According to Christians this life is a test though. Be a good little boy/girl, say your prayers, do as God says, and he will let you into heaven. If not, then its off to the firey pits of hell. Do as I say or else be punished is the party line and it worked for many centuries when we humans had the morality and social awareness of children.
But humanity is slowly growing up and taking a better look at the world around themselves, and slowly but surely we are becoming a little bit less the child, passing through the teenage years, and maybe not before too long we will emerge as young adults and all of us will start to take full responsibility for our actions. At which point gods become completely obsolete as humans will not longer feel the need to blame/praise something else for their own actions.
Welsh Cake - you hit one of the fundamental flaws of religion on the head with your comment about people mourning for dead people. True believers should have a party in celebration when someone they know dies. They have gone to candyland and are now having the time of their life... or death. Of course, unless you believe that person has gone to hell, then mourning i suppose would be appropriate, but on the other hand, who are we to argue with God's decision? If you have lived a good life as well then you also can look forward to joining your friend/family member in the afterlife, doing whatever it is that dead spirits do for the rest of eternity.
This to my mind is the single biggest flaw (besides the joke that is the Bible and Yahweh/Jesus/Holy Spirit himself/themselves) with the whole thing, and a true believer should behave more like the Abbot of Ampleforth, who when told by Cardinal Basil Hume that he was dying the abbot was delighted and said: "Congratulations! That’s brilliant news. I wish I was coming with you."
Was he a true believer? Certainly seems like it. Any theists care to comment?
But humanity is slowly growing up and taking a better look at the world around themselves, and slowly but surely we are becoming a little bit less the child, passing through the teenage years, and maybe not before too long we will emerge as young adults and all of us will start to take full responsibility for our actions. At which point gods become completely obsolete as humans will not longer feel the need to blame/praise something else for their own actions.
Welsh Cake - you hit one of the fundamental flaws of religion on the head with your comment about people mourning for dead people. True believers should have a party in celebration when someone they know dies. They have gone to candyland and are now having the time of their life... or death. Of course, unless you believe that person has gone to hell, then mourning i suppose would be appropriate, but on the other hand, who are we to argue with God's decision? If you have lived a good life as well then you also can look forward to joining your friend/family member in the afterlife, doing whatever it is that dead spirits do for the rest of eternity.
This to my mind is the single biggest flaw (besides the joke that is the Bible and Yahweh/Jesus/Holy Spirit himself/themselves) with the whole thing, and a true believer should behave more like the Abbot of Ampleforth, who when told by Cardinal Basil Hume that he was dying the abbot was delighted and said: "Congratulations! That’s brilliant news. I wish I was coming with you."
Was he a true believer? Certainly seems like it. Any theists care to comment?
A finite number of monkeys with a finite number of typewriters and a finite amount of time could eventually reproduce 4chan.
