erm............yeah you can...........
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What happens after death?
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My friend described it well,
Its just like when youre sleeping and you dont know that you are, not dreaming. I think thats what happens. -
Is that different from just going out of existence?Things are still going on in your brain while you're sleeping, even if you don't realize it.
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In reply to:
The problem I have with irrational belief is that it's intellectually dishonest.
I am very offended by that statement but I'll just go on being "intellectually dishonest" with myself if you don't mind. Maybe you will see me as weak after this but you know what? I don't care. I don't have to justify my belief in God to anyone. It doesn't make me feel good by the way. It makes me feel great! I know there's an afterlife. I can't prove it, but I know it's there. I lost my grandpa almost a year ago and it was about this time he started to really go. Almost a year later, I can still feel him. I can be at work, at home, in my truck and be minding my own and then I can feel a hand on my shoulder when there's no one around or a soft whisper in my ear telling me to behave and that everything's okay and I'm doing well for msyelf. Sometimes, I swear I can see him and it's like he's not really gone and for just a brief moment it's as if I can see Heaven through his eyes. And you may think that this is just the ramblings of a heart broken young woman who's lost her granddad but I will always continue to say that seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing. Faith is daring to go beyond what the eyes can see. And even though I can't see it and everyone tells me I'm crazy, I believe in it anway.
I felt it when I was a kid. I was in the hospital and the doctor's told my parents I would probably die because they had done everything they could do. Obviously I didn't die and there's a story behind that that I'll explain later but I'm really too tired to start right now. I'm still here. And I notice the workd and love God in my life all the time. You might be right. But I still say you're wrong. And Steve, it's not weak or intellectually dishonest to believe in something. No matter what it is.
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In reply to:And Steve, it's not weak or intellectually dishonest to believe in something. No matter what it is.Even communism, sacrificing virgins in volcanoes, ritual female genital mutilation, and jihad against the United States?"Makes me feel good" and "intellectually honest" are two different ideas.
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Just because you believe in something Steve, doesn't make it right. But it doesn't make it wrong either. It's a belief that is held in one's life. If I said I thought your face resembled that of a baboon's butt it doesn't make me right now does it? That's what I believe. Someone else is bound to disagree. Maybe they think you look like Mark Hoppus. But that doesn't mean I'm going to agree. I don't agree with communism (although slowly I believe the U.S. is becoming just that), or sacrificing virgins, or any other things you mentioned. But someone else might. Communism exists even still today. Do I believe that communism is right? No. Does that make me right and them wrong? No. The sacrificing of virgins was done a long time ago (I don't know for sure if the practice still goes on). By today's standards it's wrong. But if you were raised that way and you grew up knowing nothing else you wouldn't think it was wrong. Femal genital mutilation. I ain't got much to say about that one but, "OW!" But what about circumcision? Is that not also a ritual practice? Male genital mutilation. Jihad against the U.S. was done because of religious beliefs. But if we're going to drag that in here too we might as well name the crucades and every other religious war. It's wrong by OUR standards not by their's. We have a very different way of living. Are we so high and mighty that we forget that not everyone shares the same idealistic view of feel goodiness that the U.S. does? When I try to understand the things that have happened I try not to look at it as who was right and who was wrong because by my standards those things would be wrong. But by someone else's standards who was raised to believe that, it's not wrong. Does that make any sense at all?I never said it makes me feel good. I said it makes me feel great. And I never said that I was being intellectually honest. I said I was just going to keep on being intellectually DIShonest with myself. I believe in God. I'm going to keep on believing because I can. Because my belief is neither right or wrong. But to me - it's right. You think I'm weak for being a believer but I think it takes a weak person to point out that believing in something other than themselves is weak. Am I right or wrong?Steve you contribute to this board just like everyone else does. Please don't think that I'm just trying to jump down your throat because there is a lot of what you say I have respect for. However, pointing out that I am a weak person because of a particular belief I have is very offensive to me because I don't find it weak.
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I never said that I was being intellectually honest.You are free to believe whatever you like. The issue was faith versus intellectual honesty. I said I had a problem with it. That's my creed. If you have other beliefs, that's fine.As the U.S. becomes more communistic, some people will believe it's a good idea, and you will believe it's a bad idea. Then what?But even as a non-religious person, I think there are absolutes. Throwing virgins into a volcano, or killing people who won't conform to some set of beliefs, is wrong, in any cultural context, at any time, in any place.
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You're grasping for straws with the communist comment because I've already answered this and I tried to make it understandable. You grew up being taught that the kind of things you mentioned were wrong so therefore it is only natural for you to continue to think that they are wrong. If you grew up with something like one of the things you mentioned and you never knew anything different you wouldn't think it was wrong. Do you understand what I'm saying now?You can have a difference of opinion without belittling the people who's opinion's differ from your own or making them feel like they're stupid or ignorant. As I stated before, I just find it offensive that you question my capacity to be an intellectual individual just because I choose to believe in something bigger than me and this place and time. I haven't said that I think you are trying to mask ignorance by using large words that no one understands without looking them up or that you try too much to sound like a human dictionary, or that your use of large words is a way for you to talk down to people that you deem inferior to yourself. I haven't pointed a finger at you at all. All I said was that your statement was offensive because believing in God or any other deity does not make me weak or stupid.I respect most of the things you say Steve. I just found this particular assumption of my intellect and emotional strength offensive.
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I just found this particular assumption of my intellect and emotional strength offensive.I'm not sure why you think that. I'm trying to keep this as a discussion of ideas rather than emotions. It's not a debate about your intellect and emotional strength.If I disagree with you and tell you why, is that belittling?For example, I've been told that I will burn in hell and be tormented for eternity because I don't believe what they believe. To me the idea doesn't make much sense, but I'm interested in understanding why people believe it. If I challenge them, I don't think I'm belittling them.I'm not actually trying to sound like a dictionary. I use the words that I use to try to say precisely what I mean. It's exactly the way I would write to a friend if I were discussing a serious topic. After years of reading the New York Times and Atlantic Monthly magazine, they all just seem like words to me now. In fact, when I read those things, I need to look things up periodically (I keep a dictionary.com thing in the corner of my browser window). You're telling me I'm didactic; it would take a bunch of words to convey that single word's meaning. I'm not trying to be disrespectful.So, after all that, I understand what you're saying about cultural relativism (that beliefs and standards are molded by your culture). But it sounds like you're saying that there are no absolute standards. For example, the Ten Commandments are an absolute standard. Do you think abortion is wrong only because of your culture, or does it go deeper than that? If you grew up in a society where deep religious belief is not common (a lot of Western Europe, for example), would you be an atheist or agnostic? And if you were, would that be OK?
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after death. u get laid by the devil and ur mom goes to college if she's still alive
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Why did you feel the need to bring back a dead thread?
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Obviously to find out what happens after death.