Heaven & Hell

[Neo]

I mean, people can do and think whatever the hell they want. But to have such a bleak outlook on the world, thinking that nothing exists after death and that we're all just part of some large coincedence and that our faith is nothing more than a product of fear for our mortality; as logically as that all may sound, what's the point in thinking that way?

What I'm saying is that there is a misconception that people who don't believe in God have a bleak outlook on life. While that is true for some, it isn't true for a great many others. Just look at www.randi.org. You have a lot of skeptics there who lead very happy lives. They believe in advancing the human race and reaching new frontiers. They don't consider their own death to be of much consequence. Afterall if you're dead then you're not around to care that you're dead. They have a very positive outlook. They're also free from the need to believe in a God in order to lead a happy and moral existence. Because there are people who believe in God and the morality that comes from that, they can't understand how people who don't believe in God can be moral. If they did understand then they wouldn't need God. This is why atheists are so distrusted.

[DarkMaster]

Originally Posted by Neo

What I'm saying is that there is a misconception that people who don't believe in God have a bleak outlook on life. While that is true for some, it isn't true for a great many others. Just look at www.randi.org. You have a lot of skeptics there who lead very happy lives. They believe in advancing the human race and reaching new frontiers. They don't consider their own death to be of much consequence. Afterall if you're dead then you're not around to care that you're dead. They have a very positive outlook. They're also free from the need to believe in a God in order to lead a happy and moral existence. Because there are people who believe in God and the morality that comes from that, they can't understand how people who don't believe in God can be moral. If they did understand then they wouldn't need God. This is why atheists are so distrusted.

That's wicked though, I got no problem with that. To be totally comfortable with your mortality and just accept death and live your life, I think that's cool. I'm not saying that if you don't believe in God, you have a bleak outlook on life. I'm just trying to establish my concern for the people who are so belligerent when the topic of God or Heaven/Hell comes up. Like the people who turn their noses up to religious folk, thinking they know everything about life and death, and that anyone who believes in a God is a fool praising some make-believe fantasy character.

I think the group of people I'm trying to single out are referred to as "Emo" or whatever the hell categorical phrase people are churning out these days. Like I used to know kids in school that we're all "there is no God, religion is stupid, dur hur I'm cool", you know what I'm saying, right? I just can't stand that kind of self-righteous attitude, where people create a set of beliefs to make themselves standout from others over some paranoid fear of being common.

But anyway, that's enough philisophical bullcrap for one night, methinks. I usually don't like to get into these discussions.

[MrCoffee]

Okay I may be only 16 but I think about theorys and such alot.
God: I do not beleive in an actual religion, I think that there is some immortal form of energy that is everywhere around us, and people who have died are part of this energy, and when you think you see someone out of the corner of your eye but they arnt there that would be some of that energy, I think all humans have a connection of some sort
Heaven: Im still trying to decide if I beleive in rebirth but other than that I bleive that your reward is another world of immortality.
Hell: I dno havnt reallly come to a conclusion yet...

[Teuthida]

I don't believe in Heaven and Hell in the Judeo-Christian sense. Far too many loopholes for my liking. I would like to believe in parallel dimensions which might explain why there are ghosts and other such things. Perhaps demons and angels hail from some place like that. As for an afterlife...no. Heaven and Hell seem like a boogieman. Seems incongruous to me to withhold from doing "wrong" things simply for fear of going to Hell when you die. Should have a better moral sense instead. And then the whole repenting thing. Can get away with murder (literally) and be forgiven by just repenting for it. Don't like the idea of life experiences being a scorecard for where you go later. For me, when you die, you're worm food. The concept of an afterlife is there because people are afraid of death and they feel comforted by praying and being good thinking they'll be rewarded when they die.

[BlueFire]

I don't know if I believe in an afterlife. I guess death would be too dull if there wasn't one. It's a nice idea and all... but I don't know if I believe it in it for sure.



Do you guys believe in a soul?

[Typhoid]

It's wierd to think about. Just thinking how you wont be thinking anymore. A coma with no way to wake up, and no voices to hear.

Personally, it's not something I spend time thinking of.

Everything is a nice thought. Heavan, re-incarnation.

I think those were "created" to not freak people out before they die. An old lady on her death bed would be depressed and tourmented. However, if she believes in heavan, she is "going to a better place."


I went through this phase where I tried to explain what I think. Which is we just re-live our lives. To us, it is a constant loop of existence. We make the same mistakes, perform the same actions, and live the same lives. To me this (oddly enough, in my twisted mind) explains deja vu's.

I think once we die, we're born again. Not as someone else, but as ourselves.

PS. Edited for self-contradiction in my own mind.

[Jonbo298]

Yeah, I have a hard time thinking that there isn't something on the other side. Just..you can't just go from thought to "poof" nothing. Because there HAS to be something on the other end. It just doesn't feel right to non-exist anymore.

I know what ya mean Typhoid