How Can A Christian Be Afraid of Death?

[QUOTE="GazaAli"]I'm a Muslim not a Christian but the concept is the same. Its because you don't have a guarantee that yo will actually go to heaven instead of hell. Because we still sin as humans and because we believe that God can either forgive us or punish us, the possibility of going to hell is still there.ColdP1zza

Which brings you to the second point I made in my first post. If one truly does believe in heaven, why not completely devote your relatively short existance on earth to God so that you are guaranteed a place in heaven?

[QUOTE="GazaAli"]I'm a Muslim not a Christian but the concept is the same. Its because you don't have a guarantee that yo will actually go to heaven instead of hell. Because we still sin as humans and because we believe that God can either forgive us or punish us, the possibility of going to hell is still there.ColdP1zza

Which brings you to the second point I made in my first post. If one truly does believe in heaven, why not completely devote your relatively short existance on earth to God so that you are guaranteed a place in heaven?

That is why you're encouraged in Islam to denounce this world and strive to perform good deeds, worship God etc.
"So do not let the life of this world delude you and do not let the Deluder delude you concerning Allah." (Noble Qur'an, 31:33)

[QUOTE="supa_badman"]

Being a Christian =/= immediate ticket to heaven.

A lot of people miss this.

ColdP1zza

You also missed reading my whole post.

[QUOTE="Krelian-co"]

how can you people still believe in a god who deliberately created us just to let us sin and let billions of people burn in hell for eternity (if you still believe in that)

VideoGamerNerd

Choice to follow? He creates us inherently evil, then puts a gun to our heads and tells us to submit to Him or die. Or worse, get tortured for all eternity. Lovely. Explain to me why I would wish to follow a "God" such as that?

It's not necessarily death I'm scared of, it's just the possibility that the time immediately before the time of death will be painful.

[QUOTE="Krelian-co"]

how can you people still believe in a god who deliberately created us just to let us sin and let billions of people burn in hell for eternity (if you still believe in that)

VideoGamerNerd

choise? what choise? follow me or burn in hell, let me think about it! is like when someone points a gun at you and give me your money thats a choise too! i can choose not to give him my money and die, i wonder why no one chooses that option.... the fact that if he exists and gave us such a one sided "choise" and in fact creates a world of infinite torment for the people, it is more of a "proof" it is not real, as that has human ego written all over it.

[QUOTE="ColdP1zza"]

[QUOTE="supa_badman"]

Being a Christian =/= immediate ticket to heaven.

A lot of people miss this.

rowzzr

You also missed reading my whole post.

Actually I did account for what you are saying and supa_badman admitted he did not really the whole post.

Secondly, I cannot speak for all atheists but I think that most atheists are afraid of death because they will be leaving everything behind, they will cease to exist and nobody wants to leave their loved ones. On the other hand, christians have no excuse as they believe that when they die they will be will "be going on to a better place" as many say and they will be seeing all of their loved ones again (provided they were christians as well).

Ah so you changed the title , good job .FMAB_GTO

I don't want people to change the subject from my first post to just nitpicking. Anyways, I went to a catholic school for a few years and when I went there people said there was a difference.

[QUOTE="ColdP1zza"]

[QUOTE="GazaAli"]I'm a Muslim not a Christian but the concept is the same. Its because you don't have a guarantee that yo will actually go to heaven instead of hell. Because we still sin as humans and because we believe that God can either forgive us or punish us, the possibility of going to hell is still there.gubrushadow

Which brings you to the second point I made in my first post. If one truly does believe in heaven, why not completely devote your relatively short existance on earth to God so that you are guaranteed a place in heaven?

How is it impossible? Statements like that without any evidence or reasoning to back them up are pointless.

[QUOTE="VideoGamerNerd"][QUOTE="Krelian-co"]

how can you people still believe in a god who deliberately created us just to let us sin and let billions of people burn in hell for eternity (if you still believe in that)

Rekunta

Choice to follow? He creates us inherently evil, then puts a gun to our heads and tells us to submit to Him or die. Or worse, get tortured for all eternity. Lovely. Explain to me why I would wish to follow a "God" such as that?

I have to agree with Rekunta, that's really not much of a choice.

Why do people here think God is mericless? IceBlazerX

Just look at the Human Race.

