The Afterlife: Is it all propaganda, or is there something more?

Question

I've given this a lot of thought - I'd like people to put forward their own views from their religious viewpoints.

Firstly, if a person does good acts but does not believe in whichever religion is 'correct' do they deserve heaven?

Secondly - If a person does good works to secure a place into heaven, are they just sucking up to the big security camera in the sky? If we have a glorious afterlife waiting for us, why not kill ourselves now?

Are heaven and hell just propaganda to scare us into obedience? Most fun things are sinful; it'd be hypocrisy to allow them in Heaven, so are we just freed of all pain and need, smiling, doing nothing, for all eternity? Why should hell be so bad? It'd spite God to make it fun, surely that's what demons want?

Do we reincarnate?

Is it all just scare tactics, or is there something more?

I respectfully ask nobody says that I'm going to hell for daring to question/deny, and I'd also like nobody to say all religious people are stupid.

Answer 1

I'm a Christian and these are my thoughts based on the Bible.
First, no. People cannot get into heaven by doing good works. We are all sinners and there is no amount of good works we can do that would make up for what we have done wrong.

Second, no. It's not just a big security camera in the sky. It's God, who created you, who loves you, who wants to help you and pour out blessings upon your life. Why not kill ourselves now? Because people still need to know about God. We need to talk to people about him and we need to make our lives an example.

While hell has often been used as a scare tactic, it's not a good reason to behave or want to get into heaven. It's really unfortunate that people resort to that for salvation purposes. Your right, sin is fun. But God knows what is best for us. He only wants to protect us from things that will harm us. We can have fun without sinning and the best part is there is no guilt that follows! Hell will be bad because on judgement day everyone will realize that God is real, that He is good, holy, and loving. Those who did not believe in him will be seperated from Him forever. There will be nothing fun about hell.

No we do not reincarnate. We have one life on this earth.

Look at this website as a guideline for how you can be saved! http://www.eeinternational.org/DYKFS/English/DYK_Eng_1.htm

Answer 2

~~~Stu,,, A New Concept for you; Picture this,,,, You are a Spiritual Being who is Incarnating in The Flesh to attend Earth School. In order for you to use your gift of Life and Freewill in Good Conscience you are not allowed to use your memory of past lifetimes as this would be akin to giving you The Answers to the Test. The "Afterlife" you refer to is simply The Etheric (spirirtual) Plane. This is where Souls 'come from' and this is where they 'go back' to when the Earthly Body is finished with the Life Lesson.

Answer 3

According to Buddhism, upon death of the physical body your mind starts going through an intermediate state that we call the "bardo" which a lot of people start going through and then talk about when they're resuscitated (going down a tunnel, bright lights, etc.). What it is is the process of the mind before it takes rebirth in one of the many realms one can take rebirth in... i.e. human rebirth, animal, pretas (hungry ghosts), deva realm (gods/goddess type of heaven but not omnipotent), hell realms, etc.

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