I LOVE life. I love this planet. I love people (mostly). I love the beauty in nature. I feel incredibly glad that I've been alive for 25 years. I love sunsets and campfires and big pine trees and the ocean. Why would anyone not be happy with what we already see, without having to create or seek something else to look believe in/look forward to?
2007-10-30 03:45:56 · 31 answers · asked by Linz ♥ VT 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sorry for the typo. Please omit the first "look".
2007-10-30 03:48:16 · update #1
Rachel, you can assume that 99% of the time, I am not speaking to you with these types of questions. Same goes for you, Todd. I know that you guys didn't arrive at your beliefs because you wanted them to be true. However, I do think some people do that.
2007-10-30 03:52:09 · update #2
I love my life too. . . .everything about it. . . .I don't believe in God because of the chance of an afterlife. I honestly believe I have felt His presence in my life. . . .I love Him and want Him because my life is so good . . . .today.
2007-10-30 03:51:24 · answer #1 · answered by sparkles9 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I am a Christian and I could not care less about the afterlife. In Luke 10 when Jesus tells the expert in the law that if he Loves he will live I take that to be a statement not about the afterlife but about the here and now. When we Love we are already living eternally.
The belief in an afterlife developed over time in Judaism and varies in the Bible and across time and space. I think it is just the only way that some people can make sense of either the pain in the world or their belief that time is linear and not cyclical (which I think is probably a false belief). Which requires a stop to time as well, thus Revelation and apocalypse. But like me many Christians see Revelation as an allegory about the Roman Empire....
2007-10-30 03:51:38 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because the idea that, when you die, you're just dead is SCARY to most people. It's not that there's anything wrong with this life, it's that this form of being is all they know. You've always been you, so thinking that there is an end to you, to the undefinable entity who lives in your head, is inconceivable. Plus, the idea that maybe they'll eventually be reunited with deceased loved ones is comforting. The afterlife isn't to make up for a life lived poorly or a world that's too cruel; it's just to affirm the idea that people continue to BE after they stop being alive.
I believe in the soul and I believe in an afterlife. I don't particularly care for the standard heaven/hell, good place/bad place concept, but I think some part of who we are continues to exist in the unknowable reaches of un-science. In the meantime, I doubt there's anything wrong with the idea. I mean, if there is no afterlife then I'll never know because I'll be dead, so there's no harm in believing in it.
2007-10-30 03:58:46 · answer #3 · answered by Rachael 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well, i don't believe there is an afterlife because of how this life is...but let me tell you, my young young friend who obviously has not experience hell-on-earth yet -- there are those of us who HAVE had their hell-on-earth, having spent 10 yrs married to a drunken lout (and even with all that i went through with him, it wasn't the worst suffering in the world) and if this is all there is, i certainly hope there's more in one way or another...an afterlife, or reincarnation, or something, cuz i would hate to think what a waste my only chance was.
do you not know how utterly sh*tty life can be???? i can't believe anyone could be that blind. i love nature n sunsets n campfire etc too, the things you mentioned, but i didn't love being driven to, quite literally, the brink of insanity so that 2 little tiny children could visit mommy in the nuthouse once a month. nothing made that worth it.
2007-10-30 04:18:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can enjoy all the wonders of the creation and reject the concept that there was a creator? To me that is like enjoying your life and rejecting that you had a mother and father who made your birth into life possible. We do not doubt that our own life began from and egg and sperm united through sex-yet deny that all life began by some deliberate act of a loving spiritual being. Never mind the "after life". If your current life doesn't give you a reason to be grateful enough to "seek something else to look believe in/look forward to" nothing will.
2007-10-30 04:21:18 · answer #5 · answered by PrivacyNowPlease! 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dear Linz,
I believe that the concept of an afterlife is significantly older than Christianity. The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife as evidenced by the pyramids and the elaborate tombs of the ancient Egyptian kings. So the afterlife is a concept that is as old as western civilization itself.
What you do not communicate in your question is that for the vast majority of people living on Earth, life is just plain hard and it is cruel. Over half of the world's population lives in 3rd world conditions with overcrowding and poor access to clean water. You are among the privileged few who lives in relative splendor compared to most people on Earth. Your question casts a blind eye on the suffering going on around you in the world today. Please do yourself a favor and visit the websites of Worldvision, Save the Children, Savedarfur, or Doctors without borders, to name a few. There are people suffering and dying every single minute of every day for no other reason than that they were born in the wrong place. If this doesn't make you thankful for the life you lead, it should. I certainly am thankful that I live in the United States and that I have not had to live a single day without food or clean water. I thank God for these gifts and for this life every single day. Take nothing for granted, it is only by God's grace that you are here.
So instead of the heaven on Earth that you and I enjoy, consider someone who is less well off than you or I. Consider how you can use your time, talent, and treasure to help the underprivileged, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the orphans, and the widows of this world. They aren't thinking about the afterlife, they're thinking about how they're going to fill their empty stomachs. They are looking forward to a good meal and you and I have the capacity to give it to them. To them, that is heaven on Earth.
So I believe in Heaven and I believe in Hell. I believe in Hell on Earth and I am thankful that I don't live there, but there are people who do and I believe that it is every person's responsibility on this planet to care for their brothers and sisters who are suffering for no other reason than that they were born into suffering. If not for God, you and I would be in their shoes and they would be answering this question.
So enjoy your life, but realize that you are privileged and be an angel to those who have to live in Hell on Earth.
God Bless,
Docmase
2007-10-30 04:46:15 · answer #6 · answered by Docmase 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I dont need to believe in the afterlife. It is real if I believe it or not
You may love this life, but someday it will end. And then what? You may not be depressed, but it is smart to think ahead. That's why financial people tell you to invest rather than just save money. Prepare for the future.
And what is in the future?
Have you ever done something wrong? Lied to someone? Stolen something when you were young? You might have killed anyone but the problem is that everyone has done wrong, either small or large. And as sad as it is, that one wrong or many wrongs in your life make you guilty of sin. But before you call me a stupid preaching jerk, let me tell you that you have been forgiven. Not because of anything you have done or deserve, but because God loves you. Believe in Him and you will be saved.
2007-10-30 03:53:36 · answer #7 · answered by itchy 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
As good as life might be for many, there's still that cold, stark reality of death awaiting all of us. And then there's the deep-seated human need to explain the unexplainable and find meaning in the meaningless. Those fears and emotional needs are often profound enough to make an otherwise bright and rational person embrace the obviously fabricated stories of God and Heaven.
2007-10-30 04:45:32 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
you are so confused who says life is bad? maybe if you put some bangs over that big forhead you could think straight, just because a person believes in something else doesn't mean they think life is bad , if you have lived your life right then you have nothing to worry about but if you don't well never mind you wont feel the fires of hell if you pretend they are not real right, what you think is just an excuse to not be afraid of what comes next.
2007-10-30 04:06:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just my thoughts and feelings about it.I believe there's a lot of good in this life, as well as bad. I believe in life after death mainly because I believe God is merciful as well as the existence of ghosts/spirits. God would not want anyone to pass forever into oblivion, or eternal hell for that matter. This is what I believe, even though I'm not able to prove any of it. I agree there's a lot of beauty in nature like you said. In terms of the goods things in life I believe we all can really have it both ways, good in this life as well as in the hereafter.
2007-10-30 03:57:30 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not about believing in an afterlife because we dislike this life or desire something more. I'm not generally a big fan of people telling me why I believe what I do.
I love this life too. I'm not actively seeking something else, I just believe there is something else.
2007-10-30 03:49:59 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 0⤋