(October 30, 2013 at 6:30 pm)Zazzy Wrote:

(October 30, 2013 at 6:25 pm)Lion IRC Wrote: Yep!
They're easy to spot aren't they?

Rich man. Camel. Eye of a needle....
Sound familiar?

Lion, I've always wondered about that verse. There are many rich men who do great things with their money, and many people die with money they leave to their children, or to organizations, yadda, yadda. Is this simply a proscription against greed and selfishness, or is there more to it, IYO? What about Bill Gates?

Note that it doesn't say impossible for rich people to enter the Kingdom.
...just harder.
Why? Because the greater the wealth, the greater the responsibility.
The poor cant do much to feed the poor.
But a person who has great (unused) wealth has to account to others why they did nothing.

(October 30, 2013 at 7:16 pm)Lion IRC Wrote:

(October 30, 2013 at 6:30 pm)Zazzy Wrote: Lion, I've always wondered about that verse. There are many rich men who do great things with their money, and many people die with money they leave to their children, or to organizations, yadda, yadda. Is this simply a proscription against greed and selfishness, or is there more to it, IYO? What about Bill Gates?

Note that it doesn't say impossible for rich people to enter the Kingdom.
...just harder.
Why? Because the greater the wealth, the greater the responsibility.
The poor cant do much to feed the poor.
But a person who has great (unused) wealth has to account to others why they did nothing.

No, the rich and poor will not enter a fictional afterlife, be it yours, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or ancient Egyptian. There is no afterlife. Life after we die will be the same as it was before we were born.

I do however think it is harder for far too many wealthy people to have empathy for those who don't, but there is no magic or god required to understand that.

But that does not mean I hate all wealth, I simply hate jadedness and greed.

I do not advocate all poor as a loyalty oath or all rich as a loyalty oath and certainly I do not advocate loyalty to poofdaddy claims no one in human history has ever proven as even a remote possibility.