Kevin's Watch

Hahaha, I'm not ignoring you Rus. Just a bit pressed for time recently. I'll get to it.

--A

Avatar wrote:Hahaha, I'm not ignoring you Rus. Just a bit pressed for time recently. I'll get to it.

20 days later.......

You should see his track record with dissections he he! *cough cough* tombs of *cough cough* atuan...(sorry again, I just couldn't resist)

Haven't had the energy for this one.

--A

I'd be the last person to blame you for that. Merely pokin' you a bit, that's all

--A

Or maybe my post kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=740040#740040 actually provided a complete and sensible rationale that made sense to all concerned? (although I find it hard to believe that that could be the case...)
Granted, as an explanation, it is one that I imagine few, if any of us, have ever heard from the Christian side. Most of the Protestant/western Christianity that I know really does talk in the simplified way that Avatar expressed. (ie, "He's in a better place...")

And 'twas a good post, rus.

Orlion wrote:Hope that makes some semblance of sense, I'd really like to hear other people's opinion on the matter.

Hey Orlion, could I give some of your questions a spin with the following modification: "Some people go to a tremendously better place, some don't - and we humans don't really know who is going where."?

Or even say that you COULD know for certain who [some of] the people who were going to a far better place were, and the rest you weren't sure of - their fates weren't yet decided, say. Then I could deal with the question of, "How would ones ethics RE murder apply to those who are going to a "far better place"?"

This is explicitly a TOTALLY DIFFERENT question from the one you gave - in fact, something completely different - but I think that the Heaven/Hell dichotomy is precisely what MAKES our decisions with relation to moral things matter so very much - even so much as to matter eternally.

Or I could just try to "play" within the bounds you set up, but that question just doesn't seem very relevant for someone like me.

rusmeister wrote:Most of the Protestant/western Christianity that I know really does talk in the simplified way that Avatar expressed. (ie, "He's in a better place...")

*wave* Hey Rus. The thing is, I'd definitely agree that the "He's in a better place" line is not the doctrine of the Protestant denominations I've been around....... buuuu-uut in practice, people like Av and HLT do have a definite point.

And I blame it on cowardice among Christians. I'm thinking of the times when some pastor has to preach a sermon for a funeral or memorial service. The nephew or sister or wife of the dear, loveable old atheist who just died wants assurance that he/she will see this person again, that this person is not suffering. The pastor is under pressure, and so he awkwardly gives lipservice to the myth that "everyone goes to a better place."

Because even Christians don't always want to deal with the uncomfortable worldview that our beliefs imply. At least not when it's personal. Not when it's someone we love. I can say this is certainly true for myself, at least.

High Lord Tolkien wrote:After hearing this as a kid I would always ask "they why don't we just all kill ourselves and be happy in Heaven?"
There would be a long pause.....then an awkward "God doesn't want us to do that." followed quickly with a "So how was school today?" to get off the topic.

And I'm thinking of times when people are talking to children (thanks to HLT's post). Because sometimes children open up questions that people haven't dealt with themselves, (intellectually, emotionally, or both) and someone who's supposed to be "the grown-up," will often feel ashamed rather than curious. Ahh, pride.

So churchgoing grown-ups tell themselves that children wouldn't be able to handle the idea of death and so they "dumb it down" with an "everyone goes to heaven, and all their pets too" sort of response. All supposedly for the child's benefit, yes, yes.