Can you be thrown out of heaven and into hell (and vice versa)

there has to be SOMETHING. this CANNOT be it

I stand by this, though

I have been through enough un-happy times. There has to be something else.

Spoken like a true desperate animal with a finite lifetime.

Why must there be something else?
Just because your life turned out ****‽
It has absolutely no bearing on a "something else"
Sure when you die your oxygen starved brain in its final seconds will present to you whatever fantasy you have subscribed to your whole life in a bid to come to terms with not existing anymore.

Do happy wealthy people welcome death as much as poor sad people? I wonder, not.
 
@jpodI am not sure which part or interpretation of the OP's question you would like me to answer. Can you clarify? I did state one way it could be interpreted (to my understanding) when I gave the house analogy. e: at post #116

Apologies, I had not appreciated that.
 
........

Is there any value in religious (ie. organized group) belief, for anyone, at any time, or has there ever been?

....Service delivery failures are, we know, historically notorious and beyond dispute.

.....In the current research clime of understanding human behaviour, one technical question (for theist theorists, I suspect) is:

Can religion (per se as a construct) withstand the assaults of increasing scientific knowledge of delusions, hallucinations, etc etc with its head held high?

Fascinating posts RxR. Thank you.

The first and third points above [edited above] would be great items for Speakers Corner should you wish to post them.

Service delivery failures is a wonderful euphemism. I love it.
 
And how does the rise in atheism compare alongside the increase in damage we've done to the world, I wonder....?
Jus' sayin'.... :p

Funnily enough I became an atheist when I was 18 in 1976.
At that time it was unheard of (in my area/circle) and I was quite the rogue telling people I didn't believe in God.
 
jpod

You can post the parts you mentioned in Speakers Corner if you find them suitable. If you post the third point, you might consider including a link to the bottom paper (or one like it) in your first post for context.

The article is on schizotypy, autism, religion and the search for meaning. Autism and schizotypy are used as range-defining types - since:

a. Schizotypy is a trait widely distributed in the human population and is associated with spirituality. Spiritually is on the rise, and associated with belief in the paranormal. eg. See this article: "Spiritual but not religious":

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28544975/

b. Autism is a continuum. Normal people are commonly regarded as having lesser degree of autistic behaviour (as measured by some popular measuring instruments such as the AQ Therefore, the type is not irrelevant, for being frequent, and higher AQ scores are associated with non-religiosity.

Therefore, this article:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6407781/

The notion is called "Psychspiritual Resiliency" in something I just noticed (not for the easily suggestible) at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/27395050/?i=6&from=/8667145/related

...
Otherwise? Read and enjoy or ignore. AFAIK I can't post anything in Speakers Corner.

Is anyone interested in starting a thread for euphemisms? Or would it be off-topic for the OCUk forum?
 
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Why not one of the certified departments of parapsychology?

Also, what if the entity shanks you with the pencil in the meantime?

Sure, any legitimate Skeptic will do the job. But not an illegitimat Skeptic. This short abstract from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal defines legit Skepticism:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/3282903/?i=5&from=/11372570/related

Of course, if it shanks you first with the pencil you can laugh before you attack, since it is clearly pretty much bound by the laws of known physics (as well as "it" being dumb).
 
there has to be SOMETHING. this CANNOT be it

I stand by this, though

I have been through enough un-happy times. There has to be something else.

Something I find a bit strange in this respect are people who are naturally good at something from a young age and when you learn how to do whatever it is they are doing you realise they must be utilising advanced concepts without ever having had the training or experience to unlock understanding of those concepts.

Personally I've always had an in-depth comprehension of electronics up until the advanced maths theories (which I'm still not great at understanding) even as a kid - no one ever had to explain to me what a transistor was used for or how it works for instance - I have no idea how I know I just do.

I had the same thing with programming really - sat down once and looked at an example program in BASIC and instantly understood the concept of programming (variables, functions, conditional statements, etc.) I'd be searching the documentation for the commands to do a specific coding concept such as select case rather than having to learn the theory first - though I still had to learn the specifics of any given language and more advanced techniques and my programming skills have improved over time.
 
As everyone is talking about afterlife. What happens when a brains consciousness is eventually cracked and can be stored on computer will humans have their own form of Virtual reality heaven?

Wanna live through WW2. Go ahead. Want to be a member of the Beatles during the 60's go ahead. Would be pretty cool although we are more than likely centuries off that kind of technology.
 
As everyone is talking about afterlife. What happens when a brains consciousness is eventually cracked and can be stored on computer will humans have their own form of Virtual reality heaven?

Wanna live through WW2. Go ahead. Want to be a member of the Beatles during the 60's go ahead. Would be pretty cool although we are more than likely centuries off that kind of technology.
If you're suggesting that one day computer AI will be sufficiently advanced to understand the female brain, then you must be crackers matey!! :p ;)
 
Society changes, true. And the freedom, which was hard earned is escaping from us, as we're forced to accept the "one and only true" from a minority's agenda.
Clearly the idea of freedom of speech or religion doesn't apply when its convenient to simply ignore and suppress one's rights.
 
Society changes, true. And the freedom, which was hard earned is escaping from us, as we're forced to accept the "one and only true" from a minority's agenda.
Clearly the idea of freedom of speech or religion doesn't apply when its convenient to simply ignore and suppress one's rights.

It sometimes appears that way, most obviously before a market correction. As a parent, I considered it important to teach my own children to avoid such basic errors - the one irrefragable principle being "defend the top". And the most critical word, "and".
 
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Jesus forgave everyone He met did he not? One of His last prayers before He returned to His rightful place in heaven was "Father forgive them, they know not what they do."

He'll be back b.t.w.
 
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