An Afterlife? (gotta love me^^)Follow

xythex, i listed reasons they follows laws aswell, why you sidestep them? dont leave me out

well that was a pretty decent post from xythex, you still havent answered me yet, but you took smashs post part pretty, good, i'm sure smash will find flaws in it though.



I didnt see the insults, you asked a question and the answer was "your an idiot" thats what offended him, it was a decent answer.

This is the insult, I take my integrity very seriously.




I also find that insulting for the reasons stated above.

True it's not mindless dribble like LOLLOLMROMFROROF u R TeH SuXXORS LFOFDLDODO!!L!1!1!!! that you usually find here but they are insults none the less

There is none after you cease to exist obviously, but there is plenty while you still are.



not in the same way



so youre saying my reasons are bad?



well he thinks you dont have any



so basically if you dont like hearing it, its an insult?

Smash I think you are confusing my refusal to hop when you say jump, with a lack of support for my beliefs. I've answered your question. Would you like an example of a crime someone could commit to be better off than what they currently are? Here is a whole page full of Ebay Scams that people have used to increase their own wealth by fruadulantly taking others. The vast majority of these people will never be apprehended by law enforcement. However, I feel that they will eventually have to answer for their actions.

Now if you would like to question any of my beliefs then feel free, until then my confidence in my beliefs and my integrity stands.

I'm sure that my beliefs could fill a book. I'll start with your first question on my beliefs.

Not only does this seem impossible it is most certainly against my beliefs. It would most likely result in great bodily and emotionaly harm, if it didn't kill them. It shows a great disrespect for human life and certainly strongly against everything I view as morally right.

I believe there is an omnipresent entity without end or begining. Everything we are aware of is created from it. I feel that when a creation reaches a certain level of awareness they seek understanding of the whole.

Humans have been seeking it and trying to explain it for all of written history. I don't think it is possible to fully understand it. No part can ever be fully aware of the whole.

However, as humans we are drawn to it and guided by a moral compass. Some persue it as alla, some as Bhudda, some as a tuna fish sandwich in the back of their fridge that they believe talks to them. I don't know how much understanding I can achieve, but I do feel that I need to continue to seek knowledge of it as long as I am able.

No, not at all, but thanks for trying to understand. If your goals are to belittle my beliefs before the readers of this forum I sincerly hope you have failed.

If you have any intelligent questions please feel free to ask.

By it's central tenet .



I believe that we were all created by an omnipresent entity. Not that we all excrete some sort of ectoplasmic lifeless force that holds everything together. We don't hold the universe together, God is the universe. We are a small part of that creation. We don't guide it's flow, there is no opposing lightside/darkside.

From what little spot research I just did on the Jedi Creed it seems to be a very egocentric religion pulled together from a variety of other religious sources and propped up with the Star Wars films. I'm not saying it's wrong, its just not my religion.

I believe that we were all created by an omnipresent entity. Not that we all excrete some sort of ectoplasmic lifeless force that holds everything together. We don't hold the universe together, God is the universe. We are a small part of that creation. We don't guide it's flow, there is no opposing lightside/darkside.


Fair enough.

What leads you to believe there is an "omnipresent entity". Since you assert that God is the universe, and we have no controll at all over it, where does free will fit in?

You believe, or so it would appear, that an omnipresent entity, which is the universe created you personally along with, presumably, Ossama Bin Laden.

One would have to assume that this god, who again, is the universe, must encompass both good and evil. He has to, by defnition, as he is the universe.

That being said, I find your assertion that people are linked to this God by a "moral compass" as you early stated logically fallacious.

An omnipresent being who is the universe cannot have a moral code as he is every action and every moral position.

Please explain this obvious contradiction.


From what little spot research I just did on the Jedi Creed it seems to be a very egocentric religion pulled together from a variety of other religious sources and propped up with the Star Wars films. I'm not saying it's wrong, its just not my religion.


Of course it's wrong. Don't become a whacko on me now.

Ive read the Bible, Tao Te Ching, Dhammapada, Bhagavad Gita, and a pile of other religious works. Not because i wanted to "find" God, but because i think that each has a way of looking at the world that is important to see and understand.

