[thechat] Mythology was comics

[isaac]

> afterlife and in your studies you've probably come across that. Is it
> easier for me to think of Heaven as a nice place where I'll be reunited
> with people who have gone before as opposed to returning my physical body
> to the earth and that's that -- yes, it is, but I still believe there is
> more to life than this life.

it's also easier to sometimes ignore reality. i'd love to believe that i'll
meet up with all my lost cats after i do, but that ain't gonna happen.

ever seen rowan atkinson's skit where he plays the devil welcoming the day's
entrants to hell? it's pretty funny. "welcome to the christians - sorry, the
jews were right..."


i don't doubt that you're happy to think there is an afterlife (and if i
could feel good about suspending my trust in reality...), but i don't
personally think much of false hope.

> Ahh, philosophical this evening

no, just making crap arguments. :p

> may be heaven? It's hard to describe, but it's awful and it's worse than
> anything you can imagine and it never ends. Is it a lake of fire with

that might be church then...

> I believe then that God can also choose our hell.

so, if everyone's hell is different, you're not catching up with all the
other hell-goers, right? lonely place, etc?

> What came first? The chicken or the egg? I know you're trying to
> understand, but this is a matter of faith. Whether it's zealous

why not have faith that the universe just exists? if you can have faith in
the chicken, you can have faith in the egg.

> Why not? Because you find it completely implausible that the
> earth could be
> formed in one, 24-hour day? If you insist on a 24-hour day reality, then,
> no, it is not possible. If you believe that time as we know it did not
> exist until /we/ invented it, then perhaps in God's day, the
> earth was created.

my assertion was that the entire universe (stars, etc) were created in the
same period of time as a single planet. bit silly, eh?

> Yes, that is hopelessly sad, but humanity has never been kind to it's
> neighbors. We have been given the instruction book, that's all.

these books of instruction have brought more violence and intolerance to
this world than anything else. i feel as though we'd be better off without
them.

(what's the general viewpoint of americans on the taliban? they're executing
women for choosing to get an education. that sucks hard.)


(in ref to a question relating to the beliefs of scientologists being
far-fetched):
> Not really.

so you think that it's likely that an alien called xenu, 75 million years
ago, used earth as a prison, before detonating h-bombs and killing everyone?
(http://www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm)

> annoying. That's probably one of the hardest things for me to reconcile
> with my faith -- Christianity is /not/ tolerant. The New Testament is not
> as strident as the Old Testament, but we are not to sit idly by and just

this is a generalisation, but on average, i've found xtians to be the most
judgemental and insensitive people i've ever met. (my business partner has
religious beliefs and is one of a few exceptions). religion has destroyed my
wife's extended family. whole sections of te family have been alienated
because their religion (don't know which branch of xtianity) insists that
they preach/recruit.

their blind faith makes them unable to see the damage they are causing.

> Faith is a comfort. God is comforting. Horrible things happen because we
> are human and not in control of our environment at all times. God will
> provide. All we can do is accept our humanity and try to do better
> tomorrow, which, BTW arrived about 30 minutes ago -- g'nite.

i feel comfortable. i avoid enacting horrible deeds. i am in control of my
environment as much as is possible. i strive to do better tomorrow. i need
not have blind faith to do so.


only stir from religion recently in australia - new archbishop of sydney
(george pell, i think his name is) is refusing communion to homosexual
followers. yay for tolerance.


(funnily enough, i live in Adelaide, AKA the city of churches - we're known
for our architectural churches (there aren't many, and they are pitiful
compared with the massive ones in europe). i honestly don't know how long
that name can last with the closing down of many of them. others having to
combine to avoid shutting down, etc. when combining, many have to accept
differences between beliefs of each, and these differences may only lead to
alienating more church-goers.)


isaac