Poll: Is there an Afterlife?

[pingdum]

one

Why are you arguing this at all? You can't unless you are accepting the premise that God exists in the first place

Previous post by me:

If you want to spread the concept of God so thin to include any kind of force that could create the universe and therefore people, with or without any specific purpose, then there is no arguing as reality does exist and it had to get here someway.

Second of all... since there is plenty of evidence of evolution it obviously is not the case that Adam and Eve just "popped up" out of nowhere... but Adam and Eve could be representative of the first human beings instilled with the self awareness and cognitive ability that sets us apart from apes and others based on our current knowledge. How do you suddenly figure that God "tricked them" into using free will to punish them for eternity? It is also arguable that the story from a Christian standpoint is reflecitive of the "evil" that man has the ability to do contrary to God's desire and is represented by that "first choice" contrary to God's desire for us. But again... if you don't accept or acknowledget hat God even exists in the first place discussion of what this non-existant being (per your view) does or doesn't do or me is completely circular and foolish. You are using your doubt of the judeo-christian stories and traditions and teachings to validate your disbelief of God. You are disproving something by arguing against something you already say can't exist in the first place.

Not all faiths and people maintain to the bible as an exact literal tradition... So trying to refute things further by going there is foolish because it is a false premise to start with. You give me reason to believe that you are not an active and studied Christian, therefore your understanding of teachings and philosophies of different religious groups is going to be quite far removed from actuality. Even people that are active christians are often not fully aware of the doctrines of their faith... much like not every driver on the road knows everything that is right or wrong or how it works (just go watch a 4 way stop sign for a few minutes and it's quite obvious) but it doesn't change that they are a driver....

But you said earlier that you were hedging your bets by going to church and following certain doctrine just in case. So you must agree to some extent that your actions here on Earth effect what happens after you die. Therefore you believe that someone or something is making up these rules, you are not following your own logic.
And I'm not scared of enternal pain and suffering if I go 5 miles over the speed limit.
You're right in that I am no theological expert, that's because I don't possibly see how you can believe one thing and not another. All your responses show how narrow your veiw is. You have to rember that even the concept of one God is not practiced by all the people of the world. Religion and faith in the supernatural is not limited to the Judeo-Christian idea.

 

[TurfBurn]

I have to concentrate on my work here... and have a lot going on tonight so this will likely be my last post until the weekend sometime... but anyway...

Like everything else in evolution, survival of the fittest. There have been many rendidtions of mankind through the years..Homo Sapiens was the strongest and survived.

But typically most "survival of the fittest" instances yield several variations of "strong" traits. Mammals is an example... mammal nurturing, live birth yielded a lot of advantages... it came about in multiple species etc... It's not the only birth method, but it certainly helped... Thus self cognisience and so forth would similarily yield itself in several variations if it was an evolutionary artifact.

For some reason our planet had a different atmosphere than some of the others (That we know about) and water came with the package. I am not strong enough in this study to give you any other answer on that.

Sure. I don't know how that argues back against what we were talking about on this point... but sure!

"Big Bang" is a THEORY. The universe is infinate, I doubt mankind will ever know the whole reason/story.

But we have evidence for it to a reasonable degree, and it is an accepted theory. Remember, relativity is a "theory" even though it has been proven on a lot of levels, evolution is a "theory" but I don't hear you making that a concern either...

Some yes, some no. I guess that is why pretty much my whole life I thought it was a bag of tricks so to speak. I truly believe man invented god and religion to control man before modern governments and laws were put in place.

So to really screw with you... if God is nothing more than a figment and power of the human mind does that mean he doesn't exist? Nope... it's much like "I think therefore I am" because we "make" God exist and see what He does etc, doesn't mean He ACTUALLY exists.. but God does exist per our convention of creation... much like an imaginary friend... they do exist to the person who creates them... so you could never tell me that God doesn't exist because he quite in fact does by my mind and belief. He doesn't exist for YOU, but he certainly has existence with me... now that's obviously not waht we are talking about... but it's a point to be made. But by your own admission then God is an invention, and does exist .

Again, natural growth and evolution of a species.

The problem though is that natural grown and evolution yields many variations... there aren't only mammals, or only reptiles, or only bacteria... so there, by evolutionary theory, shouldn't be only DNA.

Hey, whatever floats your boat. I'm just not buying it.

Don't expect you to! Just follow what your thought brings you to. Don't exclude things out of hand because you don't want to, or disagree with what someone else says... follow the evidence wherever it leads... to or away from theism.

 

[TurfBurn]

But you said earlier that you were hedging your bets by going to church and following certain doctrine just in case. So you must agree to some extent that your actions here on Earth effect what happens after you die. Therefore you believe that someone or something is making up these rules, you are not following your own logic.

No, I was explaining that was one "reason" to go to Church and follow the doctrines "just in case" I go to church and do what I do because I believe in God... it is because I believe in God that I follow what I believe He wants, not because I think that doing those things is what keeps me "safe." Think about a wife/girlfriend/child/husband/boyfriend... you do what makes them happy not because it keeps you from being in trouble with them, but because you know it is what they want you to do and out of love an committment to them that you do it. Same thing...

I'm off...

Thanks for being good sports and reasonable people and good conversationalists... Appreciate the open debate, and generally very mature posts (I apologize if I sound asinine at any point, I certainly don't intend to, but do know that the way I state things is sometimes interpreted far more harsh than intended). Maybe catch you guys back here later this weekend.. otherwise have a good one and best to you all!

Later,

Steve

 

[Rickman]

Indeed Steve, Good talk. Rep for you.

We've gone WAY off topic here anyhow.

 

[vindication]

No, I was explaining that was one "reason" to go to Church and follow the doctrines "just in case" I go to church and do what I do because I believe in God... it is because I believe in God that I follow what I believe He wants, not because I think that doing those things is what keeps me "safe." Think about a wife/girlfriend/child/husband/boyfriend... you do what makes them happy not because it keeps you from being in trouble with them, but because you know it is what they want you to do and out of love an committment to them that you do it. Same thing...

actually you do certain things cause you think someone is watching you. Just like the significant other example or in most cases cause one thinks God is watching you. If you think there is a God(not necessarily a religion), you dont have to go to church cause God can hear you just fine from your own housse. One goes to church cause he/she thinks they are doing the right thing and that God will hopefully see that and therefor reward that person probably with a pleasant life and a nice afterlife.

of course, this is just my opinion. goodnight

 

[Brian MP5T]

No!