On God and Religion
- Thread starter AtheistPreacher
- Start date
I don't think you've ever read a college level academic thesis. This wasn't one, it may have been a summation, but i doubt this was word for word a Grad-Level Theology Class paper.
JohnStockalypse
Well-Known Member
I just feel like this needs to be here:
AtheistPreacher
Well-Known Member
I did say in the opening that "much of it is adpated from various papers I've written here at UChicago." It would've been a lot more work to just do it all from scratch, and it probably wouldn't have been as interesting as something i'd already put some time into. I know it's long... but people don't have to read it if they don't want to.
JohnStockalypse
Well-Known Member
AthiestPreacher said:
...unless they want eternal salvation...
AtheistPreacher
Well-Known Member
Damn straight.
AtheistPreacher
Well-Known Member
I can't help myself:I just feel like this needs to be here:
tl;dr
"Too long; didn't read."
1. The paradox of being able to read 400 small posts but not a single long post.
2. A sign of ADD or lack of reading capability.
3. A cry for attention: "I'm too lazy to read the entirety of what you said, but I still want to say something."
4. A sign that not only is someone too lazy and stupid to read, but also too lazy to even type out four words indicating such.
5. A desperate attempt at a comeback used by people who just can't think of one.
thanks for explaining that acronym, I've been noticing it and hadn't a clue what it meant!
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//r00t 4 Jazz
Well-Known Member
Funny timing with this, in that my 7yr old boy last night after fireworks getting ready for bed kinda half asleep suddenly starts crying pretty hard. Being a parent I know it wasn't his hurt cry and he walks over to me stating he doesn't want to die and wishes there was no such thing as death. Then proceeding to ask what happens when we die and what will happen to his cousin Dustin (he's a good kid just got into the wrong crowd a bit as some 17yr olds due) etc. and several other related topics and questions.
I answered the questions best I could by asking him what he thinks about it *his numerous questions* so he could answer his own questions with his own understanding as he is just 7yr old. and maybe ask Dustin just so he knows you think about him. At any rate before this gets any more personal and long winded it just had me reflecting on some of these topics myself (which I haven't finished reading yet as I'm at work).
I answered the questions best I could by asking him what he thinks about it *his numerous questions* so he could answer his own questions with his own understanding as he is just 7yr old. and maybe ask Dustin just so he knows you think about him. At any rate before this gets any more personal and long winded it just had me reflecting on some of these topics myself (which I haven't finished reading yet as I'm at work).
reminds me of when my kids were little - - we have a park nearby with a boulder that has a bronze head of Frank Lloyd Wright on it and we'd walk past this monument all the time, and the kids were always curious about it. They'd always ask about it, who it was and why it was there, and I'd just say he lived here 100 years ago but now he's dead and they put his head on a rock so people would remember him.
Then at some point we were visiting a cemetery, and the kids were very curious about the graves, and the younger two were upset that the heads were missing, I told them the heads were buried in the ground - - but the situation was made more confusing for them because I called the grave stones "headstones" - - not having a clue what all their confusion was about.
So the next time we're walking in the neighborhood and we pass the FLW monument, and after a while my youngest son asks "Mom, when I die, will my head turn to metal or will it be buried in the ground, and will my body be a rock or will it be a brick?" Honestly, sometimes parents are so dumb, because I look at him like "what are you talking about?" and he lays out the two scenarios of death as he sees it - - you die and either turn into a rock with a metal head, or you turn into a brick and your head is buried in the ground.
What really cracked me up is that when I asked him what he would rather be, he said he'd rather his head was buried because if it's metal on a rock the birds might poop on it.
Then at some point we were visiting a cemetery, and the kids were very curious about the graves, and the younger two were upset that the heads were missing, I told them the heads were buried in the ground - - but the situation was made more confusing for them because I called the grave stones "headstones" - - not having a clue what all their confusion was about.
So the next time we're walking in the neighborhood and we pass the FLW monument, and after a while my youngest son asks "Mom, when I die, will my head turn to metal or will it be buried in the ground, and will my body be a rock or will it be a brick?" Honestly, sometimes parents are so dumb, because I look at him like "what are you talking about?" and he lays out the two scenarios of death as he sees it - - you die and either turn into a rock with a metal head, or you turn into a brick and your head is buried in the ground.
What really cracked me up is that when I asked him what he would rather be, he said he'd rather his head was buried because if it's metal on a rock the birds might poop on it.
and I still want to comment a bit on what you've written AP, but I'm not sure how coherent my thoughts will be. Suffice it to say, however, that I've had for years a pretty cynical viewpoint towards the development of religious thought, and it boils down to one group using religious belief and ceremony to control others. I think some of the ideas you've expressed, such as the human need to give their lives meaning, evolved more because the tribal leaders used it as a form of mind control, so to speak. I don't know much about the historical beliefs of Native Americans in primitive times, for instance, but it seems to me that in many of their beliefs they accepted death and didn't "crave" an "ultimate and eternal meaning" to their existence. I realize I don't know enough about it, but i the idea of "an ultimate and eternal meaning of one's existence" seems to me to be more strictly Christian than universal to many religious systems.
Of course, since you're studying primarily Christian theology, I guess that makes sense.
Of course, since you're studying primarily Christian theology, I guess that makes sense.