Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Sunday's religious debate....death....

On another thread someone posted on Christian's incredible fear of death which got me to thinking, yes I know that's dangerous but it's also my perpetual state.

When I was a Catholic/Christian I had an incredible fear of death myself. I also had an incredible fear of a permanent disability that would take away my freedom. I don't know which cause me more anxiety, death or disability.

But once I became a Deist/Pagan the anxiety of death at least no longer existed. I wasn't anymore interested in dying than anybody else, nor did I have a death wish or want to commit suicide. I respected death but I no longer feared death. To me it was just crossing over to another realm no big deal.

The question is this if Christians believe that there is life after death and they are going to God and Jesus why are they so afraid of dying when the opportunity is presented? Why fight it! As a Christian (when I was one) I never could understand it. I still don't understand Christian's fear of death.

Okay, boys and girls have at it.

I fear death, and I'm a faithful Christian. I believe I'll go to Heaven, but the transition will no-doubt be very intense.
It's also hard to imagine leaving everything you've earned behind -- at least for me. Friends, possessions, everything.
Humans will always have a fear of death, no matter how big or small it is. That's just how I see it. *Shrug*

I'm agin' it.

Death is merely the last piece to the life cycle puzzle. It happens to every single living creature. When I die, my body will go back to the earth. Nothing more, nothing less. I find it hard to believe that anything else can occur, especially due to a higher power. However, I'd venture to say that its perfectly natural to fear death, as we have built in mechanisms for self-preservation. Our mind subconsciously 'tells' us not to die, or do anything dumb that would result in death.

most don't believe their own BS. Now if you strap a bomb to yourself and walk into a crowded market and blow yourself and others up, just to get a crack at 72 black eyed virgins, then you are a believer. Besides its , religion, just a tool for strong people to rule the weak.

How do you explain the many accounts of folks dying, and after being revived reporting that they were outside of their bodies, and can identify things that happened while they were dead and seemed to float above their bodies watching the events unfold. For example, a child died on the operating table, and was revived just in the nick of time. When she came to later, she asked if she could have the doll that was in the lamp. No one knew what she was talking about, and she explained that she had been floating above her body when she died, and saw a doll inside the lamp which was hanging from a cord from the ceiling of the operating room. When they checked, there was indeed a small dust-covered doll in there which was impossible to see from any position other than directly above it. It was one of the physicians who recorded the story.

I have heard of such accounts. It is possible that there are elements that we don't understand, this does not prove the exsistance of a god , heysoos, e-bunny, s-claus, the whole heirarchy of mans religion. It may have started out , religion , with good intentions but man has bastardized it to a point it is unrecognizable, other than a tool for repression. Some UFO's can't be explained either.

I've obviously no explanation with sufficient evidence to say it was or wasn't something supernatural. But, I feel there are vast amounts of knowledge we don't know regarding the power of the human mind and conscience, which is my theory on happenings like that. I just cannot bring myself to believe in a higher power.

For me, religion was designed by humans to explain things that they could not at that time due to limited knowledge, nothing more. I cannot accept blind faith.

I AGREE

I don't think it's so much the fear of death that christians are afraid of rather it's the fear of going to hell should they somehow not make the requirements of going to heaven. Most christians have guilty conciences, most know they haven't truly repented for their sins.

Where did God come from anyways??

Ask Aristotle, and he'll tell you that logic demands that there be one God, one prime mover, and that he is "uncreated being," i.e., existed before both time and space, and has no origin. Origin is only demanded of created things, not creators.

You may have a point there. I don't believe in sin any more so I no longer have a guilty conscience.

Agreed.

Agreed.

Where do you find your standard of right vs wrong? Is it just what feels right/wrong at the time? Most likely, if that's it, you are just going by your early formation, which was likely based on what Christianity teaches is right and wrong. What if you didn't have that formation? What would be right and wrong then?

on paper i'm a christian(not catholic, the other variant),
last time i was in church was may 2000 when i got confirmed, the next time will be for my funeral.
as you probably have guessed i'm not religous.
anyways...

i see death as the reward.
im not suicidal or seeks death in any way, i just see it as going to bed after a long hard day, or the end of a hard project etc at work.
the end. nothing more, nothing less.
just the end.

Well there is no doubt that the Christian Code probably still has some foundation but Bushido, Yin and Yang, the Witch's Rede, the Sacred Feminine Principle probably are my main codes now.

Bushido:

"Honor before Life."

I learned in the military that honor is the most important thing even more important that life itself. Before I do anything I always ask myself is this honorable, if it is I do it. If it turns out not to be I take personal responsibility and live with the consequence of my actions. I have no regrets or guilty conscience.

Yin and Yang:

Balance in everything you do. Harmony is happiness. No guilty conscience.

Witch's Rede:

"If thee harm none, (including your self) do as you will."

"What goes out comes bank three times worst."

I have followed the Witch's Rede even though I'm not a Witch and so far it's kept me out of trouble. No guilty conscience.

Sacred Feminine Principle:

Women and men are sacred. The principle goes beyond that but that's the jest of it. No guilty conscience.

I hope this helps and as you can see Pagans do have a Code they live by. The biggest thing is that we remove guilty conscience and heaven and hell from our way of life. Most Pagans I know are some of the happy. sexy, and full of life people I know.

derby_dude;

Friend, I suspect that you and I could have some rather interesting conversations re: philosophy and religion.

Might have to, at some point.....