the kind of life you live on your immortal soul.

That isn't what fear of death is. For example, one can fear death without believing one has an immortal soul. Furthermore, one can fear death without believing that God exists, let alone respecting God. After all, people were fearing death long before Christianity and Judaism were even around. There are (arguably) even some non-human animals who fear death, yet it'd be ridiculous to claim that that means they have some sort of respect for God and concern for the consequences for their immortal soul.

Fear, is a sufficient reason to become a Christian. Its a good motive, based on a rational fear of possible consequences, and a desire to avoid them.

That's a fallacious appeal to consequences; fear does not provide one with a reason to think Christianity is true, nor does a desire to avoid consequences. It's as fallacious as saying I'm afriad of ghosts, so that's a good reason to believe that ghosts exist. That's fallacious, since ones fear has no bearing on whether ghosts exists. Now, if one claimed to have seen ghosts or if someone you trusttold you there were ghosts or... those might be reasons for thinking ghosts exists. But one's fear is not a reason. Parallel points for becoming Christian.

Its already a kind of love of God, if only in respect of His terrible justice. As such the Catholic Church teaches that this motive suffices for attrition, which is necessary for the remitting of sins in the sacrament of penance (confession). Combined with a desire to stop committing grave sins, the person can receive absolution and may then enter the body of Christ.

Not the same as fear of death.

We should all have some fear of God.

Not the same as fear of death

The ideal image of the convert is that of the tax-collector who beats his breasts, not even daring looking up to Heaven and saying "Lord have mercy on me a sinner." This person loves God, and is sad that he's sinned, because of God's infinite goodness and majesty, which he has violated. This kind of contrition is called perfect contrition, and would be the best example of a convert.

Same response I gave elsewhere:

"I don't think it answers my question. To see why, suppose I told you Allah loves you. Would that, by itself, be a good reasom to become that Muslim who beieves that Allah exist? No. And that's because saying Allah loves you gives you no reason to believe that Allah exists. It would give you a reason to care about Allah if Allah existed; but that's not the same as giving you a reason to believe that Allah exists. I'm making the parallel point for fear of death: fear of death is not a good reason to be Christian since it does not provide one with a reason for thinking that Christianity is true. I'm seeing if people agree with that, or if they take some other position on the question of: fear of death a good reason to be Christian?"

[Jichard]

The fear of death is not because persecution is a centrally aspect of Christian teaching. Not to say that American Christians are familiar with persecution in this way but they at least are confronted with the idea of death for what they believe in. A fear of divine judgement would be a rational basis for accepting Christianity and it would be more natural as a human is confronted with their own personal moral failure and God's holy nature.

First, a fear of divine punishment is not the same as a fear of death. And since my question was about fear of death, you haven't really answered the question. As I said elsewhere:

"That isn't what fear of death is. For example, one can fear death without believing one has an immortal soul. Furthermore, one can fear death without believing that God exists, let alone respecting God. After all, people were fearing death long before Christianity and Judaism were even around. There are (arguably) even some non-human animals who fear death, yet it'd be ridiculous to claim that that means they have some sort of respect for God and concern for the consequences for their immortal soul."

Second, you're engaged in a fallacious appeal to consequences that doesn't actually give one reason to believe that Christianity is true. As I've said elsewhere:

"That's a fallacious appeal to consequences; fear does not provide one with a reason to think Christianity is true, nor does a desire to avoid consequences. It's as fallacious as saying I'm afriad of ghosts, so that's a good reason to believe that ghosts exist. That's fallacious, since ones fear has no bearing on whether ghosts exists. Now, if one claimed to have seen ghosts or if someone you trusttold you there were ghosts or... those might be reasons for thinking ghosts exists. But one's fear is not a reason. Parallel points for becoming Christian.

[...]

o see why, suppose I told you Allah loves you. Would that, by itself, be a good reasom to become that Muslim who beieves that Allah exist? No. And that's because saying Allah loves you gives you no reason to believe that Allah exists. It would give you a reason to care about Allah if Allah existed; but that's not the same as giving you a reason to believe that Allah exists. I'm making the parallel point for fear of death: fear of death is not a good reason to be Christian since it does not provide one with a reason for thinking that Christianity is true. I'm seeing if people agree with that, or if they take some other position on the question of: [I]fear of death a good reason to be Christian?"

[37818]

That doesn't answer my question, though.

Is fear of death a good reason to be Christian?

The mere fear of death, no. But the reason for the fear of death which warrants believing something that is actually true.

[Cow Poke]

Sure, but the fear of hell is nothing compared to the love of God. Perfect love casts out all fear.

There have been times, particularly when I was younger, when I didn't even know if I believed in Hell, or maybe thought it was "trumped up" to make people more afraid. That never really did anything for me. I came to Jesus for the love - His love for me, and the love of the brothers for each other. Even if Hell didn't exist, I'd still be a Christian.