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

Would love to. Maybe we might meet at a Campfire confab. Maybe BCBrian can get the northwest one going. I'd like to talk philosophy and religion with Brian too.

I don't fear my death. Hell, I don't even have any strong feelings attached to it. When my ticket is punched, I'll take whatever ride comes after. Not much I can do about it.

Permanent disablility is an entirely different issue. Being laid up without my freedom is probably my worst fear. I figure death wouldn't come too long after.

George

You don't need to have religion to develop a moral framework. Read about 2000 years of philosophy. Most of what Christianity teaches as morality was adopted from previous religions or even pagan philosophies.

Christian tradition itself is full of conflicting moral codes. Look at the new and old testaments. Or the behavior of most Christians versus the teachings and examples of Jesus.

Well said.

Must be "fun" to live without hope of any kind.

Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria!

I don't fear death, it's the dying I fear.

I don't experience feelings of guilt, Jesus Christ took that load and paid the debt. (Where's the little yellow fellow jumping up and down and shouting Glory, Hallelujah hiding at?)

I don't have religion, I have a relationship with the Saviour.

I don't have a huge list of rules and regulations, I have the perfect law of liberty applied to my soul through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Don't know what some of you guys have, but that's what the Lord gave me.

The idea of am after life was invented to keep humans from realizeing that what ever is done now, by them or any one else makes no differance in the grand scheme (if there is one) We are here till we die. Then who knows, maybe we go to the happy hunting ground, maybe we get reborn and have to put up with all the BS again, Maybe we get the 72 virgins. Maybe nothing, we rot and go back to earth.

Heaven- Hell , if you don't do this you won't get that. the idea of a bluff is to get you to question your hand ( poker). This is the basis of fear mongering the religous organizations hold over there members. They for ever question the hand dealt them, but seldom will fold. Play your good hands hard and dump the poor ones immediately, lest you be tempted to play with crap. life is like a poker game in many respects.

Why would a strong person need a tool to rule a weak person?

Sounds to me more like it'd be the weak person who needed a tool to rule a strong person.

Or perhaps a small group (a State, for example) that would need a tool to rule a large group (an entire population, for example).

I live with a myriad of hope, and of hopes. Just without at least one delusion.

In my experience, there are two groups of Christians with regard to death.

In one group, you have the folks who believe that after they die, God will look at their lives and, according to some heuristic criterion (may vary from denomination to denomination) will decide whether to send them to Heaven or to Hell. These are the people who hope they're going to Heaven when they die.

In the other group, you have the folks who believe that there's some kind of a choice one can make during one's life that will force God--bound by the promises he has made--to make the Heaven/Hell decision in a predetermined way. These people know they're going to Heaven when they die.

If you get a guy from each of these groups and get them talking about death and the afterlife, you'll have an entertaining time. The folks from the first group think the folks from the second group are blasphemously arrogant, and the folks from the second group think the folks from the first group are taking an inconceivable risk.

My objective is not to declare which group is right and which group is wrong (although I'm solidly in the second group, myself) but simply to say that it makes sense for the folks from the first group to be a bit nervous about death, since it forever eliminates any further chances to influence God in the direction they want him to decide, while it doesn't make as much sense for folks in the second group to be nervous about death unless they're procrastinating the big choice.

Can next week's religious debate be about coveting thy neighbor's wife??

As for permanent disability...I don't relish the thought, but if I did become permanently disabled, I'd assume the reason was because God had a job for me that I wouldn't be able to do if I weren't permanently disabled. From my point of view, this life here on earth is such a small part of the entire experience that in the big picture what happens here is of little import.

Frame it and post it.

I remember asking that question when I was about 10 years old. Never did get an answer.

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If my wife knew I did post it,we'd be right back to the death debate.

Derby,

A couple of questions:

Why if you are not a Christian now do you assume you ever were?

By what standard are all Christians afraid of death?

What is this "other realm" after death you believe in and what is your authority for it? This "other realm"-is it for eternity? What goes? Your soul or....do you have a soul? If for eternity do you think it's "no big deal?"

And, why do you raise the question-thread-at all? For an accountant who lives in the world of irrepresable mathematical figures, you are "hopin' and pokin'" my friend.

Gdv

The ultimate delusion is blind faith in the unproven idea that there is no God. The most religious people I have ever seen are atheists. The mental gymastics they go through to try and drag logic into their emotions is amusing.

I wish they'd just be honest and admit they have chosen to believe that there is no God. There is no hypocrisy or falsehood in that. It is a leap of faith to go from what can be observed to the status of any supernatural being, for ANYONE, regardless if they beleive in God or not.

The difference with real Christians--not the "on paper" types mentioned earlier, is that real Christians base their faith on a personal relationship with God. Because I know God personally, trying to tell me He doesn't exists is as nonsensical as telling me that my parents, wife, and kids don't exist.

To be blunt, several on here who claimed to have been Christians in the past obviously weren't. Oh, they may have gone to church and talked the talk, but it's extremely unlikely they ever had a personal relationship with God, and that personal relationship with God is what defines a true Christian. And if you want to know how a real Christian views death, read Shootists post.

I also find it amusing that the "logcial" reasons so many use to reject God are emotion-based. Like "if God were so good then why do bad things happen?" Their thought seems to be that because they can't fully understand God or agree with everything that happens; then God must not exist.

So maybe someone them can explain exactly what understanding and liking something have to do with the truth of that thing's existence?

Never said there was no God.

Only that I'm not delusional enough to believe in religion.

The ultimate delusion is blind faith in the unproven idea that there is no God. The most religious people I have ever seen are atheists. The mental gymastics they go through to try and drag logic into their emotions is amusing.
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A brain and it's abilty to reason and exhibit logic is real and something you can truly identify and grab hold of. Blind faith is merely that. If it comforts you to reverse the mental gymnastics from the one of faith to the man of reason, have at it. If you say it a million times to yourself, even you might someday truly believe it.