Stripped bare, is religion just an oasis of solace in regards to inevitable death?

Question

kracken----I respectfully read your answer, but it's nothing but conjecture on your part. Like yourself, the religious tend to attach a fantastic claim to all of their accomplishments. I understand your experience is personal. It looks as though whenever you figure something out or accomplish something you automatically think "thanks god". That doesn't work for me. I prefer substance.

Your answer had some unique ideas though. I wonder how they sit with other religious folks.

kracken----I hope my added text didn't suggest a lack of compassion for your situation. I wish you the best of luck and as much pain-free time as is possible.

I wish you the peace you are seeking and apparently have found.

Answer 1

No. but first you know god. religion often confuses that vital point. please allow me to continue, or please consider my words here.

here is what one man has come to believe. i claim that god spoke to my mind recently. and here is my understanding. GOD (not a man or a woman) is best described as a form of energy that is yet undiscovered. nothing like it to refer to. it is pervasive and cannot be measured in any way. it is infinite, has complete understanding and is purposeful. therefore compassionate and able to rain down misery like a bolt of lightning. created all living things to evolve as it itself does. there is cause and effect with god, too. God is binary in nature which is the central issue -- good vs bad or, positive and negative same as an eclectric current. again, god is a field of undefined energy that can be focused for awesome effect if god so chooses. you and myself are here for god's purpose. we cannot know the purpose but we can try to know and do. that is what god wants. to try and fail and succeed and get up when we fall and learn. that is all we can do. it is the crucible where the important part of us are forged.

Now, do you want know where you go when you die? i think i know. i think god has told me. i think god accepts the good INTO the infinite field of purposeful energy that is God. In a sense you become God, at least an ingredient that is the purposeful and evolving God.

DEATH means no longer passing through a learning and testing process but, hopefully, we become a worthy spirit ready to literally pass into god and share the best of the best and the end of loneliness and pain. joining god is not DEATH, it is LIFE. not like this life.

but the "other" is, too, quite real. a second force is necessary to forge those in the crucible of temptation of greed and vice. there is an obvious choice for "the chosen" to resist temptation and struggle through the necessary stages of development and evolve. many fail. pity them. no other creature in this world has such a choice and the reason is obvious.

you can fail to use your intelligence and you will be left behind. you will be weeded out. upon death, your prevailing spirit will become blended with the OTHER force, the exact opposite of god. always, the choice is good vs. evil. your mind does not require a physical body, a wet brain, once it accumulates a critical mass. it simply migrates into the larger field we call God. God has been revealed to me and "we" are drawing closer. i am a very sick man. tonight i am looking forward to feeling my spirit rise from this aching worn out body. i feel a glow tonight and the pain is gonna end. i know i am glowing and if not tonight, soon. no more fear and no more pain! god is smiling in my face! and i feel the warmth. nothing but love and pure goodness, love and compassion. i pray i will be chosen! lift me up god almighty, i am ready to go with you tonight! to be part of God is the ultimate success, not feeble worldly trinkets. Ready so ready.

Answer 2

I think human spirituality may be more complex, and in it's earliest stages was not necessarily necrophobic. It is more likely that it began as a way to place the more immediate earthly surroundings in some kind of order and context, as well as an attempt to control very important but uncontrollable things, such as the success of a harvest. The neolithic dead in many cultures show no trace of ceremonial burial. For example in early pre-dynastic settlements in the Nile valley, the dead were simply buried in any convenient place in a settlement, often in a simple pit underneath the "house". No grave goods or any such thing, nor any overt and ritualised necrophobia. However ritual items from this era have been recovered. Therefore religion existed, but dealing with human death didn't appear to be it's main function. Eventually with the increasing power of established religious authorities, the afterlife becomes a tool of social control. If one does not behave in accordance with the teaching of a religion, you Will be eliminated or tortured, unavoidably and inescapably after death. The fact that no one could prove that such a fate could be avoided, escaped or didn't happen at all, made, and continues to make, it all the potent. This is were our current fear of sin and having to act in a certain way in this life to secure a place in the next comes from. I am a religious person, but I still agree with this basic idea of how beliefs develop amongst society. Wether you regard the ultimate force for that development as being gods or humans is up to you :-)

Answer 3

If you believe it is then that IS all it is for you.

The power of religion is in the faith of its followers. They can bring about positive changes or destructive changes in their own lives by believing, as well as, destroy whole societies or improve their environment as a determined group.

In the end, if it is just a security blanket to give us comfort as the night creeps up on each of us, then leave me in my ignorance. Its warm, familiar and will help me ease off to sleep. Once I'm asleep fooled or not I'll never know.

Answer 4

O indeed, and this q reminds me of my essay on the subject:

"Strip mankind of spirituality and he will stand naked against the searing reality of hopeless Epicurean mortality, and all his inhibitions farmed through the millenninia, will peel away to unleash a maelstrom of narcissistic aggression that would threaten the very existence of Nature herself."

Answer 5

no it is not and oasis. growing up i was scared to death that one mistake on my part would land me in an eternity of fire in hell. after moving away from religion in general(still believe in god). i feel allot more relaxed and accept death as just another part of living.

Answer 6

no religion is more
than just a way of dealing with death
its a attempt to deal with the problems of life too

Answer 7

God sent Messengers to us who taught us what is going to benefit us in this life and the Hereafter. Death is inevitable so that is why one would prepare for what is after it. Because what is after it is everlasting.

Answer 8

Yep.

Answer 9

no. it would just be naked. which is a good thing...nothing is hidden, all is revealed...

Answer 10

No.