Everything what comes after the death is a hell for us - either in this world here if we think about ("Whatever I am doing here: after my death it will be senseless for me") or in an existing reality after the own death if we don't think about. It's a kind of paradox - if we don't think that a hell could catch us then we are in danger to let us be catched from an hell. And it's also often in this way, that we are thinking we are living in a paradise while we are indeed living in a hell - alcoholism or drugs are perhaps good examples. The very strange thing: It's very easy to create ideas and pictures of hells - but we don't have a good imagination of the real heaven. We 'know' it is a situation of deep love (and deep freedom - not comparable with drugs of psychological manipulations) - it's a real deep happyness - and we know - if we trust in the words we heared and what some Christians always seem to forget - that we will have a body comparable to our body - we will not be ghosts or air or something like this after our detah - also we have to leave everthign here in this world. We are very naked on our last way - nearly nothing. And now is the question: Will we all meet us in heaven one day - completly independent from our deeds? I personally doubt about because I'm not able to imagine I will meet the murderers of my family in heaven and I'm able to be happy about this situation. On the other side: I also would not like to miss any of my memories - specially not the painful memories. So why should I like to miss murderers in heaven? I don't know - I really don't know - and I guess no one knows in the end. Jesus Christ - god - will speak the last word. He will finish me one day. When I thought once about death I found out that I don't live only a little in fear of a situation after my death where I would never awake. Death - to be forever dead - feels not bad, not boring. Why not to sleep forever - why not to rest in peace for all eternities of all possible times? This would not be a hell for me personally. If this is the decision of god - why not? On the other hand: I'm not able to believe this - I'm not able to believe that a universe realizes loving and living structures and that's it. A joke of some natural laws? No. Impossible. My hope - it's not only a hope it's much more than a hope - it's the alternative without any other alternative - is it that life will never end. "Life" is the great keyword. Death is only an illusion. And what about "hell" now? No hell for me? I don't know - I lived in different hells in this life here on this planet and I always escaped with the help of god and the help of my fellow citizens - who are also sometimes a hell for me. To escape from a hell is a good feeling. If hell is an illusion - I don't know - then it is a healthy illlusion because this illusion helps us to escape into life. Anyway: I'm convinced everyone has all chances until the last minute of his life and maybe even longer. It's worth to fight with all might for heaven -it's worth to fight for real paradises - and with very simple words: Life should not go to hell - that's not a good place to live. Take care - you are responsible - you have to answer god one day. Would be nice to look in his smiling and lovely eyes in this days. http://youtu.be/faKFcfytlxU
But sometimes the opinions are just that. And it is not necessary to support the claim with empirical evidence.
http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/henotheism.htm http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/premo.html http://www.adath-shalom.ca/israelite_religion.htm#alternate2 The original Israelites were polytheists, plain and simple.
Gee..."it is just an opinion".... LOL.... "o·pin·ion (-pnyn) n. 1. A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof: "The world is not run by thought, nor by imagination, but by opinion" (Elizabeth Drew). 2. A judgment based on special knowledge and given by an expert: a medical opinion. 3. A judgment or estimation of the merit of a person or thing: has a low opinion of braggarts. 4. The prevailing view: public opinion. 5. Law A formal statement by a court or other adjudicative body of the legal reasons and principles for the conclusions of the court." Do you get the idea now? It is the opinion of those scientists that originally published the periodic table that the numbers were valid. Unfortunately, those numbers have never been proven to be accurate. Only guesswork and because of those opinions being only guesswork ,,,,, lays the reason for my challenge to either confess to the FACT that the periodic table is based on pure imagination or to admit that science is merely another form of religion; else prove me wrong.
And we are all supposed to bow down and worship all of those opinions? How were all of those conclusions derived? Please don't say "by scientific analysis".
Logical inferences. The Hebrews were most assuredly a Semitic people, much like their fellow Canaanites. What evidence we have points to them having a religion more or less equal to the other Semitic religions in the region, including linguistic analyses, and remnants in the Pentateuch and Torah, as well as archaeological evidence of their old religious rites versus the religious rites of surrounding Semitic people and their similarities (the Asherah pole, for instance). Everything, up until the Babylonian captivity, points to an essentially henotheistic belief structure based off of the old polytheism of Semitic peoples. One can also see that in older works (Job, for instance), one sees a distinct lack of the philosophical dualism of good and evil (Satan, meaning roughly "adversary" or "advocate" is more YHWH's prosecutor to Job, trying to test his faith for YHWH's own purposes rather than as an evil tempter), the lack of a definitive afterlife (there exists Sheol, where the dead sleep, as one can see with YHWH's commandments against necromancy, as it raises the dead from their slumber to communicate, although some of his prophets engaged in necromancy to speak with other, dead, prophets; there is no heaven nor hell, as those concepts are definitely Zoroastrian in origin and only arise really after the Babylonian Captivity), and other salient features. It's relatively hard to infer, due to the rabbinical censorship and revision of older works to fit in with their new theology post-Babylonian captivity (much like only a single version of the Koran being copied and maintained after Muhammad's death, while all potentially conflicting copies were destroyed). So, while not a 100% certainty, it is the most likely scenario we have found so far. Judaism may have become monotheistic on its own (and, arguably, was by 500 BCE, though how much of that was due to interaction with Zoroastrians and their monotheism is debatable), however, it gathered much that made Christianity possible due to the Babylonian captivity (judgment day, apocalypse, resurrection of the dead, paradise and hell, etc.).
