I was talking to Irina about Judaism today. Apparently, the Jewish people have no such belief as Hell and no such person as Satan in their faith. She said everyone goes to Heaven
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Well ... the Baha'i faith has a similar thing (no hell, just heaven - your spiritual preparation in this life affects how you exist in your 'next life', which isn't a life in the sense of reincarnation ... la la la. heheh)
Anyway. Just trying to say there's a huge number of players in the football game of religion. Have you ever looked into Buddhism, Islam, or Zoroastrianism? (That last one might be hard to track down. lol)
I think I'm a little more comfortable going with my own made up one. At least that way, it has the flexibility of changing when needed.
I did look at Baha'i on some website, and there were a couple of rules that just didn't sit right with me. I've only superficially looked into Buddhism, and what I've read, I've liked. I think Buddha and Jesus were saying basically the same thing just from a slightly different angle. Islam, to me, seems too focused on the surface and obedience and rules to be anything that'll warrant spiritual growth, but again, that is really only my superficial surface view of it.
This is the first I've heard of Zoroastrianism. :) Do you get to wear a black cape and a nifty black hat while making Z's all over the place with your sword? ;)
I don't think the pagans believed in Heaven or an afterlife either. Their gods just liked to seemingly screw with the puny mortals and watch them die.
I don't think people were just good and in line for the good of it though, were they? I mean, there isn't quite anything like a stone heading for your eyeball if you screw up. They sure did like to throw those rocks around.
I found this on a beliefnet board:Judaism has a concept of "Hell" which we call Gehenom but its purpose differs from that of the Christian vision of Hell. Judaism believes that all sins are punished and all good deeds are rewarded. For the average person, Gehenom would be (hopefully) a relatively short stop on the way to Heaven. In Babylonian Talmud tractate Rosh Hashanah 17 the opinion is expressed that the longest a soul would stay in Gehenom is 12 months. After that it would either go to Heaven or be destroyed and turned into the dust upon which the righteous walk on. The truly righteous, the Talmud teaches, will probably not spend any time in Gehenom as they can be punished for their few sins on earth. Conversely, the truly wicked get their reward for their few good deeds on earth as well. As you can imagine, this is a very deep topic to which I can't do much justice to in such a small format
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Personally, destruction of my soul seems a lot more attractive than eternal suffering. It seems a bit more compassionate to me, but I think you've said in the past that you kind of lean that way too.
Why would God create intelligent beings that can't choose?I suppose for obedience and servitude. The whole concept of angels sometimes is a bit strange. I'm not sure what function they would serve that God couldn't actually handle Himself. It seems that in Christianity they serve more or less as a kind of bridge to God, and maybe that is due to man's shortcomings and inability to directly talk with God (no fault of God's really). More or less, they seem to be God's errand runners, so what would Free Will be for there
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No Heaven, too.mrgrapeSeptember 9 2003, 17:43:39 UTC
There was no concept of heaven in Judaism (back during the Israelites), either. Then Jesus came around... yadda-yadda-yadda the concept of heaven (and hell) evolved, and now you have right-wing fanatics attempting to shove the ten commandments into the courts (and maintain the death-penalty alla ancient babylon!)
- a short history of the Christian-Judaic tradition concepts of heave, hell, and justice
Re: No Heaven, too.flippedSeptember 9 2003, 23:33:30 UTC
Heheh. :)
I wouldn't credit Christians or even Jews with death-penalties though. It seems more that this was an act of the state that was used to maintain some level of control and power. They just used the idea of God to help squelch any idea of revolt which seems to be pretty darn effective.
Too, we did like to sacrafice humans just to appease God, so be glad that's over with. ;)
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Anyway. Just trying to say there's a huge number of players in the football game of religion. Have you ever looked into Buddhism, Islam, or Zoroastrianism? (That last one might be hard to track down. lol)
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I did look at Baha'i on some website, and there were a couple of rules that just didn't sit right with me. I've only superficially looked into Buddhism, and what I've read, I've liked. I think Buddha and Jesus were saying basically the same thing just from a slightly different angle. Islam, to me, seems too focused on the surface and obedience and rules to be anything that'll warrant spiritual growth, but again, that is really only my superficial surface view of it.
This is the first I've heard of Zoroastrianism. :) Do you get to wear a black cape and a nifty black hat while making Z's all over the place with your sword? ;)
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There is that circumcision thing ya'know. Don't know if you'll have to worry about that or not if you decide to join up ;)
Keep us posted. We'll send "Get Well" cards if need be.
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Can you believe that????
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Notice how in movies Satan is a temptress in bright red shiny curve hugging suit? That's from X's. ;)
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I don't think people were just good and in line for the good of it though, were they? I mean, there isn't quite anything like a stone heading for your eyeball if you screw up. They sure did like to throw those rocks around.
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Personally, destruction of my soul seems a lot more attractive than eternal suffering. It seems a bit more compassionate to me, but I think you've said in the past that you kind of lean that way too.
Why would God create intelligent beings that can't choose?I suppose for obedience and servitude. The whole concept of angels sometimes is a bit strange. I'm not sure what function they would serve that God couldn't actually handle Himself. It seems that in Christianity they serve more or less as a kind of bridge to God, and maybe that is due to man's shortcomings and inability to directly talk with God (no fault of God's really). More or less, they seem to be God's errand runners, so what would Free Will be for there ( ... )
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- a short history of the Christian-Judaic tradition concepts of heave, hell, and justice
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I wouldn't credit Christians or even Jews with death-penalties though. It seems more that this was an act of the state that was used to maintain some level of control and power. They just used the idea of God to help squelch any idea of revolt which seems to be pretty darn effective.
Too, we did like to sacrafice humans just to appease God, so be glad that's over with. ;)
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