Afterlife: Is There Life After Death?

I think we live on through other entities. For example, when buried, you continue to feed the earth. Flowers, trees and grass will grow from you, you will then go on to feed birds and so on....
I don't believe in heaven or hell.

So, basically you believe in proven biology? Seems...logical, even if a tad redundant.

Yes, I'm one of those sane people that believe in proven facts

It was asked by Contrarian what rights have been taken away from Christians.

Respectfully, I don't agree with you or your point.

I am genuinely curious as to why. I mean, the only real difference is that the Kims are/were living breathing people, and the deities of faiths generally require more leaps of faith than a frog with it's *kitten* on fire in a pool of gas.

It is a matter of faith that every person must reconcile with God.
I cannot do that for you.

I wasn't asking for you to convert me, or show me the way to God. I was asking you why you believe that American children being exposed to religious teaching at a young age is any different than North Korean children being exposed to 'state worship' at a young age.

It would help if you would define your idea of "religious teaching" and "'state worship'"

Religious teaching is pretty self-explanatory. Basically, teaching children to believe in something for which there is no verifiable proof, before they are of an age where their 'that doesn't make any sense' sensors have turned on in life. In all of my time, I have only ever seen ONE young child say something along the lines of 'you really believe that?' to a parent who explains God to them. Most children will just take whatever their parents say as being true, no matter how preposterous it is.

Since you are asking what state worship is, I assume you know very little, if anything about North Korea. The children there are essentially brought up viewing whichever Kim happens to be in charge as their 'Lord and savior', provider of all things, great protector, he who strikes fear into the American heathens, blah blah, etc. The humanitarian aid we send over to try to keep those people from starving? Yeah, the Kims play it off to the people as 'tribute from the white devil to avoid invoking the wrath of the Dear Leader'. This is something that has been going on for so long that there are very few North Koreans left who remember a time before this was the case. As such, it's not quite as old as Christianity, but other than that, it's pretty much the same thing.

In both cases, children are having something hammered into their head before they are old enough to understand that it just might not be based in any sort of fact at all.

It would help if you would define your idea of "religious teaching" and "'state worship'"

Religious teaching is pretty self-explanatory. Basically, teaching children to believe in something for which there is no verifiable proof, before they are of an age where their 'that doesn't make any sense' sensors have turned on in life. In all of my time, I have only ever seen ONE young child say something along the lines of 'you really believe that?' to a parent who explains God to them. Most children will just take whatever their parents say as being true, no matter how preposterous it is.

Since you are asking what state worship is, I assume you know very little, if anything about North Korea. The children there are essentially brought up viewing whichever Kim happens to be in charge as their 'Lord and savior', provider of all things, great protector, he who strikes fear into the American heathens, blah blah, etc. The humanitarian aid we send over to try to keep those people from starving? Yeah, the Kims play it off to the people as 'tribute from the white devil to avoid invoking the wrath of the Dear Leader'. This is something that has been going on for so long that there are very few North Koreans left who remember a time before this was the case. As such, it's not quite as old as Christianity, but other than that, it's pretty much the same thing.

In both cases, children are having something hammered into their head before they are old enough to understand that it just might not be based in any sort of fact at all.

I am not ignorant about North Korea. I wanted to hear your understanding of it.

You haven't really said exactly what you think American children are having "hammered into their heads", that "something for which there is no verifiable truth"

It's not just American children. It's children in many nations. What they are having pushed into their minds from a young age is a collection of stories that is little more than a poorly structured novel, in the case of the Holy Bible, a really strange and sometimes megalomaniacal set of rules in the case of the Qu'ran, etc.

In order to make it even easier to get it slipped in from a young age, we now have stuff like 'Baby's First Bible'. Really? They had to go there? Story wasn't inviting enough, so we needed to dress it up with cartoon likenesses of Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Mark?

Because this is presented as fact, and not story by their parents, they believe it. It is further solidified by family and church community over time. Again, no different than North Korea...well, except I haven't seen a 'Baby's Guide to the Dear Leader' yet.

You think Jesus is megalomaniacal?

Touch one of my Moto Guzzi's and you'll find out. :devil: :laugh:

I think the real question is, "How do you log calories burned when crossing over into the afterlife?" Everything else is just details.

You think Jesus is megalomaniacal?

No, I said that many of the rules put forth in the Qu'ran are megalomaniacal. Have you read the Qu'ran, or just the Bible?

Keep in mind, I am coming from the position of someone who has studied most faiths in a very in depth manner. I don't just see one in particular as nutty. I see all of them as imbalanced.

Well, based on your opinions, I will tell you why I disagree with your religious teaching/state worship hypothesis

If, and only if, we are teaching children strictly from the Bible without any man made religion tossed in then I believe this is the difference:

The God of the Holy Bible is loving, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. His ultimate purpose for having a relationship with us is for our good. It's about love, not rules.

The "Kim's" are fallible human beings, with limited knowledge and power. Their quest is for more power, not to love the Korean people.

Simply put: to worship God is life to worship a "Kim" or any other man or religion that denies the power of God and the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus on the cross is death.

The problem with that logic is that man penned the Bible. Even if the methods are to be believed, the earliest of the stories took place over thousands of years, during which time much of what happened was passed down orally before being put to paper. Please tell me how that isn't a recipe for human error to jump all into the mix. You tell one person something, and by the time it goes through five people, the story is totally different. Can you imagine how much it could change over the course of generations?

Do I believe that there is some historical accuracy to the Bible? Yes, but nowhere near enough for it to have the legions of followers that it does. In the end, just as you say, man is flawed, and these laws and stories have been passed down, translated, and re-translated by man.

I believe the Word of God is inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit-the third person of the Trinity
I believe Jesus, second person of the Trinity, is the son of God and was born of the Virgin Mary from the line of David as was prophesied.
Genealogy can be proven
I believe his birth was foretold by Daniel and the prophet Isaiah, among other, hundreds of years before Jesus was born

MFP monitors must be watching the super bowl. Sadly, my Niners lost.