Reading just the first sentence of the above writing, I can safely conclude that I need not read any further. "Logical inferences." Though you might further infer that there is a validity to the statements that/those inferences do not necessarily validate a claim. As an example. You cite other people and the conclusions that those other people reached without ACTUALLY knowing the validity of the conclusions they reached. In other words, you did not perform the actual research and analysis, but instead merely leaned on the alleged understanding of others to justify or rationalize your own conclusion(s). Many of the comments made in your address are using phrases that show a definite degree of uncertainty, and potential inaccuracy, therefore, it cannot be said that the information you posted or that you have relied upon to reach your conclusion(s) are FACT. When you can show an absolute accuracy regarding your leaning or trust in such data, then that data still remains only an opinion. Your statements actually augment my claims as you still have not provided ANY evidence to controvert my claims relating to science being a play up on Numerology. You show an expressed leaning on probabilities which is nothing more than a numbers game ... one used to make predictions... NUMEROLOGY.
It's a hell of a sight better than taking Bronze Age sheep(*)(*)(*)(*)ers at their word about the workings of the universe and morality.
For much the same reason that I feel that the Bagavad Gita, the Vedas, the Avestas, the Koran, or the Tanjur are interesting but not the literal words of a deity/deities: no proof. If YHWH really wanted to save everyone, she would unambiguously show himself and dispel any doubt as to her presence. Surely it is not beyond YHWH's power to appear in such a manner that allows for the operation of free will yet eliminates any ambiguity. However, I have as much reason to believe in YHWH as I do to believe in Odin, Ahura Mazda, or Zeus. Which is to say, absolutely minimal. Especially when the development of Judaism is not particularly remarkable in the context of other Semitic religions in the area, and how its modern form can be very easily ascribed to syncretism with Zoroastrianism (and, later on, perhaps Mithraism or Manicheism), and early Christianity strongly resembled other messianic cults in the region, only with better PR and luck. In all, it has neither proof nor anything to offer me. It's interesting, and beautiful in some ways, but, so is Tengrism, Hinduism, and Baha'i.
Vision problems huh! Yeah, that does seem to be a common affliction with those that keep their spiritual eye closed .... they can't seem to see what other things are happening all around them. It must have something to offer you, else you are spending a lot of your time on what you already see as something worthless. Perhaps you have been listening to the wrong people or reading the wrong material and subsequently have not learned what you need to know.
If YHWH is so weak and pitiful that she cannot make unambiguous proof of his existence, well, YHWH is certainly unworthy of worship then. I've looked into religions; they have nothing to offer to me. My life is fulfilling enough without blind worship of incoherent concept that has always been in flux. Christians from 200 years ago would find your worship offensive and heretical in all likelihood, while in 200 years, Christians of the future would find your worship to be anachronistic and horribly outdated, to say nothing of the Jews of 4,000 years ago or the Christians 4,000 years hence. Nothing suggests the existence of a deity of any sort, and religion follows the ebbs and flows of human existence, much as any other human concept. All evidence strongly suggests religion is not guided by the hand of a deity, but human whim.
I read a Native American book once that described a great test that we all must pass after death. If you are afraid when the Great Buffalo charges you, then you will disappear forever and be forgotten by all. If you believe that the Great Buffalo is the Creator and you trust that he is not going to run you over, then he will stop and you will be allowed to go into the spirit world and live with all your passed loved ones forever. Seven Arrows [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Arrows-Hyemeyohsts-Storm/dp/0345329015"]Amazon.com: Seven Arrows (9780345329011): Hyemeyohsts Storm: Books[/ame]
What is hell? Everyone has relationships. I thought of my dog and how she laid her head on my slippers when I went out because she wanted to feel close to me. Think of a world without that 'force' of love that binds everything and everyone. That's what a world without God is, and that is hell. When we die, we are either within God's Grace by accepting God, or we aren't, so that our minds and thoughts continue to be in this world - yet this world doesn't exist. There is no one we can speak to, and there is nothing we can speak about. That is hell! The question to me is, why can't someone accept God and repent after death so they can change the situation. They can, if their state of mind can change. In the Orthodox faith and I believe in the Catholic faith too since they have the same foundation, we have memorial services for God to remember the souls of their loved ones. So then who are the damned? Those I guess who gave their souls to Satan willingly, and did his works for this world's benefits and gain. Anyway, these are just my thoughts.
And the bolded makes it Christianity. Religions change over time. It is whatever it's believers believe it is.
God has always proved His existence through the inexplicable and miraculous. Just go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during the Orthodox Resurrection service at Easter. That's when God gives His uncreated light to the world. For 20 minutes the flame doesn't burn and then the properties change and it becomes fire as we know it. This is a report in a scientific journal by a Russian scientist after testing the phenomena. "An inexplicable appearance of plasma filled the church resulting in an observable electromagnetic spike that was contained in the atmosphere and then animated in the very tomb where the Patriarch was praying and from which an electrical discharge ignited the fire." So to say that there is no proof of God is a little ridiculous especially considering the thousands of miraculous cures going on at the Church of Saint Isadore at Lykavettos in Athens every week - which has shocked not only the doctors and the hospital staffs, but the world. If you get to around 2:40 on the following video, you can see the people washing their face with the flame: