Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
Would You Still Worship God If There Was No Heaven or Hell?
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on November 16, 2010, 01:25:33 pm ---Does't suprise me in the least, not when you consider the depths of cruelty to which human beings sank in the course of the 20th century. :-\
Of course, I suppose it isn't necessarily possible to know everything to which the New Testament was written in reaction, but I suppose if you are being ostracized by your own community, shunned by your own family, and (at times literallly) crucified or thrown to the lions by your government, there was some comfort in believing that the people who were doing all these horrible things to you in this world would be getting theirs in the next. :-\
--- End quote ---
But the difference is that if you are thrown to the lions or even crucified, which has to rank with burning alive as one of the worst ways to die, death would eventually release you from your suffering.
Waiting to gloat over your enemies "getting theirs" in the next life doesn't sound too consistent with Jesus' teachings; but then, compared with Paul, Christianity has never taken Jesus all that seriously.
Marina:
--- Quote ---And who says the gods invented the universe just for us?
--- End quote ---
They didn't! That's [one] of the big problems I have with the world today, and organized religion. The universe was not created just for humanity, IMO.
ifyoucantfixit:
If you were a God, why would you invent, or make a universe? In order to have
someone to associate with? Or would you do it because you wanted people to use for people to be on your side of the argument. The way I see it. If you read the
bible, he made man in order to have them take his side in the universe. For them to be against the Devil and his minions. If you don't take his side then you will be sent
to hell, and burned for eternity. I think that has been my particular problem with
God all the way. That would be like having children in order to have more men to
go to war with your enemies. I find that difficult to accept. Not very God like, if you
will.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on March 10, 2011, 03:35:28 pm ---Appreciate? Sure. But the OP was about worshipping a god. And who says the gods invented the universe just for us? It probably was for their own enjoyment, so appreciation only goes so far.
--- End quote ---
Good point. I couldn't bring myself to say "worship." The title of the thread involves a few assumptions -- 1) that we not only believe in God, we even worship him/her, 2) that the existence of heaven or hell is iffy -- that I don't buy into.
I don't wonder about the possible non-existence of heaven and hell, I ASSUME they're myths. I don't worship God. I am agnostic, so I don't totally even believe in God. So maybe I'm not the best person to answer this poll.
However, my answer didn't involve the assumption that god(s) created the universe just for us. If you believe in god(s), and if you assume that s/he/they created the universe, you certainly can appreciate him/her/them for that achievement without believing yourself to be the only beneficiary.
Wayne:
I don't claim that my impression is the authoritative truth about what the text of the Bible says, but overall to me it is surprising how little detail is provided in the Bible about an afterlife. At the time of Jesus, the Jews were sharply divided as to whether there was any afterlife at all. The Pharisees said there was an afterlife and the Saducees said there was not. I take that as an indication that the "Old Testament" does not give a consistent authoritative answer.
It was clearly the pop-cultural obsession of Jesus's time, but there was no clear religious unified position on it.
I'm pretty clear that when Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven he, at least usually, meant the new way of doing things that he wanted to encourage here on earth during our usual lifetimes. We are told that he did make a definitive statement on one occasion that there is an afterlife - supporting the Pharisees against the Saducees - but most of the time he was talking about changing how we do things in this life. Given how little he talked about an afterlife, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody just threw that into the text later, slash fiction style, because they wanted him to have said something about it.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version