[QUOTE="RobboElRobbo"]

If you're a strong enough believer, then you wouldn't be

ColdP1zza

This is exactly what I'm saying. Being afraid of death=Not a 100% believer, you do have doubts.

fear of the unknown

fear of the unknown

The whole point of life is to live God didn't create us as his slaves...jeremiah06

[QUOTE="gubrushadow"][QUOTE="ColdP1zza"]

Which brings you to the second point I made in my first post. If one truly does believe in heaven, why not completely devote your relatively short existance on earth to God so that you are guaranteed a place in heaven?

ColdP1zza

How is it impossible? Statements like that without any evidence or reasoning to back them up are pointless.

[QUOTE="jeremiah06"]The whole point of life is to live God didn't create us as his slaves...SeraphimGoddess

Being a Christian =/= immediate ticket to heaven.

A lot of people miss this.

supa_badman

They are afraid of the pain of death

Usually depends on the age of the person.

Doubt. Everyone doubts. You cannot have 100% faith in something.

[QUOTE="supa_badman"]

Being a Christian =/= immediate ticket to heaven.

A lot of people miss this.

Miroku32

This is probably why priest pedophilia is HUUUUUUGE deal. It is, but even more so because they imagine religious figures as invincible.

EDIT: You could be from a different denomination than I am, so your nuns and priests could have a different idea of salvation of that than mine. But I would rather not get into that.

It's natural to have doubt in your religion. If you didn't, well....either you're an idiot or you're absolutely brainwashed

..maybe they go hand-in-hand, I dunno.

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

[QUOTE="ColdP1zza"]

Devoting your life to god is not buying your way into heaven, its loyalty.

ColdP1zza

You asked, "Why not spend it devoting your life to god so that you will for sure have go to heaven?" The answer is as I said above: doing something because it will ensure you will go to heaven misses the whole point, and is not something that God would be very pleased with.

Okay, so if christians don't do everything the bible tells them to get into heaven, why do they worship god?

Jesus says on one occasion - and it confuses the heck out of me how often this is swept under the rug - that the Golden Rule basically is the whole of the Hebrew Bible (Matthew 7:12). At another point, Jesus says that whatever one does for a human in need, he does for God (Matthew 25:40). The idea that the ideal Christian life is just sitting around telling God how awesome he is in the hopes that he'll let you into heaven in return is about as far away from the example set by Jesus as one can get.

Religion was designed to alleviate the fear of dying by giving each individual who has faith in the fairy-tale that is religion, something to look forward to after they die.

That's why too many people these days are always so quick to deal with someone they love dying by simply saying "They've gone to a better place".

Survival instincts.. Flight or fight? This isn't rocket science.. The majority of people aren't going to have the same thought processes cozy sitting on their chair within their homes, then a alley with a loaded and cocked gun pressed up against their head.

Religion was designed to alleviate the fear of dying by giving each individual who has faith in the fairy-tale that is religion, something to look forward to after they die.

That's why too many people these days are always so quick to deal with someone they love dying by simply saying "They've gone to a better place".

RexHoles

Though many people have found solace in religion in the wake of a loved one dying, it is really not historically accurate to say that religion was designed with that purpose in mind.

[QUOTE="gubrushadow"][QUOTE="ColdP1zza"]

Which brings you to the second point I made in my first post. If one truly does believe in heaven, why not completely devote your relatively short existance on earth to God so that you are guaranteed a place in heaven?

ColdP1zza

How is it impossible? Statements like that without any evidence or reasoning to back them up are pointless.

[QUOTE="RexHoles"]

Religion was designed to alleviate the fear of dying by giving each individual who has faith in the fairy-tale that is religion, something to look forward to after they die.

That's why too many people these days are always so quick to deal with someone they love dying by simply saying "They've gone to a better place".

GabuEx

Though many people have found solace in religion in the wake of a loved one dying, it is really not historically accurate to say that religion was designed with that purpose in mind.

it is historically accurate to say religion started to make a guide for what social behaviour should be, supporting itself in the fears of the people, being fear to death the biggest one, just check old religion books like the old testament in bible, everything is based on instilling fear to people of the "creator", when people started to realize it was all b******t then they changed to something that worked better "he loves us and is always watching invisible" and after like three thousand years of old testament god punishing people for everything "he" changed his mind and now he doesn't do anything and just waits for us to die to get judged, since we can't prove that they went that way to not get rofl stomped by science. Whoever reads the bible or any religious book with open mind and objectivity in mind can see they are full of lies, ofc if they want to believe and comes with "im super religious and read the bible and i found it was the super obvious truth...." people will find what they want to find and see what they want to see.

