Death?

[STM]

I can understand your viewpoint. I can see it as being boring but then, I expect Heaven is pretty big so...maybe it'd be fun to go exploring.

And you Dixanadu, need to stop being so arrogant. The cosmos are far to big for us to dismiss the existence of an omnipotent being. Then again that isn't to say that some people aren't too clever for a shadowy religion thousands of years old. God has always rewarded the people that have faith without having to see, but I think man is too weak now for everyone to go by old texts.

[Dixanadu]

Afterlife is unlikely simply because the idea of afterlife was brought up by religion, and religion is man-made.

Honestly, I believe Jesus Christ did exist. I don't believe he was a wizard or whatever. Just some guy with some groovy ideas before someone idolised him and put a bunch of shit in the Bible and made him out to be some super hero.

Oh, and he wasn't white, either.

[Sekto Springs]

STM, you're so fuckin strange.
Sometimes you say things that make logical sense, and then back it up with some shit about God. Maybe you should challenge yourself to stop half-way, and then go back and read how much more sense your posts make as a result.

And Dix, of course Jesus existed. He was comparable to modern day cult leaders. And just like we think modern messiahs are fruitcakes, alot of people felt that way about Jesus too. It was through his epic martyrdom that his musings became more than just ideological ranting. One little diddy you might find interesting is the Gospel of Judas, which details how Jesus basically planned his martyrdom because he felt like it would be the only way to immortalize his teachings. That Judas, who is often painted as a villain and a betrayer, was actually Jesus's only truly loyal follower, and Jesus basically commanded him to sell him out to the Romans.

[STM]

STM, you're so fuckin strange.
Sometimes you say things that make logical sense, and then back it up with some shit about God. Maybe you should challenge yourself to stop half-way, and then go back and read how much more sense your posts make as a result.

Perhaps you're not wrong, but I can't phase out God in a debate about death when to me it is he who created death. Maybe I will try your half way point idea though.

[Manco]

And Dix, of course Jesus existed.

show me proof that is not the bible

[Sekto Springs]

Wiki him. The "bible" as you know it is a very small part of his history. Countless people in the field have taken a very objective, non-religious approach to researching him.

[T-nex]

Show me proof that yo mama exists!!

uh.. nvm.

Anyway I think afterlife would not be so hell'ish if souls could actually choose to 'rest'... Think of it like sleeping but for eternity. I wouldn't mind that.

[Manco]

Wiki him. The "bible" as you know it is a very small part of his history. Countless people in the field have taken a very objective, non-religious approach to researching him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

Material which refers to Jesus includes the books of the New Testament, statements from the early Church Fathers, hypothetical sources which many biblical scholars argue lie behind the New Testament, brief references in histories produced decades or centuries later by pagan and Jewish sources[24] such as Josephus, gnostic and other apocryphal documents, and early Christian creeds.[25] Many scholars believe not everything contained in the gospels to be historically reliable,[26][27][28][29][30][31] and elements whose historical authenticity is disputed include the two accounts of the nativity of Jesus, as well as the resurrection and certain details about the crucifixion.[32][33][34][35][36]

The evidence for the existence of Jesus all comes from after his lifetime.[37][38][39] As a result, some critics argue that Biblical scholars have created the historical Jesus in their own image.[40][41] A very small number of scholars believe the gospel accounts are so mythical in nature that nothing, not even the very existence of Jesus, can be determined from them.[42]

[STM]

A very famous Jewish writer who isn't important enough for me to remember his name...wrote about his death from Rome.

[Sekto Springs]

I picture heaven as one of those places where after the first like... thousand years, you'd get incredibly bored and just sleep 18 hours a day. You'd wake up for a little bit, realize how bored you are, and go back to sleep. Heaven is full of countless generations of sleeping people.

Plus, if you have reached heaven, your life is over... in more than way. For many, reaching heaven is the penultimate goal, and life as they know it is but a proving ground. So once you get there, you'd be so utterly content with your situation, that you would never bother doing anything every again. Complete and utter contentment means the end of personality, of action, of everything that defines a person. We exist to improve ourselves, to overcome obstacles in every day life, and work towards higher goals. If there are no problems, no obstacles, no goals, then there is literally nothing.

And Oddhunter, you're right. The texts documenting Jesus and his deeds are what encompasses the bible today (well, some of them), but not all of the individual components were wholly religious or biased, though their subjectivity is still highly debatable.

[Dixanadu]

My favourite part of God's divine plan was a hundred million years of nothing but giant monsters eating each other.

[STM]

Don't tell me if you were God you wouldn't have giant monsters warring it out.

[Dixanadu]

If I was God, I'd make myself some fucking friends and stop telling people how to live their lives.

Admittedly, 100 million years of dinosaurs would get boring after the first day. They don't do much.

[Sekto Springs]

Not if you're Dipstikk.

[Dixanadu]

At least in his case, he'd gradually make them more interesting.

[Sekto Springs]

Yeah. It's called evolution.

[Dixanadu]

I meant more along the lines of giving them far-out names, lovable personas and jetpacks.

Not turn them into chickens.

[Sekto Springs]

Hey. Chickens are delicious.

[STM]

Hey, we've been around for a few hundred thousand years. Maybe when he gets bored of us there'll be another meteor...

[Sekto Springs]

Speaking of death, Amy Winehouse just dropped dead today. Huh.

[STM]

Yeh, surprise surprise.

[Ridg3]

Heh, she's been killing herself for such a long time I'm not surprised that she kicked the bucket, I'm only surprised that it took her so long. Funny tid-bid, I was watching the Comedy Store and Patrick Kielty made a quip that Amy Winehouse died, when no-one laughed he said, "Hey, this material isn't going to be released for another three weeks... gotta keep it up to date." I love irony sometimes.

Anyways, I have no sympathy for her.

[Mr. Bungle]

Another addition to the 27 club. Not a very welcome one.

Can't say I was suprised she died, either. As Ridg3 said, shes been pretty much killing herself with the constant drugs and partying. Maybe she should have gone to rehab.


HOOOOOO!

[LDG519]

Yeah. It's called evolution.

to my knowledge the bible never states how he created us, only that he did, and it does say that the animals came before us so in my eyes evolution is quite possable, also imagine trying to explain evolution to stone age people, not easy.

[Sekto Springs]

If you were trying to make a point, I think I missed it.

[LDG519]

If you were trying to make a point, I think I missed it.

I wasn't really, I was just stating that I think evolution is possable, unlike most other people in the church I go to who think it can't be so.

[STM]

Show them a dinosaur fossil and be done with it.

[Wings of Fire]

I wasn't really, I was just stating that I think evolution is possable, unlike most other people in the church I go to who think it can't be so.

Actually the vast majority of religions in Europe accept evolution, showing that faith is not totally correlated with delusion.

The US, however, is not so lucky.

[STM]

My brother believes in the Genesis account of creation and refuses to accept any alternative, even to the point were he dismisses evolution. He's a bit younger than I am but it shows that some people get truly indoctrinated by Catholic belief.

[Wings of Fire]

I've been in Roman Catholic education all my life (Technically even now) and I've only ever had one RE teacher who believed that Genesis was factual.