[luke warm]

Al_U_Card, on Jul 20 2006, 09:32 AM, said:

luke warm, on Jul 20 2006, 05:47 AM, said:

... life is: existence in God's presence... death is: existence out of God's presence

The more science discovers, the more we realize that, as intimated in the Bible, that the "void" contains everything. (It is the logical sum of all things resulting in absolute balance.)

I have no fear of death, nor expectation of "life" after death. The universe (or our actual manifestation in the multiverse) is as much a part of me as I of it. That I exist and my consciousness is present is sufficient "proof" that I will continue to exist and that my conciousness will persist in one form or another. Even should it "cease to exist" this would only mean to me that it contained the sum of all things that could make it up.

We are but students in a never-ending course of study. We learn and graduate to the next lesson or we fail and repeat until we do.

well it's obvious to me that you have faith in your beliefs (we all do, it seems)... but if by this section:

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Even Jesus "believed" in reincarnation.....as did the "Christians" until they decided that this was not a good way to intimidate the masses ergo Heaven and Hell.....

if you are referring to the teachings of carpocrates (whose followers were called carpocratioans - this is the earliest belief system that comports to your post that i can find), i think i'll pass (although they did have some intersting "Lord's suppers", and some intriguing views on marriage - who'd have thunk it, wife swapping circa 2nd century ad)

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And brother, is intimidate the masses ever right - speaking of cruelty and immorality, how moral is it to sit a bunch of 5, 6, and 7-year olds on a hard bench in a stuffy church and have the preacher (father figure) tell them that they will be thrown into a fiery pit forever if they don't do what they are told.

yes, i'd certainly say such a person (and such teachings) leave a lot to be desired...

[Al_U_Card]

Winstonm, on Jul 20 2006, 12:22 PM, said:

this all stemmed from the irrational concept of a stern, judgemental, vindictive god whose wrath was to be feared.

I believe in other hands, under other circumstances, this is referred to as the "bogey-man" method. It works for (on) children just as the souped-up version works on adults. Force is force whether it be psychological, moral, physical or metaphysical.....