Dilbert Creator Scott Adams has announced he will be converting to Christianity before he dies from the aggressive cancer that’s taken hold of him in a recent, shocking, and yet uplifting video.
Scott Adams is best known for his creation of Dilbert, a hilarious office cartoon strip that was eventually turned into a television series. In recent years, however, he’s become a conservative political commentator on X, formerly Twitter, laying out logical arguments for President Trump’s agenda since 2015. He’s been popular for his livestreams, which he conducts every day, and continues to do so despite the announcement that he’s been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer that he says will take his life within the next month.
Though it’s very sad to hear he’s been diagnosed, there is a silver lining in the situation where Adams has now declared he’s converting to Christianity, something he said he would never do prior. Adams has been a skeptic and atheist his entire life and career, so this marks a significant change for him. His stated reasoning for doing so is in classic Adams fashion:
Whenever I talk about the simulation, and especially when I talk about my own impending death, many of my Christian friends and Christian followers say to me, “Scott, you still have time. You should convert to Christianity.” And I usually just let that sit, because that's not an argument I want to have.
I've not been a believer. But I also have respect for any Christian who goes out of their way to try to convert me, because how would I believe you believe your own religion if you're not trying to convert me? So I have great respect for people who care enough that they want me to convert and then go out of their way to try to convince me. So you're going to hear for the first time today that it is my plan to convert.
So I still have time. But my understanding is you're never too late. And on top of that, any skepticism I have about reality would certainly be instantly answered if I wake up in heaven.
I do believe that the dominant Christian theory is that I would wake up in heaven if I have a good life. I don't necessarily have to state something in advance. And so to my Christian friends, yes, it's coming.
So you don't need to talk me into it. I am now convinced that the risk-reward is completely smart. If it turns out that there's nothing there, I've lost nothing.
But I've respected your wishes, and I like doing that. If it turns out there is something there, and the Christian model is the closest to it, I win. So with your permission, I promise you that I will convert.
This is great news, though some Christians are voicing grumbling about it online, as if doing so before one dies is somehow “cheating”, which is contrary to the message of the Gospel. It’s not our goal to judge when someone comes to Christ and whether he should have done so earlier, but every life that gets saved and brought to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whether it’s at the hour of death or before, it’s something to rejoice about, and moreover, a voice with such a following as Scott Adams openly converting is a good thing because it exposes others to the Gospel.
We can take this moment of joy to know that Adams will be becoming a brother in Christ and will be dwelling with the Lord soon.
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Are people online really arguing because they weren't paid more wages for an earlier start to their labour? And as for it being "too late," the thief on the cross was hours from death. Better even a half hearted appeal to God in the end than to die an avowed disbeliever.
No. Sad. Tragedy. This is just Pascal's Wager.
He won't make it for this simple reason: "I do believe that the dominant Christian theory is that I would wake up in heaven if I have a good life."
That is not Christian theology at all. The message of Christ is that all people are unholy and therefore unworthy to be in the presence of God, who is flawlessly holy. The reason we are unholy is that we rebel against God's design for our life*. Jesus points out the terrible truth about us in his sermon on the mount where he says that any man who even thinks about adultery is guilty of it in his heart. So, the whole "I'm a good person" thing is a farce. Literally everyone, at some point in their life, would commit murder IF they could get away with it. That is a sin of the heart, even though it is not a sin of the hand. The only reason you didn't do it is because you were afraid of the consequences.
How many people would murder Trump if they could? How many would have murdered Biden if they could? How many would murder a pedophile if they could?
No one is a good person in their heart. That is why deep down, we all carry an unshakable feeling of "guilty." We know we are guilty.
And there is no way do undo what has been done. None. There is no balancing the bad with the good--the bad continues to exist in time! The just penalty for rebelling against the One who gave you mortal life is for Him to take that life that you have misused away from you. Mortal death, and after that the judgement for your soul--on to the presence of God or not? Only those who are either holy or who have been pardoned in spite of their unholiness go to heaven.
Scott (and all the rest of us) can never belong in God's presence by any of our own actions. You can't earn heaven. We are not being graded on a curve where everyone better than Hitler gets a pass for all their hatred and malice. Instead, God offers us a pardon--forgiveness--for our sins and that is counted as righteousness. Who grants this pardon? Jesus Christ. Why does he have the authority to do that? Because He paid the debt of death that we owe to our Creator with His own truly righteous life.
To receive the pardon of Jesus, all He asks for in return is that you (1) believe He is God and (2) submit your life to His service out of your love for Him. (#2 is where most Christians fail...) Someone needs to witness the hard Gospel truth to Scott before it is too late. The gate is narrow, and few will walk through.
* Why are we allowed to rebel against God's design for our life? Because love is impossible without freedom, and what God want's from us is to love Him and to love each other. Imagine a graph where each node is a person, and between every pair of nodes is a beam of light that represents love. How utterly beautiful is that picture of humanity? That is the picture Jesus has commanded us to be part of. He didn't make just one person; He made billions of people. Yes, God loves us each individually, but our love for each other is a thing of immense beauty and forms the image of the whole Kingdom of God, the whole Bride of Christ, whom He died to redeem.