A question for non believers

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Sb1540
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FAT SEXY said:

Considering this post is aimed at people who are not religious, I will assume that you do not believe in an afterlife.

Does it ever bother you to think that this life down here is it and that all the meaningful relationships and connections that you have made during it will be gone when you pass?

I guess the short answer for a guy like me is something along the lines of.. "I will be gone, no more feelings, i will not notice, so it doesn't really matter I guess"

Can't lie though.. it hurts to dwell on things like this sometimes and wonder if I'll get to see my little girl again on the other side. Like, what is the point of it all if there isn't something else? Life is full of so many questions that will never be answered. Bittersweet AF


Follow that part of your heart that wants to see your little girl again. Once you grab that string keep following it everyday. Talk to God and the rest will fall into place. It won't be easy but it's worth it.
Duncan Idaho
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I find the inverse to be just as, if not more daunting.

The whole reason you value and cherish these relationships is because they are fleeting.

The last few episodes of "the good place" did a great job of showing why my fall from faith accelerated faster and faster as I spent more and more time around people that believed in a literal and eternal heaven.
dds08
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AG
FAT SEXY said:

Does it ever bother you to think that this life down here is it and that all the meaningful relationships and connections that you have made during it will be gone when you pass?

From what I've heard, even for those who believe in Christ, they won't be able to recognize their parents, wife/husband, siblings or closest friends in Heaven, and that's if you see them.

I speculate the only meaningful relationship and connection we will maintain is that with Christ and the Spirit.

Even that relationship will be drastically different from what it was on earth.
Win At Life
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dds08 said:

FAT SEXY said:

Does it ever bother you to think that this life down here is it and that all the meaningful relationships and connections that you have made during it will be gone when you pass?

From what I've heard, even for those who believe in Christ, they won't be able to recognize their parents, wife/husband, siblings or closest friends in Heaven, and that's if you see them.

I speculate the only meaningful relationship and connection we will maintain is that with Christ and the Spirit.

Even that relationship will be drastically different from what it was on earth.


You're certainly free to believe that, but if you believe the Bible, Yeshua says wives and husbands will be as brothers and sisters in heaven, so that implies a cognitive relationship among people. Also, Yeshua's resurrected body was real flesh and blood that could be seen and touched, and we are promised a similar resurrection.
Aggrad08
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AG
Cherish your life, don't waste your days or the time with people you love, because it's fleeting, unfair, and much of it out of your control. This is the uncomfortable truth of it, there is a pity for any creature with a mind that can comprehend death.

I have heard many skeptics compare death to the nonbeing you already experienced, you don't mourn the ability to live in Ancient Rome, to be a hunter gatherer to live as a feudal knight-and so you won't be able to mourn the future beyond your life. I will say that I don't find this fully satisfying, as once you are invited to the party it's hard to leave and have it go on without you. There will be no pain, but the end usually comes before we desire.

Knowledge is a gift with a cost. Being unshackled from religions pretty and ugly lies doesn't allow you to dwell in their comforts at a time like death. And it is a comfort, there is no religion I've seen that doesn't offer comfort in death. I think that's one of the key reasons they come to be. Particularly for those religions with a heaven and especially for those people in your life with a shared faith, death is a see you later, not a goodbye.

But I don't envy being persuaded by these ideas. I welcome the truth and face that reality as it comes. If this is it, then it's that much more precious. This life isn't a vapor on the wind, a forgettable wisp in a chain that lasts eternally this life is what you get. You have the opportunity to live for today and tomorrow, not for love of a heaven or fear of a hell . Not to please a god who designed you for his purposes, not to become a god or be one with god. To examine a religious life when religion is untrue reveals a great deal of lost opportunity and wasted time.

I find this opportunity invaluable, this truth a prize with a cost. This massive universe isn't set up for our benefit, but we get to experience it, and to our great fortune there is joy, fulfillment and happiness to be found there for most of us.
Duncan Idaho
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Sb1540
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Duncan Idaho said:

I find the inverse to be just as, if not more daunting.

