RR - I'm not certain who you wish to convince or what you would like to change with your postulates, so I may or may not be changeable of mind. But, you seem like a very knowledgeable and reasonable person, so let me make a few inquiries of you about things in your post.

Originally Posted by RockyRaab
Jag and others. It is not the unbelievers who are afraid. Universal statement - you know this for sure, and how? Religion is there with all its promised comforts of the hereafter precisely because we as humans are afraid of death. So we try to soften it by making up stories of how wonderful it will all be after we die. Uh - not all of the "stories" are about "wonderful"

In actuality, it ought to be just the opposite. The reality is that when we die, we absolutely cease to exist. Universal statement - you know this for certain, and how? ALL the evidence says that we simply...stop. Really - - evidence? - - or absence of anything to the contrary, or ?? From "all" of it, please state some of the "evidence that we simply stop. The good news is that we will never know we are dead. It would be impossible to be aware of anything, including that we are unaware. It is in fact exactly like falling asleep: we do not notice the moment when we stop being conscious precisely because we are unconscious. Is there some irrefutable evidence of the above from someone who simply stopped and did not know that he/she was dead?

That should be a comfort. It is a comfort to me. I think that if I were in fact able to "look back down upon myself" from soul height and realize that I was dead, it would be a horrific trauma. I'm confident that won't be the case, for which I am deeply grateful. The sad thing is that all you believers won't know you were wrong and none of those promises will happen. I won't know I'm right and you won't know you're wrong. I think I will know if I am wrong - can you prove that I will not?

Lastly (and maybe I'll give this an everlasting rest, ha!) I will say that I am not an atheist. An atheist is an anti-religion zealot, just as eager to convert as the most fervent missionary. Not to sure about this definition - "the anti-religion zealot" part - for those I have known were content to say that God does not exist and to argue that strongly - but did no work toward having me join their team. Are any of the Atheists on the Campfire doing conversion work - might they speak up on this? I am not that. I am simply a non-believer who was raised in the most rigorous Catholic way - until I started asking what seemed to be rational questions. And got what were patently absurd answers, one whopper after another to "explain away" every earlier whopper. And it all unraveled. I'm still pointing out the absurdities. And slyly smiling.



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