Serious Question for all...

Originally posted by mikelom
Did you ever hear of a Buddhist war?

Just a question. 😉

your fiend. (arrrgh) 🙂

-m.

Google it. You might be surprised.

Originally posted by twhitehead
And also in the last few decades, medical science has advanced to the point where it is patently obvious that life after death is impossible.

Energy can neither be created or destroyed. How has science disproved life after death?

Originally posted by VoidSpirit
if you feel the need to believe anything beyond this life, then you have already failed life.
you will find no credible evidence from any source, not even personal experience.

if you want something good to read, try to find the stories of nasreddin hoja

Reaching enlightenment

Nasreddin was walking in the bazaar with a large group of f ...[text shortened]... morning I count them. The ones who have left – have reached enlightenment!"

lol

Originally posted by Phlabibit
Energy can neither be created or destroyed. How has science disproved life after death?

You are starting to ask the questions I did 15 years ago....

'created nor destroyed'... so where does the energy go from our bodies?

I think basically it heats up a bit of ground, to make it easier for the worms to eat and defecate thru. 😀

-m. 😉

Originally posted by mikelom
You are starting to ask the questions I did 15 years ago....

'created nor destroyed'... so where does the energy go from our bodies?

I think basically it heats up a bit of ground, to make it easier for the worms to eat and defecate thru. 😀

-m. 😉

You have a weird sense of humor.

Originally posted by RJHinds
You have a weird sense of humor.

I'm a freak. God made me this way, in his image, except in my case he gave me 207 ribs 😉

-m.

Originally posted by mikelom
I'm a freak. God made me this way, in his image, except in my case he gave me 207 ribs 😉

-m.

That sounds more like a deformity.

Originally posted by Phlabibit
Yes, I know I've been an ass-hat here or there but this is an honest question for EVERYONE.

I don't care about your faith (meaning this is open to all and I hope to hear from many different people with different beliefs).

If you wanted someone to believe in anything beyond just living and ending up dead with nothing more, keeping any religious script ...[text shortened]... you die.

What books would be good to read, what story does it tell... etc.

Thanks.

I read through this lengthy thread to see if it would have any interesting answers and of course found none to my taste. Still the same sectarian bickering I associate with this Forum.

In the OP I take issue with the phrase "just living and ending up dead with nothing more" .

I suppose many simple organisms achieve little beyond that, though in itself it is a remarkable evolutionary achievement and every creature puts up quite a fight not only to preserve its own life but to reproduce life. When applied to something as stunning as human life however, it is a depressingly trivial phrase to use.

for me a few historical events demonstrate that life has been far more than this:

Bach's English Suites, Beethoven's String Quartets, Brahms' Clarinet Quintet...

Did Bach "just live and die"?

As for what book to read I'd look into Homer's Odyssey. Somewhere about 500BCE we see the Greeks reviewing their traditional gods and consiously transforming them, first into something less ferocious (the early gods are overthrown by a new generation) and eventually to their decision to leave humanity to resolve its own affairs, withdrawing to Olympus. We also see the transition from the heroic models of the Iliad to something radically new - the birth of the psychological human, with an internal life and a process of inner development over a lifetime. This book shaped Greek thinking which - not least through the conquests of Alexander the Great - influenced a very wide area indeed and, among other things, was a factor leading to a change in the religious thinking of the Jews as reflected in the Old Testament after about 200BCE.

The significance of James Joyce's Ullysses, modeled on the Odyssey, is of course the insistence on the heroic stature of the common man. That is, I think, the right message to take from Homer and the message you need to transform the value you place on the remarkable feat of just living until you die.

Originally posted by finnegan
As for what book to read I'd look into Homer's Odyssey. Somewhere about 500BCE we see the Greeks reviewing their traditional gods and consiously transforming them, first into something less ferocious (the early gods are overthrown by a new generation) and eventually to their decision to leave humanity to resolve its own affairs, withdrawing to Olympus. We ...[text shortened]... ou need to transform the value you place on the remarkable feat of just living until you die.

How mind-numblingly, overwhelmingly depressing. 'Guess we should all just shoot ourselves in the head before it gets any worse.

Originally posted by Rajk999
I wonder if Mr. Thomas O'Dea (Sociologist of religion; Ph.D., Harvard University), has a theory for why people develop theories which make no sense, and another theory for why people believe those theories which have no empirical support. Mind you Im not saying that those who develop those theories or those who believe those theories are weak minded, vulnerable, fools ... 😀

Thank you for your dismissive and mocking reply to my attempt (weak though it may be) at some sort of thoughtful or interesting discussion. Having read this forum long enough I should know better.

Originally posted by Ullr
Suzianne I think you are missing my point and so I will clarify. I am not at all trying to say that I think everyone that becomes a Christian does so because they are weak minded, vulnerable, fools. I do think this is often the case and incidentally I don't think there is anything at all wrong with that or wrong with saying that.

However, my comments hav ...[text shortened]... fers the beleiver salvation through participation in Christ's victory over evil and death."

Hi, nice to see you posting again after what seems like a long time.

Christianity does attract weaker people, it's supposed to do that. Christ does that.

Originally posted by Ullr
Thank you for your dismissive and mocking reply to my attempt (weak though it may be) at some sort of thoughtful or interesting discussion. Having read this forum long enough I should know better.

It seems to me that he was not being dismissive and mocking, but only asking
questions from a different view point that could lead to further discussion.

Originally posted by RJHinds
It seems to me that he was not being dismissive and mocking, but only asking
questions from a different view point that could lead to further discussion.

Could be. Maybe I'm just in an overly sensitive mood having just watch my Patriots get shellacked by the Steelers.

Originally posted by Ullr
Could be. Maybe I'm just in an overly sensitive mood having just watch my Patriots get shellacked by the Steelers.

Sorry my post got you upset. Do you have a strong feminine side?
How would you react if your Red Thor gets shellacked by the God of Israel ?

Anyway my post was meant to provoke you as well as get you to think. Provoke you because its not flattering for you to imply that Christians are "..People suffering from extreme deprivation and people suffering from anomie ..".

Its a fact that Christianity is more prevalent in the advanced developed countries of North America and Europe. Would you say that these countries have lots of "..People suffering from extreme deprivation and people suffering from anomie ..?