I'd say "A" -  maybe aliens or the FSM or SOMETHING decided to get rid of them or put them somewhere else so we could have a more rational society.

i'd say B, but then i fully admit i don't know that god doesn't exist. the problem i think i'd have i that even though i could say that it was most likely God that did it, i could never invest myself 100% in to a belief, just as a matter of principal

A, but if it became obvious that there was no other rational solution then B.

that is a difficult question to answer because being true wouldnt make it less morally reprehensible. So even if it were true i still wouldnt want to take part in something like that. It would also be sort of pointless to go along with it since a god would probably already know that.

 So in the unlikely event that this occurs ill be telling your god to suck the shit out of my asshole and hope he dont choke on it.

I would go for A. The natural explanation is always better then the supernatural one.

But for arguments sake, lets say it would convince me. Then I would be fucked. If the god of the bible was real, I would still not like or love him. I could never honestly love somebody if the choice was between "Worship/love me." and "If you don't, you will burn forever." God would know that, so there would be little use in faking it. I hope I would have the courage to not try to fake it anyway.

Naw dude, you don't have to love god to go to heaven.  At least Southern Baptists don't think that.  All you have to have is belief that Jesus was the son of god, he died on the cross for your sins, he was resurrected 3 days later, and you accept his sacrifice for your sins.

Then you're golden.

Of course according to the Southern Baptists my atheist ass is going to heaven because I accepted that as a child and you can't fall from grace.

If that happens I'm going to start an association in heaven called, "God is a fucktard".

Naw, no human or angel/former angel ever really dies completely.  Satan is supposed to rot in hell with our asses forever.

Damn, I gave Eloise crap for evading a similarly begged question, and now I'm stuck sorting through this one. I'll qualify by saying that if there had been a clear demonstration of something, like Jesus descending in a pillar of light and continuing where he supposedly left off, I would look at and challenge that evidence; I'd be especially skeptical because it's completely unprecedented and there are so many people desperate for vindication (religious fraud is precedented). If it passed whatever my tests were, I'd tentatively accept it. It doesn't follow that it validates the entire bible, though; each claim must be dealt with separately.

I think 'A' would be a necessary step in any such event, even in the course of determining the outcome your question takes for granted: that only Christians disappeared. As it is, you beg the question in assuming The Rapture as the most obvious conclusion; you make any investigation sound like denial. 'B' takes for granted that confirmation of one claim validates the whole, which it doesn't. Christians would probably say the event would be dependent on a number of other claims in the bible, but in reality it doesn't follow that those claims explain the event. 'C' is a rusty bear trap out in the middle of the sidewalk; it begs the question whether atheists would deny evidence, but takes for granted that the validity of the evidence is undisputed.

In closing, if a load of people had disappeared, I think I would start to investigate it as described in 'A,' without the assumption that you make of The Rapture being the obvious conclusion. If only Christians disappeared, we would probably be forced to address the massive power vacuum and increased tension between our other Abrahamic friends.

I choose D, we wouldn't notice the Rapture at all.

We need to define what is classified as a Christian to be included in the rapture. There are many people out there who will say they are a Christian, but either are unchristian like or just plain old lying about their religious beliefs.

The Rapture might have already occurred, and no one disappeared because nobody was good enough for it

i consider it foolish to worship at the feet of an insane form of tyranny in order to save yourself from it. Aside from being ignorant and pathetic it doesnt actually work in real life. Many people have tried this.

Youre asking people to envision a scenario where an invisible monster sets people on fire for arbitrary reasons and the only way that one can avoid being set on fire is to worship the monster. You say that people would be stupid not to worship the monster but you havent considered that to give yourself over to that kind of evil would be worse than the hottest fire.

According to some doctrines, a third of the angels followed Satan and they knew for a fact God existed.

I hate to ask this, but if you were god would you let all the people who hated you and rebelled against you get the same as those who followed you?  Somehow I think not. 

Have you ever read a bible?  Hell isn't where you can talk to others who are there, it's solitary confinement, i.e. no party with Satan and friends.  I realize you think it would be cool to take the part of the poor little oppressed satan, but if he exists he's certainly different from what you think.

Yes, but they thought they could win.  Our scenario is different, it's knowing that you're going to lose and then be put in hell forever.

I think some Jews accept Revelations too, it is an Old Testament/Torah book.

I would probably choose A or C. I'd probably be a little bit confused if I'm honest, but you know, try and enjoy life while I still could - parties, I'd probably start taking drugs too, have wild sex orgies, go for nice long walks in the Cumbrian lakes, play guitar, probably have a bit of fun killing demons at Armageddon.

You seem to be the most sensible person on this thread so far.  I don't hate god either, but it seems that we have a few people who would knowingly reject god and put themselves in hell.

I don't think it's necessarily an ego boost that the god of the bible is looking for, it's just loyalty.

As far as I know, there isn't a great deal in the Bible about Hell, which is why Dante and others had to think very creatively about it.  And I realize that the Bible sets Satan up as an antagonist, but if the Bible was written by God, how do you think he would portray his major enemy?  I realize that I could be wrong, but I'd try to look into it. 