Not to mention it always bothers me when something good happens "it was a gift from god" something bad happens "god must be doing it for some weird reason we can't understand", lol.

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

[QUOTE="RexHoles"]

Religion was designed to alleviate the fear of dying by giving each individual who has faith in the fairy-tale that is religion, something to look forward to after they die.

That's why too many people these days are always so quick to deal with someone they love dying by simply saying "They've gone to a better place".

Krelian-co

Though many people have found solace in religion in the wake of a loved one dying, it is really not historically accurate to say that religion was designed with that purpose in mind.

it is historically accurate to say religion started to make a guide for what social behaviour should be, supporting itself in the fears of the people, being fear to death the biggest one, just check old religion books like the old testament in bible, everything is based on instilling fear to people of the "creator", when people started to realize it was all b******t then they changed to something that worked better "he loves us and is always watching invisible" and after like three thousand years of old testament god punishing people for everything "he" changed his mind and now he doesn't do anything and just waits for us to die to get judged, since we can't prove that they went that way to not get rofl stomped by science

The truths-to-assertions ratio in this post is sufficiently low that I don't think there would be much worth in directly responding to the whole thing, so all I will say is that:

1. Judaism/Christianity is not equivalent to religion;

2. There are really only two books in the Hebrew Bible whose primary purpose is establishing proper social behavior; and

3. Exodus is probably the oldest book in the Hebrew Bible, and is thus where it all began, and it is more or less an account of a primitive people struggling to understand the things that had happened to them.

[QUOTE="Krelian-co"]

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

Though many people have found solace in religion in the wake of a loved one dying, it is really not historically accurate to say that religion was designed with that purpose in mind.

GabuEx

it is historically accurate to say religion started to make a guide for what social behaviour should be, supporting itself in the fears of the people, being fear to death the biggest one, just check old religion books like the old testament in bible, everything is based on instilling fear to people of the "creator", when people started to realize it was all b******t then they changed to something that worked better "he loves us and is always watching invisible" and after like three thousand years of old testament god punishing people for everything "he" changed his mind and now he doesn't do anything and just waits for us to die to get judged, since we can't prove that they went that way to not get rofl stomped by science

The truths-to-assertions ratio in this post is sufficiently low that I don't think there would be much worth in directly responding to the whole thing, so all I will say is that:

1. Judaism/Christianity is not equivalent to religion;

2. There are really only two books in the Hebrew Bible whose primary purpose is establishing proper social behavior; and

3. Exodus is probably the oldest book in the Hebrew Bible, and is thus where it all began, and it is more or less an account of a primitive people struggling to understand the things that had happened to them.

a. i used the bible as an example because its the only i know well enough to talk about it, i did read parts of the other but my bet is they are the same in different words, be good bla bla fear god.

b. the whole bible is a social guide, saying that there are only two books in the bible which does this shows how you need to take every word literally. All the bible is about teaching and how to be good, and don't get me wrong is a good thing, if it weren't for the fear of this "god" and "hell" i bet the world would be a worst place, but i find it sad that people do good thing because of fear and not because of being a decent person who doesn't need an invisble eye watching.

c. you can say whatever you feel like about my post is how i see it and is my personal opinion, i can bet you can come with some "historical accuracies of why god does exist" but thats because you believe in him, and ofc since my point of view is highly atheist as all believers it would be discarded fast as you did

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

[QUOTE="Krelian-co"]

it is historically accurate to say religion started to make a guide for what social behaviour should be, supporting itself in the fears of the people, being fear to death the biggest one, just check old religion books like the old testament in bible, everything is based on instilling fear to people of the "creator", when people started to realize it was all b******t then they changed to something that worked better "he loves us and is always watching invisible" and after like three thousand years of old testament god punishing people for everything "he" changed his mind and now he doesn't do anything and just waits for us to die to get judged, since we can't prove that they went that way to not get rofl stomped by science