The whole reason you value and cherish these relationships is because they are fleeting.

The last few episodes of "the good place" did a great job of showing why my fall from faith accelerated faster and faster as I spent more and more time around people that believed in a literal and eternal heaven.
As a Christian I loved The Good Place. Not because of their conceptualization of the afterlife but the numerous moral assumptions and religious pluralism found throughout the seasons. It was a really good mirror of modern secular thought and reveals how western individuals base their faith on their own intuitions. Nobody likes their beliefs to be deconstructed because if that happens what is left of me? There are undertones of nihilism in this.

Unfortunately Protestant Christianity has played a huge part in the deconstruction of faith in God. This goes all the way back to the reformation and how Protestant thought stripped a lot of divinity out of Christianity with the turn to the self. Of course before that was the saeculum of Rome and famously how St. Augustine further developed this idea of the City of God and the City of Man. Further down the line I tend to think of figures like Thomas Jefferson and his bible, therapeutic moral deism and the 1960s counter culture of authority and the turn to the self. Essentially modern secular thought is born of the same ideas that came out of the reformation. All of this is standing upon the Giant that is early Christian history and theology. Spoiler for The Good Place so don't read anymore if you haven't seen it but all of the characters have a similar intuition (they just know the feeling) to go through the door and become part of the universe with no pain and no existence if they get bored after fulfilling whatever desires in The Good Place.

Anyways I really liked the show and might rewatch the seasons. Interesting topics.
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Sb1540
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AstroAg17 said:

I like it because it's funny.
Haha ya you and everyone else in the world that loves The Office and Parks/Rec. It is really funny.
mesocosm
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AG
FAT SEXY said:

Considering this post is aimed at people who are not religious, I will assume that you do not believe in an afterlife.

Does it ever bother you to think that this life down here is it and that all the meaningful relationships and connections that you have made during it will be gone when you pass?

I guess the short answer for a guy like me is something along the lines of.. "I will be gone, no more feelings, i will not notice, so it doesn't really matter I guess"

Can't lie though.. it hurts to dwell on things like this sometimes and wonder if I'll get to see my little girl again on the other side. Like, what is the point of it all if there isn't something else? Life is full of so many questions that will never be answered. Bittersweet AF
No. There is no evidence or reason to believe such nonsense anyway. Why waste time worrying about it?
Barnyard96
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AG
Why waste time posting here?
diehard03
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Quote:

Why waste time posting here?

Hey, there was evidence of Saul in the Bible before conversion. These are just his "letters to Damascus".
Texaggie7nine
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imagine that your parents were rich, and they told you all your life growing up that you would have an inheritance that would keep you living a lavish lifestyle the rest of your life.

Then you find out when you are almost 18 that it's all not true and they are giving you nothing.

Sure it sucks compared to what you once thought was true, but you still are in the same boat as most of the rest of the world, and you can still have a great life.

So yes, when comparing to eternal happiness or peace or whatever, reality can be a bummer, but is it not better to have lived than not at all? Perhaps not for some people.

I'm not certain there is no afterlife, but regardless I enjoy what I have.
7nine
diehard03
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So yes, when comparing to eternal happiness or peace or whatever, reality can be a bummer, but is it not better to have lived than not at all? Perhaps not for some people.

The issue is that we run into ramifications for society when we consider a truly godless one.
Texaggie7nine
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diehard03 said:

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So yes, when comparing to eternal happiness or peace or whatever, reality can be a bummer, but is it not better to have lived than not at all? Perhaps not for some people.

The issue is that we run into ramifications for society when we consider a truly godless one.
Agree completely. I support a religious society regardless of the fact that I don't personally believe.
7nine
DirtDiver
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Can't lie though.. it hurts to dwell on things like this sometimes and wonder if I'll get to see my little girl again on the other side. Like, what is the point of it all if there isn't something else? Life is full of so many questions that will never be answered. Bittersweet AF
I think it boils down to one question. Is Jesus trustworthy? If so, He will deliver on all of the promises He has made.
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