Great Schism Hits British Atheism Over New Temple

[statsman]

I've always had the impression that Christs teachings rejected a lot of the old testament. Never having studied theology, I have got limited intuitive information, but can you tell me why the whole of the old testament is incorporated into the Chrisian bible, when so much of it is at odds with Christs sermon on the Mount.?

I think Christianity got a Buy One, Get One Free OT/NT deal from Amazon.

[ergo2]

Now if they were Irish atheists they would of course have a split

[bokuden]

There's an interview with Alain De Botton on the podcast section of the RTE radio 1 Pat Kenny today page.

Very interesting stuff.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/

And what's wrong with building spaces for contemplation anyway? Sounds very sensible and humane to me.

[MauriceColgan]

I was in the meditation Chapel by Elvis Presley's birthplace in Tupelo Mississippi. Had a good think about Elvis's beautiful Gospel music, and how I nearly believed the message in it back in 1956. Now I just enjpoy the versatility of Elvis's wonderful voice at it's best.
But boy was he some Sinner! LOL.

[SideysGhost]

Yeah, mad stuff altogether, but it doesn't really change the point I'm trying to make - if animals don't go to heaven, and humans evolved from earlier animals, then there must have been a time when early humans went to heaven for the first time.

I'm trying to get a believer to clarify this issue for me. Where's TFM when you need him ..

Like most things when it comes to religion, the literature is all over the place. It's deeply unclear - and the "holy books" are riddled with contradictions - what happens after physical death. At different points in the books of the Abrahamic faiths and the traditions of all the various and numerous sects thereof your guess is as good as anyone else's whether any or all of the following, plus a few other options, may be true:

a) After death you "sleep" unaware until the Last Day, upon which everybody who has ever lived will all be resurrected and judged all at once;
b) After death there is some period of reflection and/or cleansing before going on to heaven/hell;
c) Some branches of Judaism hold that particularly bad people simply cease to exist, they have no real "hell" concept - being deprived of an eternity with god is punishment enough apparently;
d) god and heaven being outside the universe and hence outside time the question makes no sense anyway (but if this is the case what is the point in praying for the dead in the here-and-now if purgatory/heaven isn't here-and-now?)

Never mind the arguments whether your physical body (or some "perfected" facsimile thereof) is involved in this afterlife, or if it's just incorporeal sentient energy floating about for eternity. Which sounds blisteringly dull to me but I guess it takes all sorts.

I don't know if the Romans ever bothered to reconcile this stuff with their acceptance that evolution might be true. They're probably just using the auld mental reservation, winging it and hoping nobody notices.

[EvotingMachine0197]

Like most things when it comes to religion, the literature is all over the place. It's deeply unclear - and the "holy books" are riddled with contradictions - what happens after physical death. At different points in the books of the Abrahamic faiths and the traditions of all the various and numerous sects thereof your guess is as good as anyone else's whether any or all of the following, plus a few other options, may be true:

a) After death you "sleep" unaware until the Last Day, upon which everybody who has ever lived will all be resurrected and judged all at once;
b) After death there is some period of reflection and/or cleansing before going on to heaven/hell;
c) Some branches of Judaism hold that particularly bad people simply cease to exist, they have no real "hell" concept - being deprived of an eternity with god is punishment enough apparently;
d) god and heaven being outside the universe and hence outside time the question makes no sense anyway (but if this is the case what is the point in praying for the dead in the here-and-now if purgatory/heaven isn't here-and-now?)

Never mind the arguments whether your physical body (or some "perfected" facsimile thereof) is involved in this afterlife, or if it's just incorporeal sentient energy floating about for eternity. Which sounds blisteringly dull to me but I guess it takes all sorts.

I don't know if the Romans ever bothered to reconcile this stuff with their acceptance that evolution might be true. They're probably just using the auld mental reservation, winging it and hoping nobody notices.

SW, if you consider all the religions and sects over the last five millenia, there are probably thousands of variations of what happens after death. But they all set out to achieve one thing, to mitigate against the fear, pain and sadness that surrounds death. Humans just can't deal with the idea of a loved one spending eternity in a wormery.

[Gurdiev]

SW, if you consider all the religions and sects over the last five millenia, there are probably thousands of variations of what happens after death. But they all set out to achieve one thing, to mitigate against the fear, pain and sadness that surrounds death. Humans just can't deal with the idea of a loved one spending eternity in a wormery.

Or being snuffed out like a candle .