Sad/Anxious/Concerned about going to Heaven after I die (scripture, pray)
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I believe that animals have souls. But they do not have the same capacity for having a conscience as humans do. This is why animals do not worry about things. They live in the present, hopefully with the joy of "being". The only thing the mammals have to fear is evil humans.
The real question is when the soul evolved. Did souls first appear during the Cambrian Explosion?
Hopefully paleontologists will eventually find fossilized souls.
The real question is when the soul evolved. Did souls first appear during the Cambrian Explosion?
Hopefully paleontologists will eventually find fossilized souls.
It is sad that you are so mired in the physical you cannot appreciate the product of our most important attribute, our conscious Self. It contemplates the many physical manifestations but is not the same manifestation.
It is sad that you are so mired in the physical you cannot appreciate the product of our most important attribute, our conscious Self. It contemplates the many physical manifestations but is not the same manifestation.
Good question. Some people like to post off the wall religious jargon in the middle of threads. I guess that is all they have to offer. Oh well.
Well, I think those were good points that arleigh made, I just wanted to know how exactly they were related to the OP's questions/comments about heaven. He did mention something about intimacy, but Jesus' answer to the Sadducees' question about whose wife the woman who had seven husbands would be in heaven was about marriage and the two aren't necessarily consequential: just because there will be no giving and taking in marriage doesn't necessarily mean there will be no physical intimacy. It seems there is too much a tendency, and maybe I'm mistaken in this, to equate that kind of intimacy with sinfulness when that just isn't the case; you may as well call eating sinful too, after all, it's physical--yet after Jesus had risen from the dead, he shared a meal with his disciples.
It just isn't very clear what exactly heaven will be outside of perfect, lasting happiness with God in a spiritual but also a physical state. We are so confined to the physical that it is really hard for most of us to define satisfaction and fulfillment outside of those things which we find physically satisfying, which for most of us includes sexual intimacy. Yet we will be in a totally different state which is entirely free from the taints of sin. I think of it somewhat like this: when we were children, childrens' things interested us. I remember when I was little constructing sections of rooms for my dolls out of masking tape on the floor and finding the utmost enjoyment in this. Does this entertain me now? Not really. I have different interests now, and it will probably be the same kind of thing in heaven (and I think there was a comment or two about how intimacy can be a novelty for some people, but after a while it becomes old. That kind of wearing satisfaction won't be happening in heaven! God's fulfillment is ever-lasting).
True that. And if eternal hell exists, heaven can't. To exist for eternity under the reign of a God whose "holiness" is satisfied by an untold number of humans being in unimaginable agony forever would, in itself, be hell.
We do know what happens when we die: we lose consciousness and that's the end of it. There's no evidence that consciousness can exist without the brain and body. Then our brain and bodies decay and eventually disappear. There's no evidence for some magical part of a person (soul) that can float off to some magical place (heaven/hell/Club 72 Virgins) after death. The soul and afterlife are products of the human imagination and nothing more.
If you have evidence for a "soul" or "afterlife", then please present said evidence. If there's no evidence, than the soul/afterlife is no more real than any of the other items on my list of "imaginary things that can't be proven to not exist."
How do you view near-death experiences? There are plenty of testimonies of people who have clinically died, yet were brought back and had experiences while in that state.
How do you view near-death experiences? There are plenty of testimonies of people who have clinically died, yet were brought back and had experiences while in that state.
They obviously didn't die, or they wouldn't still be with us. That's why they're called "near-death experiences," and not "death experiences."
The human brain is capable of producing all kinds of strange experiences, especially when it is under severe stress or under the influence of drugs (anyone who has ingested LSD will tell you that). Things like panic attacks can cause feelings of being detached from reality or ones own body. I used to have panic attacks while driving home from work, so I would routinely have "out of body" experiences, unfortunately. I never could actually see the top of my car or anything, but it certainly "felt" like I was somehow "outside" or "above" my body. Far out? You bet! It's pretty terrifying sh-t.
True that. And if eternal hell exists, heaven can't. To exist for eternity under the reign of a God whose "holiness" is satisfied by an untold number of humans being in unimaginable agony forever would, in itself, be hell.
Amen! So few people consider all the implications of what they claim to believe. Rep IOU.
True that. And if eternal hell exists, heaven can't. To exist for eternity under the reign of a God whose "holiness" is satisfied by an untold number of humans being in unimaginable agony forever would, in itself, be hell.
You don't like the idea of gloating about it along with God?
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So few people consider all the implications of what they claim to believe. Rep IOU.
