[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by davem

But that's not the argument here. My problem is with the idea of taking a book & simply believing it, of constructing complex theories & fantasies about what happens after we die. From the perspective of eternity there is only 'now' & there will only ever be 'now'. This idea that something wholly 'other' will happen to us after our bodies die, that we have to take account of what we will be or not be after that happens, that we have to do certain things now in order to attain something 'good' then, or that we have to live now in fear of some terrible fate that may await us then, is simply running away from 'now'. In other words this desire/obsession with what happens after we die is what stops us really being alive now.

Cause and effect... that's how this world works. People save money for DECADES before they retire- because of the adverse consequences and because they know they'll need it. As for the Afterlife being "wholly other", I wouldn't call that a truly Christian dogma. What we shall live in the Afterlife will, in my view, be similar to and much the same as what we have now- only BETTER, more perfect.

Belief is 'negative' because it effectively gets between us & reality. We look at the world through 'belief-coloured lenses' & don't see it, experience it, as it really is.

Tinted lenses... or corrective lenses. I would say that belief acts much the way glasses do: they correct our vision, and bring things into a more correct focus. Yes, we see the world differently- but we are also better off.

It attempts classify & quantify the universe, & ends up trying to break it up & force it into pigeon-holes. Hence, with a belief system as dualistic as Christianity (or Islam), which effectively has only two pigeon-holes: 'Good' & 'Evil' you end up trying to force everything into one or the other, & if something will not fit easily into the 'Good' pigeon-hole then it is forced into the 'Evil' one - hence LMP's attempt to account for mythological creatures by assigning their origin to 'fallen Angels' of 'demons'.

Humans in general like to pigeonhole things... and it's not necessarily a good tendency. Quite frankly, I would say that Good and Evil cannot be pigeonholed, because both coexist in the same people and situations. We all contain good and we all contain evil. Bad situations can have good side-effects, and the best of situations can have negative impact.

As far as classifying and quantifying the universe goes, religion and science are more alike than either sometimes wishes to think in this matter. It's really only a difference of systems.