The Afterlife

[El Hombre del Fuego]

No, no, no. God hates for his children to be cast down to hell. If you are a just person who does not accept Christ as your savior, you will go to purgotory as one of the unbaptised. You will serve some time there and make your way into heaven. Let me give you an example. Gandhi. He was not Christian, but he tought about peace and all that crap. God loves all his children, and would probably not let such an outstanding person rot in hell.

Hell is not ment for humans, rather for the fallen angel Lucifer and his minions. A particularly bad person, like Hitler, would go to Hell because God, as said before, hates sin, and would probably not want that Nazi freak to pollute anything better then the lake of fire & brimstone.

[Steakboy]

Originally Posted by grishank

So basically it all hinges on Christ.
I find it slightly odd that in your religion someone who has lead a better life than someone else who has not ends up worst. You do not accept other religions even if they are based on love and forgiveness?

I believe the purpose of religion is to believe in your own religion, and not others, that's what makes it your religion, because youe believe in it!!!

[Big {Daddy}]

Originally Posted by grishank

So if what you say is true, and a person leads a good life, giving to those in need, doing community work, giving back to the environment, not being spiteful or hurting people's feelings, but the were Wiccan/Buddhist/Hindu/Other, and did not believe in Jesus, they would go to jolly old hell.

This is a very interesting post for me.

Whilst I don't practise any religion, I would lean towards Buddhism. It seems to be the most accessible and welcoming religion. It doesn't force its values on you or threaten you with fire and brimstone. Yet the moral teachings are essentially the same.

I had always assumed the Christian God was supposed to show compassion and mercy to all good people. However I suppose the first commandment blows this out of the water. To be honest reading this thread has put me off Christianity for life. I never realised it was such a hardline religion

Christianity as a guide to life has just shot itself in the foot. Since I'm off to hell anyway, I might as well start being bad

[grishank]

Originally Posted by Steakboy

I believe the purpose of religion is to believe in your own religion, and not others, that's what makes it your religion, because youe believe in it!!!

There is an important difference between acceptance and belief.

I ACCEPT that Christianity (and all other religions/lifestyles based on love and peace) is one of the paths to divinity and improvement of the soul.

I BELIEVE in Wicca and that Wicca is the best way for me.

[D.Sporky!]

Originally Posted by Big {Daddy}

I had always assumed the Christian God was supposed to show compassion and mercy to all good people. However I suppose the first commandment blows this out of the water. To be honest reading this thread has put me off Christianity for life. I never realised it was such a hardline religion

He would like to, but he cannot live with sin. He is perfect. Heaven is perfect. Sin is not perfect. If we are covered by the blood of Jesus we have been paid for and he sees past our imperfection and sees the blood of his son. It's simple.

[grishank]

But it is not simple. According to your teaching God is an all forgiving and all loving God, surely he should forgive someone who has followed a different religion but led a good life.

Big Daddy, yeah I used to be Buddhist before I found Wicca.

Although I would say you can't generalise with Christians too much because there are such diversions within the religion. You've got Jehova's witnesses who are all hellfire and damnation, right through to Quakers who think that just providing you are a good boy...who cares. Look at their places of worship, catholic = st. peters cathederal style very ornate massive. Quakers' place of worship is a room with a table, a bible, and maybe some flowers.

[Nemmerle]

Originally Posted by grishank

I've noticed that there was no debate on the afterlife, what do you people believe.

Well I've posted my beliefs before but I feel considering the age of the thread I may as well state them again here.

Firstly I believe dreams are very important, that you halfway die each night when you go to sleep and that dreams are glimpses of other lives.
Now when you die I think it’s just like going to sleep; going on to your next dream if you will.
In my belief the purpose of life is to, well dream really; but more accurately to shape your dreams, to provide information for your next dream lives.
Now looking at my belief I come across a flaw, it is a flaw I have seen many times, people, I' am not arrogant enough to believe my imagination, created a universe, filled with such great diversity and others great intellect and I think the answer to it, is that the people in this universe with you, came here because our past lives were all alike in a some way and this life provided something we all dreamed about, something we needed.

So to answer your question I don’t strictly believe in reincarnation because I don’t really believe its possible to die, or indeed that we have any particular bonds to this physical life in a way that would qualify us to do so.

There I hope I managed to put that a bit more eloquently than last time.

[grishank]

Originally Posted by Ged

Well I've posted my beliefs before but I feel considering the age of the thread I may as well state them again here.

Firstly I believe dreams are very important, that you halfway die each night when you go to sleep and that dreams are glimpses of other lives.
Now when you die I think it’s just like going to sleep; going on to your next dream if you will.
In my belief the purpose of life is to, well dream really; but more accurately to shape your dreams, to provide information for your next dream lives.
Now looking at my belief I come across a flaw, it is a flaw I have seen many times, people, I' am not arrogant enough to believe my imagination, created a universe, filled with such great diversity and others great intellect and I think the answer to it, is that the people in this universe with you, came here because our past lives were all alike in a some way and this life provided something we all dreamed about, something we needed.

So to answer your question I don’t strictly believe in reincarnation because I don’t really believe its possible to die, or indeed that we have any particular bonds to this physical life in a way that would qualify us to do so.

There I hope I managed to put that a bit more eloquently than last time.

I think that is very interesting and respectable. Although while I believe dreams are very important, you can learn a lot about yourself and about the deities from dreams, I do not believe you can see bits of past lives, otherwise you would not concentrate on the lesson you are currently learning.

You wouldn't happen to have done a bit of lucid dreaming would you?

I lucid dream every night because I was taught a method by my teacher about it. If you have too much on your mind when you fall to sleep normally you won't lucid dream because thoughts get all jumbled together but if you do a bit of meditating before bed and knock out what you were thinking out of your head for the most part, chances are you will have lucid dreams. I have very interesting dreams as well. I had weird predictions in my dreams. I won't share them because you guys will think I am a physcho.

I believe in heavan and hell. I believe in God and Jesus. I believe that if I worship God, my savior, and believe in his word then God will send me to heaven. I believe that heaven is a utopia that is beatiful and perfect. Really though I am not 100% sure on this, but 95% sure. I still have a tiny bit of doubt in my mind about God's existance, but I believe he is there for the most part.

[Nemmerle]

Originally Posted by grishank

You wouldn't happen to have done a bit of lucid dreaming would you?

Once or twice; not that often now I think back on it.