Religion
Related: About this forumMaybe if we had the courage to accept the fact that we're all going to die...
...instead of harboring fantasies of "living forever somewhere over the rainbow"...
then we might just have the courage to let others live instead of killing them.
Wouldn't that be better than "immortality"?
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)I always think of this song when I thimk about an afterlife.
Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)They say it is a false promise of pie in the sky. One slyly designed to get the masses to submit to any abuse from their overseers in their lifetime. The people will submit to any abuse, any exploitation from their rulers - since their rulers slyly told them that their suffering will be made up for later. After they are dead. In "heaven."
But were those promises of later rewards in Heaven true? Or just a lie designed to get people to submit to exploitation by their bosses? Surprisingly, there are many suggestions even in the Bible that there is no heaven for people. 1) Jesus said that no once goes up to heaven, except the one that came down from it. 2) The book of Ecclesiastes likewise is notoriously doubtful about any afterlife beyond a shadowy "Sheol." While 3) much of the Bible speaks of a final destruction of Heaven, in fact (Isa. 34.4, 51.6; 2 Peter 3.7-12; Rev. 21).
Then too, science seems to suggest that most promises of miracles, a miraculous afterlife, seem highly doubtful, or even flatly false.
Given all that, many therefore say that the promise of heaven, eternal life, was just a lie; one designed by our rulers to get the people to submit to exploitation here on earth.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)Unfortunately, most of us were exposed to just one point of view, in Sunday School and church.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)What do you make of, for instance, Jesus' apparent statement that no one goes up to heaven, except Jesus himself?
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)What did you make specifically of the Bible's statements on Heaven?
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)You can take verses out of the bible to make a case on almost anything.
PassingFair
(22,434 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)If circumstances allow, I intend to meet my death on my terms. Build a legacy, on my terms. To do what I can to enable my children to reach, literally, for the stars. Do what I can to ensure they can, if they wish, earn their weight in reaction mass to escape this gravity well.
On average, our bodies work a little under a million hours. I've burned through about 1/3 of that. Time enough left to do what I want with my life. In a sense, the constraint of a deadline gives everything I do, every act of volition, meaning.
I would not trade that for 'forever'.
Htom Sirveaux
(1,242 posts)then I'll be prepared for death whether there is an afterlife or not.
Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)Htom Sirveaux
(1,242 posts)I think you would like their writings. McLaren and Rollins especially have been influenced by postmodernism, and Rohr is a well-known teacher of non-dualism.
Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)Htom Sirveaux
(1,242 posts)Lots of deep thinking there. Sorry if these are too many recommendations (but if you want even more, just say so!).
BeyondGeography
(39,379 posts)Nature was his God. Not that he was an unabashed unbeliever, but he was focused on illuminating the beauty that is here. A healthy approach, imo, which I think relates very well to your statement. After all, the earth does possess a stunning beauty. I would miss it when I was floating around that place where nothing ever happens, per David Byrne in Heaven.
Htom Sirveaux
(1,242 posts)Last edited Sun Aug 24, 2014, 02:06 PM - Edit history (1)
N.T. Wright is an anti-gay Anglican bishop, but he's also written about how the afterlife is a perfected Earth that includes everything that is good about right now (and every other time) and just adds on to that.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)believing or not believing that there is something after this life.
I know that some people see belief in the afterlife to be a crutch for people who can't accept that they are going to die.
But fact is that most people don't want to die and have a difficult time accepting it, believers and not.
I can't see any connection between believing in an afterlife and the killing of others. Could you elaborate?
Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)Starboard Tack
(11,181 posts)At least, in terms of a subjective finality. Killing others only makes sense if it is to save more lives than one takes. Dying for a cause only makes sense if that cause is to save more lives than those being sacrificed.
Killing or dying because one thinks they will be rewarded in some afterlife is sick.
mmonk
(52,589 posts)Jim__
(14,083 posts)I'm not sure why you think lack of belief in an afterlife would put an end to killing.
Brettongarcia
(2,262 posts)Though if you are interested? In the time of Hitler, most of Germany was still quite Christian; a common German military belt-buckle proclaimed "God is with us." Then Russia did not attack Germany; Germany attacked Russia. Partially at times, in the name of Christianity. Many German soldiers were willing to attack Russia, and even die; to fight "godless communism."
Stalin by the way, was an ex-seminarian. He had trained to become a (Georgian) Orthodox priest.
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)As in the name of anti-communism. And Lebensraum.