After life

[Tim]

OK, we have had a thread discussing whether there is a God or not. But we have never talked about an after life. I'm curious to see what everyone thinks.

Is there a Hell (Lake of fire as described in the Bible)?
Is there a Heaven?
Will we spend eternity in one of those two places?

 

[Bagel]

hell i would see not as eternal physical torture (ie lake of fire) but eteranl mental anquish in a pitch black darknss of complete solitude for eterntity to contemplate ones misdeeds.

but personally i'm a little foggy on the afterlife..part of me beleives in the possibility of reincarnation... the other part is still rooted in the concept of heaven and hell

 

[quarterican]

I've come to the conclusion that I'll figure it out when I get there.

There are several possibilities:
1. Utopia/Heaven/Valhalla/or similar
2. Hell/Gehenna/Pits of fire/Eternal Damnation/Suffering/or similar
3. Reincarnation as another person
4. Reincarnation as an animal or inanimate object or whatever
5. Nothing

Those are pretty good chances. I mean, out of those five choices alone, it's only a 1/5 chance that you'll get something bad. I'm feeling lucky.

 

[TheOriginalJames]

When one of you can give me concrete proof that there is either a heaven or a hell, let alone a god or a satan, then I'll believe in the afterlife.

As for now, I'm gonna drink and smoke.

 

[OUZBnd]

Hmm, i'm starting to sway more towards believing in the after life, and here is my reasoning.

If God is real, and the bible truely is the work of God, then there are two alternatives.

Believe and repent - go to heaven.
Do not believe/repent - go to hell.

If God is NOT real, and the bible truely is NOT the work of God. Then there are two means to the same end.

Believe/repent- Life ends, nothing happens.
Disbelieve - Life ends nothing happens.

So being the mathematically person that I am, Its only wise to chose the options that yeilds the best percentage of "good". If I believe and repent, I have a 50% shot of making it to heaven. If I dont believe or repent, then i've got a 0% chance of making it.

EDIT: of course, all of this is based on Christianity beliefs.

 

[Homer]

When one of you can give me concrete proof that there is either a heaven or a hell, let alone a god or a satan, then I'll believe in the afterlife.

As for now, I'm gonna drink and smoke.

what do drinking and smoking have to do with anything .

 

[Homer]

believe in God yeah i guess , believe in religion like in a church no way.

 

[Tim]

I guess I brought this up because I was thinking about it and it just doesn't make any sense what so ever.... Lets do the math on eternity, shall we?

Let's say that the average person lives to 70 years old...
That's 2,207,520,000 seconds of life...

Now for the sake of argument lets say that you rejected God and you are doomed in the lake of fire for all of eternity.
ETERNITY... can any of you even come close to imagining how long that is?

Even if you were doomed to 1 trillion years of damnation for every second you lived that would only be 2,207,520,000,000,000,000,000 years. Still not even remotely close. Times that by another trillion and another trillion and another and we still aren't even getting close... Not even 1 trillionth of 1%

Now I ask you, how can any God who is considered Just and fair consider that even on the same plane as fair? Eternal damnation for not believing in him... If there was a God and this was his law, it would be the single most selfish act in the universe.

If you have ever spent the time and tried to wrap your mind around eternity, you would begin to understand how ludicrous eternal life/death is.

 

[Tim]

So being the mathematically person that I am, Its only wise to chose the options that yeilds the best percentage of "good". If I believe and repent, I have a 50% shot of making it to heaven. If I dont believe or repent, then i've got a 0% chance of making it.

EDIT: of course, all of this is based on Christianity beliefs.

But based on what the bible tells you, you wouldn't go to heaven anyway. You have to believe in your heart of hearts, your soul of souls that this is true. So by hedging your bet, you will end up a loser anyway... at least by what the Bible says.

 

[OUZBnd]

But based on what the bible tells you, you wouldn't go to heaven anyway. You have to believe in your heart of hearts, your soul of souls that this is true. So by hedging your bet, you will end up a loser anyway... at least by what the Bible says.

Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

I believe in my heart. So how do I lose? I'm not here to change anyones beleifs.

Lets look up at your "eternity" stats and thinking build off of them. It's scary to think that an 'etenity' could be spent in Hell, yes. According to the bible, "...but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die." cont.. "..through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men.."

So God made a simple plan to rescue all man. Jesus. According to the bible it is very simple to make it to heaven. Believe in your heart and Repent and you will be saved. With this very simple task, why not take the chance? What is there to lose? Believe in your heart and Repent and you will be saved. - Thats ALL you have to do.

Now back to my math... if you don't believe and repent, then what is there to gain? The odds are simple.. %50 chance to %0 of heaven to hell.

I can honestly say up until this moment in my life i've never looked at it that way. But it seems to all make sense right now for some reason.

EDIT: and Yes, it seems crazy that God would send you to hell for not doing this, being the "compasionate" man that he is. And its easy to say he wouldn't, but why take the risk? I'll play the odds.

 

[lemon]

the answer to an after life is there is one. we cannot know what it is, we can merely fantasize what it is. only because of the law of the conservation of mass. "mass is neither created nor destroyed. it just changes forms." so, yeah, our atoms will be here.. but what about the consiousness?

enter Religion;

live a life, believe what you want, die

exuent Religion;

to me, i think about it sure.. but that doesnt mean i know the answers to everything. neither does anyone else, or any book, myth or passed-down oral story.

imho

 

[OUZBnd]

Regardless, i'm not here to argue if there is or insn't an after life. All i'm saying is that statistically speaking it's better to believe.

 

[IntruderLS1]

Werd.

I've been finding lately that I didn't understand my own religion (an likely will find this out again multipul times in my life) like I thought I did. I've always been a Christian, but I've been studying more lately, and now I'm honestly convinced.

It's easy to get tied up in the subtlties of the text at a glance, but if you spend a little time with it, it actually makes a lot of sense, and is very logically laid out.

 

[SilentEyz]

Oz Reminded me of A Quote I once Read.. And no I couldnt tell you who said it

" People always ask me why I believe in God.. I tell them, because in the end I have nothing to lose, and possibly everything to Gain"

 

[Haus]

i said this before and i'll say it again. i believe in god but not a certain denomination. i want to chose my own beliefs. all i know is that i believe in god and iMO thats all that matters

my parents never got me baptized. my mom is catholic my dad is lutheran. according to the catholic religion they dont even recognize them as being married cause my father was married and divorced twice before my mom.

but what do we have to do to be Bad in gods eyes. what would he concider bad

alot of people say that most arent even going to heaven. when the world ends we will inherit the earth. and we will all be perfect. the way we were supost to be.

or something like that. lol i have no idea.

 

[Maritxu]

I believe in God and I think here is something after death... I don't believe in Hell though.

 

[Maritxu]

maybe this could be interesting: Near Death Experience - Google Video

 

[White2000GT]

I believe in an afterlife. As for concrete evidence, well, I guess you pretty much have to be dead before you can know for sure. And what good would it do you then? You'd be dead! So I'll just take my chances and TRY to live a good life in hopes that there is something afterwards other than just rotting in a grave somewhere.

 

[sharpies]

As most of you will already know, I do not believe that there is anything after life, once that little spark of electricity that keeps you ticking over is gone, so are you...

... but as I have said before, since this is the only life that you have, it is the most important thing that you have. You really need to look after it because there are no other chances.

So live life to the fullest.

Allan

 

[Peter Parka]

No, I don't believe in an after life because there isn't a shed of evidence that it exists. To be honest, I couldn't really care less, if there is, there is, nothing I can do about it so I'll just get on with enjoying the life I have now thanks.