Krelian-co

The truths-to-assertions ratio in this post is sufficiently low that I don't think there would be much worth in directly responding to the whole thing, so all I will say is that:

1. Judaism/Christianity is not equivalent to religion;

2. There are really only two books in the Hebrew Bible whose primary purpose is establishing proper social behavior; and

3. Exodus is probably the oldest book in the Hebrew Bible, and is thus where it all began, and it is more or less an account of a primitive people struggling to understand the things that had happened to them.

a. i used the bible as an example because its the only i know well enough to talk about it, i did read parts of the other but my bet is they are the same in different words, be good bla bla fear god.

b. the whole bible is a social guide, saying that there are only two books in the bible which does this shows how you need to take every word literally. All the bible is about teaching and how to be good, and don't get me wrong is a good thing, if it weren't for the fear of this "god" and "hell" i bet the world would be a worst place, but i find it sad that people do good thing because of fear and not because of being a decent person who doesn't need an invisble eye watching.

c. you can say whatever you feel like about my post is how i see it and is my personal opinion, i can bet you can come with some "historical accuracies of why god does exist" but thats because you believe in him, and ofc since my point of view is highly atheist as all believers it would be discarded fast as you did

I think I can safely say at this point that you know neither what the Bible contains nor what my beliefs are, nor do you seem particularly interested in learning either of those pieces of information, and as such I feel that there is nothing really left to talk about.

Cuz they could be wrong and there may not be any sort of afterlife.

I'm just wondering, how is it possible for a strong believer in catholicism or christianity be at all afraid of death? Isn't being afraid of death admitting you don't fully believe in your religion? Because if I was chrisitian and believed in heaven I would be looking forward to death. Heaven sounds amazing, unfortunately I don't believe it.

So my question is, how can a religious person be afraid of death when they claim to believe in an afterlife?

Also if you are a 100% believer in jesus christ or whatever, why are you spending your time on a video game forum or whatever? If I was a 100% believer in any religion, I would devote my entire life to it. How is it that someone can be a 100% believer in a religion and not devote their whole life to it since a human life only lasts for around 70-80 years but paradise in heaven is eternal?

ColdP1zza

[QUOTE="Krelian-co"]

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

The truths-to-assertions ratio in this post is sufficiently low that I don't think there would be much worth in directly responding to the whole thing, so all I will say is that:

1. Judaism/Christianity is not equivalent to religion;

2. There are really only two books in the Hebrew Bible whose primary purpose is establishing proper social behavior; and

3. Exodus is probably the oldest book in the Hebrew Bible, and is thus where it all began, and it is more or less an account of a primitive people struggling to understand the things that had happened to them.

GabuEx

a. i used the bible as an example because its the only i know well enough to talk about it, i did read parts of the other but my bet is they are the same in different words, be good bla bla fear god.

b. the whole bible is a social guide, saying that there are only two books in the bible which does this shows how you need to take every word literally. All the bible is about teaching and how to be good, and don't get me wrong is a good thing, if it weren't for the fear of this "god" and "hell" i bet the world would be a worst place, but i find it sad that people do good thing because of fear and not because of being a decent person who doesn't need an invisble eye watching.

c. you can say whatever you feel like about my post is how i see it and is my personal opinion, i can bet you can come with some "historical accuracies of why god does exist" but thats because you believe in him, and ofc since my point of view is highly atheist as all believers it would be discarded fast as you did

I think I can safely say at this point that you know neither what the Bible contains nor what my beliefs are, nor do you seem particularly interested in learning either of those pieces of information, and as such I feel that there is nothing really left to talk about.

i can safely say that i know the bible, i assume you want to say i don't share yours or any religious point of view of it therefore im wrong and by learning you mean accepting it as "true", so its ok, is not like you are the first religious person to say you are right and others are wrong.

[QUOTE="RexHoles"]

Religion was designed to alleviate the fear of dying by giving each individual who has faith in the fairy-tale that is religion, something to look forward to after they die.

That's why too many people these days are always so quick to deal with someone they love dying by simply saying "They've gone to a better place".

GabuEx

Though many people have found solace in religion in the wake of a loved one dying, it is really not historically accurate to say that religion was designed with that purpose in mind.

No the purpose was control, I was wrong. What better way to get someone to live their life by a book than to promise them either an eternity in Heaven or an eternity in Hell. Fear = control.