And if the Christian god exists, I do think he's evil.  He created us very selfishly, knowing that most of us would end up in Hell.  He set up a world in which evidence suggests against his existence, and yet punishes people for not believing fervantly in him.  I suppose, if damnation really looked like it was all it'd been cracked up to be, I'd submit to God.  But I'd still think he was an asshole, and I'm sure, with the omniscience and all, he'd know that, so I'd probably end up in Hell anyway.  I mean, it's not like the rapture is meant to give atheists time to convert.  It's meant to punish non-believers, so why wouldn't I see if there was a worthy fight against God going on?

    Well you say all christians, but the rapture wouldn't be all christians really and the saved ones, at least last time i checked would only number 144,000 (I can't remember the exact passage, but it's in the bible) So if ALL the Christians dissappeared....well I would say satan did it, i mean come on, not all the christian denominations are correct, seriously could you see jehova witnesses or mormons getting in? even catholics or well lets admit any of them getting into heave? Maybe the Menonites or amish, but really the rest of them? naw, I would say if it did occur only a few of them would leave, if they all did, maybe god did it to make the rest of our lives better

The 144K has been read by different groups in all different kinds of ways over the centuries.  Some Puritan/Calvinist sects believed that only 144,000 souls were predestined, with everybody else going to hell.  The Jehovah's Witnesses currently read this as saying that only the 144,000 most favored of the saved go to heaven to live with God forever (all the other JH's get to live forever in a paradise on Earth).

I think it emphasizes the ambiguity of the passage that people can get so many different interpretatons of it. 

If we accepted the bible to be 100% truth, I would surely hate god. I could not imagine trying to justify all the atrocities commited by god in the bible.

Here is just an example of why I would hate this god.

For this among many other atrocities commited. I could not CHOOSE wether I hate this god character or not. I would simply hate him ireversebly.

If his existance were not proven but the evidence heavily fell in his favor (rapture), of course I would do everything to get into heaven, but wouldnt all my efforts be in vain since I would not be able to relenquish my hate?

My answer would be that surely I would believe him and try to get into heaven. However, belief in god does not justify the question of "How could you be so foolish as to hate he who obviously exist?!"

 Anyways, I have commited the unforgivable sin which is stated in the bible will not be forgiven, therefore god would damn me to hell anyways.

Why would there be a rapture?

i guess it wouldn't matter much what I thought or believed because some archangel would go obi-wan on my ass with a flaming sword and send me to hell to burn with all the other non-believers. At which point I would have some wonderfully naturalistic, materialistic evidence for the existence of a whole sack full of phenomena that I didn't know existed and I'd have to get busy revising my model of the universe while Satan removes my nuts with a pitchfork. Sucks to be me, I guess. However, since the universe will basically do the same thing to me (with slightly less style) if I don't take a naturalistic, rational position toward it now, I really don't see what choice I have.

How could you hate something that does not exist? The ones I hate are the humans who are cynically using this lie to manipulate feeble minds. All other believers who don't fall into that category are victims. I have nothing but pity for them.

 But to answer your question, if I were your God (let's assume he exists) I would praise rational thinking and fcritical minds over idiotic acceptance of a dogma without proof. That is, I would prefer Atheists over Christians.

No, it's not completely pointless.  The event I'm talking about was predicted 2000 years ago, your speculation never was.  What I'm after is if this is enough evidence or if some of us would need more.

That's not quite true. Two facts:

1) Someone made a prediction 2000 years ago

2) Something happens now (the rapture)

Now the question we would have to ask ourselves (if that happened) is whether there's a link between those two events. The main problem of religions, and irrationnal thinking in general, is that they take two separate facts and immediately see a cause/effect relationship without proof.

The only rational stance would be A in your original post, until a proof definitely links that event with the prediction. There is always a chance that something else caused the event (mass alien abduction, whatever).

The human interpretation of two facts that SEEMS to be linked is not the proof of that link. Far from it.

I have definitly, without a doubt, whole heartedly committed these sins(to any logical interpretation). Do not simply assume that I had even heard of the blasphemy challenge before I had committed them.

But back the to subject to if there was a rapture.

This is a perfect example of logical reasoning however, Because the question being asked is "if the rapture happened" we have to imply that somehow we know that it is infact the rapture and the link between a prediction from the bible and the event is assumed to be accurate.

 But like I said if this supposed rapture were to happen then i'd be screwed. I would still try to attain my ticket out of eternal hellfire of course, but it would be futile. Because if we assume that the bible is in truth then we have to also assume that the unforgivable sin is real, no matter how you look at it. Not only this but if we assume that the bible is infact true, then the atrocities committed in the bible are also true. For these acts I could not sincerely forgive your god character.

If the proof was still there, this thread still has a point because I want to see how many would try to believe in God and such and I wanted to see how many would just say "hell with that" and join Satan.

For me, I think it would be a large number of Christians of certain denominations rising up.  When I say denominations, I mean sects, like Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, Protestants, etc.  The logical choice would be to then follow that group's teachings, unless something blatantly obvious had happend, like some alien ship in the sky beaming them up.