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Yes to both Judeism and Islam

[TD1]

God of the gaps, Orange?

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[Orange Wizard]

God of the gaps, Orange?

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[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Why just because we are setting a separation between our world and the one our god lives in?

[Graknorke]

God of the gaps, Orange?

Well where else can you put one? You can't put it where you can see, since you'd be able to see it.

[Orange Wizard]

I've chosen to believe that Cheeetar and Dwarfy are just joking. Regardless of their actual intent, it saves me having to explain to them again that I don't consider my faith to be particularly well-supported with scientific evidence.

[Frumple]

Why just because we are setting a separation between our world and the one our god lives in?

Eh? No, no. God of the Gaps refers to the divine critter(s) being whatever fills in the gaps science hasn't or can't, generally. Th'divine as something transcendent/extraterrestrial is something different.

[Icefire2314]

I'm curious to see what people think on Christian Reincarnation. It's a very quiet topic and not one I had even heard of or considered until recently (I am Catholic).
The idea was restated to me by my mom after she read a book on someone who had a death experience (or something along those lines) and related the ideas to me.
Basically, (the version I heard, not all ideas may be in line with this) that after we die we are judged by God and we re-experience our lives through the eyes of other people, how we treated them, whether good or bad, we feel those feelings as if it was being done to us. That is our consequence. The goal is spiritually, to come to be better people by living lives of sin (in a sense; obviously avoid sin, but nobody is perfect and everyone lives sin.. by living in this way we learn to be better spiritually after death?)

This makes more sense to me because the idea of a hell (hell is non-existent in this scenario), a place of eternal punishment(Damnation) for one lifetime of sin is, odd, or even ridiculous in my opinion. Sin affects you in such way that even if you lived a perfect life up until you were dying and committed a mortal sin before receiving reconciliation or last rites, then you are damned.

What purpose does damnation serve?
None. It is strictly punishment.
Whereas, the idea of living the pain(or goodness) you caused through another's lives is more appropriate consequence. It helps us learn spiritually to be better people.

The main idea then, would be to learn from your sin (mistakes, everyone learns from mistakes) and after consequence of judgement, to be physically reborn again to continue spiritual growth. I would assume the cycle would end once spiritual perfection (or near to it) is attained. This also is reflected in Hindu reincarnation, and maybe Buddhist nirvana (though I'm not familiar with nirvana, so I'm grasping at straws there).

I know that this concept is sketchy, and it's quietness does not help, since it is not a loud topic by the church there is no debate and everything here is speculative, by yours truly. Tell me what you think.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

My church teaches that after you die there is a basic judgment of did you accept god as your savior
After that the people that did are judged again on all their sins by god himself and at the end he wipes away your tears symbolically giving a final forgiveness and cleansing you permanently and sends you off into heaven to live eternally with him

So it's not that far fetched but I do believe in hell
But I have slightly changed my view on it
I think those that lived good lives and just never heard of god simply live eternaly seperated from him while the wicked who knew of god their whole lives and sinned away suffer eternaly for basicaly spitting in gods face
(The hell bit of this post is entirely opinionated)

[Frumple]

Reincarnation's actually came up in the thread once or twice already

There are a few christian denominations out there that hold to various sorts of reincarnation beliefs, even discounting the buddhist or hindu fusion sects. The variant I remember the most regularly (though not exactly which denomination it was that believed it) held the belief that people reincarnate until the end of times, whenever that is -- a sort of limited reincarnation. I can't recall the reasoning behind the belief, but *shrugs*

It's arguable how in sync with the bible is, but it's also not like the text is terribly explicit regarding a lot involving the afterlife, so eh. If people want to roll with it, they can probably manage it, especially if they're one of the groups that cheerfully throw out revelations.

[Icefire2314]

Reincarnation's actually came up in the thread once or twice already

There are a few christian denominations out there that hold to various sorts of reincarnation beliefs, even discounting the buddhist or hindu fusion sects. The variant I remember the most regularly (though not exactly which denomination it was that believed it) held the belief that people reincarnate until the end of times, whenever that is -- a sort of limited reincarnation. I can't recall the reasoning behind the belief, but *shrugs*

It's arguable how in sync with the bible is, but it's also not like the text is terribly explicit regarding a lot involving the afterlife, so eh. If people want to roll with it, they can probably manage it, especially if they're one of the groups that cheerfully throw out revelations.

Ah. Oops, the topic is 176 pages long  maybe next time

[Frumple]

Eh, not like you can't talk about it some more. Just noting so if you want to search back and see what came up last time(s), you can.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I honestly thought this thread was going to get 20 pages in then locked and me banned with the way it was going. But looks like we have a possible mini-mega thread

[Icefire2314]

Eh, not like you can't talk about it some more. Just noting so if you want to search back and see what came up last time(s), you can.

I know. I just basically had laid out all my ideas on it in the first post. I'm more lurking now to see if any questions are posed and if I can answer them.
I don't strictly believe in reincarnation and rejection of damnation, but it is something I heavily consider.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I alwas had one problem with reincarnation (in a system where people don't reincarnate into animals) is where do all the new souls come from? Is it the same as popular belief that god just throws a few in while the old ones get recycled?

[Frumple]

Presumably the same place they came from to begin with. Given that the christian god is generally considered at-least omniscient, and often omnipresent and omnitemporal, it presumably just magicked up however many would ultimately be needed to begin with and is bringing in the excess as necessary. Or could just be making more as things come along. It's not like there's much of a difference.

There's not really a reason or cause needed in this case, anyway -- soul generation in general boils down to "A Wizard Did It", and that's all the justification you really need. Or can have, really.