Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

No

Only Judeism

Only Islam

Yes to both Judeism and Islam

[TD1]

If there is an afterlife, and it is good, why are we so afraid of death?

Simply because according to the bible, we weren't meant to die. I think there was a passage where it said something along the lines of: "He had instilled eternity into us." So its only natural that people would be afraid of death.

Was this in the same place where the Bible said that the entire human race came from two people?

But that's a good point, too. Begs the question, though, of why he would instill eternity when, through his omnipotence, he would see we would err. What would be the point, if he knew he would have to take it away?

[TheDarkStar]

How can the baby get a "chance" if it dies in the womb?

I mean that the baby gets some kind of chance later. It's necessary, otherwise God is unfair (and partial to those with better medical treatment).

[TD1]

...

When does it get a chance?

[Orange Wizard]

What?

[Frumple]

I guess TDS might be of (or referring to, anyway) one of the christian sects that believe in some degree of reincarnation?

[TD1]

But....how do you make a linear belief....cyclical?

[Orange Wizard]

I have no idea.

[Frumple]

But....how do you make a linear belief....cyclical?

Well, by having stuff like the souls of stillborns being put back into circulation. It's not really cyclical, just doing something with souls not yet ready for heaven or hell, for whatever reason. And other stuff. Reincarnation isn't necessarily cyclical, yeah. Most formulations of it tend to be (with a potential out, in some cases), but there's no reason limited reincarnation (everybody gets two, etc.) can't fly.

E: I want to say one of 'em holds that reincarnation occurs until... well, whatever their rapture equivalent is. Basically you(r soul) keep(s) coming back until the Big Judgment or whatev'. So still quite linear.

E2: Really, when it comes right down to it there's a lot of variety in christian beliefs. The bible says little to nothing on quite a lot of topics, and is incredibly vague on a lot of others. People get creative.

E3: And that's not even getting into the outright mistranslations. It's great when you get stuff like the KJB getting one of the ten commandments wrong, ha.

[Aeax]

Was this in the same place where the Bible said that the entire human race came from two people?

But that's a good point, too. Begs the question, though, of why he would instill eternity when, through his omnipotence, he would see we would err. What would be the point, if he knew he would have to take it away?

That's a good questions. The Bible seems to show that God can selectively exercise future events. In the case of the genesis account, it seems he chose not to see into the future.

An analogy could be likened to watching a movie on your computer. You have the option to skip ahead and see what happens but its better to watch events unfold as they come.

[TD1]

If he chooses what to see, then he hasn't seen/known everything. Then he isn't omnipotent, or all-knowing.

[Frumple]

Nah, could still be the former, just freakishly irresponsible. I guess sorta' the latter, too, but even more uncaring of the consequences of its actions, since it would have to willfully choose to block and/or forget and/or ignore its knowledge.

[Spehss _]

Cool thread. Good way to waste time instead of reading assigned college textbooks. Too tired to read British literature from 1300s, not too tired to read 16 pages of internet discussion on a religion.

I'll butt in with my own "Christian beliefs" to add to the discussion. For the record, I was raised a Methodist. So, worship God through actions as well as prayer/reading of the bible/church/whatever.

Spoiler: personal beliefs based on past experience (click to show/hide)

Core beliefs:
- Try not to be a dick to other people.
- Try not to be too judgmental or condemning
- Try to help when I can
- Try to not do something if I think at any point "this is wrong."

...That seems to be about it, really. Could add "Live life according to your morals" but that's dependent on one's definition of morality and could promote "sinful" behavior like finding it morally ok to murder dudes.

I'm operating on the belief that if God is truly forgiving as everyone says he is, he can forgive me for not being a devout Christian and not going to church or reading the Bible regularly or praying every night. Because I do try to be a nice person. But I'm not goddamn perfect, and I know it. I've never been a "good" Christian who read the Bible or prayed regularly. Was never fond of going to church and being around people. Never really participated in church activities like Sunday school or going out to build homes for people or going on mission trips. Because people. I'm bad at people.

Going to church made me feel bad. All it did was remind me that I wasn't doing things other "good" Christians were doing, and I was making no effort to change that.

So I stopped going to church. Continued to not really read the Bible much. I try to pray regularly. But just saying this made me realize I don't think I've prayed in months. So that's another "bad" thing. I'm a nuerotic perfectionist. Church was doing me no good but making me hate my shortcomings more. God would understand. Or it seems like He would. If he's as forgiving as everyone says he is. Which I find hard to believe because I'm a neurotic perfectionist. I sin once, and that's it. I f*cked up mate. I'm ruined. I'mma go commit sepuku, because I will never remove that blotch from my record. That's how hard I am.

So I'm just kinda winging it by my own beliefs. Not like I'm an unbeliever or atheist. I'd like to believe there's something out there. I've had enough weird coincidences to not give me the feeling something could be looking out for peeps. Someone explain scientifically why I get so many green lights when I'm driving anywhere. Don't explain, it's a rhetorical statement.

I don't really care about other people's beliefs. As long as they try to be nice people, love thy neighbour, help one another, etc, they're ok in my book. If God can forgive everyone for the stupid amount of constant "sins" we aren't supposed to do but do anyway every single day, then he can forgive people who are basically Christians in everything except religion.

If I'm wrong and damned to hell, then I am perfectly ok with that and accept that, because I'm not perfect. No matter how much I hear "Christ died for your sins and forgives you and loves you," I still don't completely believe he'd forgive me, of all people. Everyone else gets forgiven, yeah, understandable, he said he'd do that, sure. me? Hell nah, I stole a candy bar one time years ago, I'm ruined, I'll just cart myself off to hell then. Perfectionism, yo.

Anti-religion people could argue that Christianity's emphasis on doing the right thing and not the wrong thing made me become too hard on myself and make me a perfectionist.  On the contrary, I was always a perfectionist and that's what shaped my beliefs.

This is probably a rambling ass post but I'm tired.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It may not have made you a perfectionist, but it imposed an artificial and inherently unreachable goal upon you, and the combination of these two factors proved psychologically malignant.

[Frumple]

So I stopped going to church. Continued to not really read the Bible much. I try to pray regularly. But just saying this made me realize I don't think I've prayed in months. So that's another "bad" thing.

If it makes you feel any better I'm something like 90% certain the bible says pretty much jack all about going to church, not much (if anything) about reading the bible, and pretty much nothing in particular about prayer frequency -- or even if setting aside specific time for prayer is needed at all. Bit about the sabbath (which most christians honor on the wrong day anyway so :V), but not terribly much else, in regards to that sort of thing. Quite a lot of the ritual bits of christianity have honestly been pretty much invented whole cloth, and not adhering to them makes you no further from Christ than adhering to them does. Possibly even closer, since fair amount of church activities and whatnot kinda' get in the way of being Christian.

[TD1]

Just another random thought:
I have many times said to someone in a class-debate, "Do you think your religion is the right religion? Do you think, for example, Hinduism is equally viable" and they always say no.

But it is equally viable. In fact, some religions are more viable in their own ways. It's rather selfish to say "My religion is the one true religion!" and close your ears to the other half a dozen people shouting the same thing of their religions.