I am moral and respect others not because of some fear of a shady father figure that will reap judgement on me if i act immorally. I do acknowledge Karma in the sense if your an *** its gonna come back around and get you.

Im a moral person because i realize that this life is all we have. There is nothing more to it, and that makes me appreciate how important it is to make it a good trip and help make it better for others

Do i hope that im wrong? Yes. Do i think im wrong? No. In the end i would say my belief that there is no afterlife doesnt cheapen everything. It makes me appreciate how important the short time that we have is. I do my best to make people smile, to have a good time and treat others like i want to be treated, i respect people that are different, and million other things because i refuse to limit my ideas of right and wrong on religious grounds but from personal experience and seeing how it truly affects people.

Im "moral" but i will never kill a man because he is not "moral" in the same way as me, i wont throw a piles of judgement and unhappiness on someone because they love the "wrong" person, i wont dismiss you for having a differing opion as long as your opinion doesnt disrespect others.

In the end i think it takes a more evolved sense of morals and ethics to have them not because you fear a god or wish to attain the ultimate treat of heaven but because you know its the right or wrong thing to do.

hmm

I think "the Force" sums it up pretty well.

personify it, you have the general belief in God.
personify it many times, you have the general belief in dieties.

Add laws and rules to it and you have religion.



Yes
The "Force" I guess I might see as the "primordial" substance of which all other beleif structures are formed.

EDIT--> On FREE WILL.....
I'd say that Destiny is were you WILL end up.. taht is predetermined. However FATE would be the many roads that you can CHOOSE to take to get there.


Check out Quabala... sorta similar.. There is an energy source... everything else is made of that energy...

It's all about patterns.

I believe all the answers can lie in looking at ANYTHING. I believe that EVERYthinh is a sort of cosmic metephor for an Ultimate Truth. So if you look a anything and break it down n the right way... you can explain the Universe using ANYTHING as a model for it.

I'll link once again to the Rational Explaination for my Beliefs

http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis1/p21-pe03.html





Edited, Thu Jul 1 13:12:40 2004 by Kelvyquayo

Everyone is still free to choose whichever of the paths available every time they make a decision. Some paths will never be seen, it does not mean that they do not exist.

It just dawned on me that I've never discussed what I believed on the boards here.

I'm technically an agnostic, because that is the only rational view of the afterlife in my eyes. What happens after death can not be experienced until after death...so I'll guess I'll find out then.

But that being said, Religion and Spirituality themselves seem to be derived from fear of death, vengence to people who have harmed oneself, and a moral code. Upon the realization of this, I could no longer believe in any religion. It wasn't possible when I could plainly see that they were human reactions to the unknown.

So, I spent years trying to understand what was going on around me. I spoke with some of the great minds in reality-seeking. I spoke with random people. I spoke a lot to myself. I read every book on philosphy that I could get my hands on and all the religious texts, too. I read comparative religion texts like "The Golden Bough" by Sir James Frazier.

Upon reading the existentialists, I grew despondent. They proved that the world itself was a solid shade of grey and that that all that we knew ran through the filter of our brains. While most of them stopped at this point and offered no solution, I thought that Kierkegaard had a slightly more optimistic approach. You see, the bad side of becoming existential is that when everything means nothing the human brain begins to unhinge. Camus in his essays on absurdity covers this very well. When we see utter meaninglessness in the world around us, we basically kill ourselves in the ways we can stomach.

This is the dark-tea time of the soul, the chapel perilous.

Next stop, Ouspensky and Gurjieff, RAW, Aleister Crowley, Tim Leary. How can I recreate these shattered constructs into a life that will bring me happiness and meaning? How can I turn lead into gold?

The realization hit me that I could control my perceptions and use these new found perceptions to my advantage. If something doesn't work, chuck it. Find something that does. I abandoned all dogma and only use dogma if I want to. I can honestly believe diametrically opposite things at the same time.

The pieces fell into place and life gradually become much more fun.

Eb