This youtube video will make you think...

[psyadam]

ILOVEJESUS wrote

Just out of interest are you interested in pre birth experiences ( or past life experiences)? Or do you think that you never existed prior to being created so your eternal life with God starts when you were born?

I really haven't thought about before I was born.

[psychodiva]

[Choobus]

psyadam wrote

I really haven't thought about before I was born.

millions of swimmers and you got to the egg first? Your dad must have had way too much Drambuie...

[Smellyoldgit]

[VladTheImpaler]

The OP's video was some funny stupid shit. One thing I observed is that these deamons in hell aren't anywhere near evil enough. I'm certainly going to see to it that they shape up when I get there.

I also found it funny that this one woman was talking about how these evil beings put "disguting" things into "holes" in her as if she had a physical body, yet this other guy was embraced in flames yet explained that he could not feel them as he had no physical body. Good, at least they collaborate on the facts of their stories.

Irreligious wrote

Psyadam, every last one of the people profiled in that video clip were white, American Christians offering culturally appropriate scenarios of an afterlife as white, American Christians would envision it. None of what they had to say was particularly revelatory as alleged afterlife stories go.

Shocking! Good point, it’s hard for me to understand why people who believe in this shit can’t seem to comprehend such simple observations.

[sweetsauce84]

If the people who "went to heaven" liked it so much better than here on earth, why don't they just kill themselves so they can "go back"? Oh let me guess....it's not god's will...how convenient! Funny how if there's A heaven and A hell, all of these people had different "experiences".

[psyadam]

sweetsauce84 wrote

If the people who "went to heaven" liked it so much better than here on earth, why don't they just kill themselves so they can "go back"? Oh let me guess....it's not god's will...how convenient! Funny how if there's A heaven and A hell, all of these people had different "experiences".

The idea is you don't get to heaven by killing yourself...you have to "earn" your way there by good deeds...

[lostsheep]

I feel bad about it now, but I once told my Sunday school teacher that I couldn't wait to die so I could get to heaven, and I wondered if I should kill myself to make this happen. I was a very literal child. My teacher went white and said that this would greatly upset my parents....and god wouldn't want that, or something like that.

[sweetsauce84]

psyadam wrote

The idea is you don't get to heaven by killing yourself...you have to "earn" your way there by good deeds...

Like I said, how convenient.

[psyadam]

sweetsauce84 wrote

Like I said, how convenient.

It makes sense to me anyway...

[nkb]

Then stop pretending you are an agnostic, fucking grow some balls and announce that you're a Christian. Your reasoning abilities are already on par with a theist.

[ILOVEJESUS]

psyadam wrote

I really haven't thought about before I was born.

So why are you so worried about after you die. What is going to be different???

[psyadam]

ILOVEJESUS wrote

So why are you so worried about after you die. What is going to be different???

I am not saying that what happened before I was born isn't of interest, but I would say that since "the future is where we'll spend the rest of our lives" (or in this case, afterlives), what happens after we die is of much more interest to me.

[Sartre1]

psyadam wrote

I probably wouldn't usually tell people I'm a Christian because I think that would send the wrong message; the wrong message being that I am not skeptical on whether Jesus actually lived, not skeptical about whether or not there is an afterlife. I am skeptical.

I applaud your skepticism, however nascent, but keep at it. One day it will just come to you. The only reason you believe is because you want to. It's comforting. Then you will realize that wanting something to be true doesn't make it so. I experienced an "out of body" episode myself. I was an atheist when it happened and I was an atheist when it was over. I distinctly remember the ambulance attendant, (who was a guy I knew) saying, "I don't have a pulse." I remember thinking to myself, "Well, apparently I'm dead." There are neurological explanations for these events. I wouldn't worry too much about heaven or hell. Both of these can be experienced on a daily basis right here.

[psyadam]

Sartre1 wrote

I applaud your skepticism, however nascent, but keep at it. One day it will just come to you. The only reason you believe is because you want to. It's comforting. Then you will realize that wanting something to be true doesn't make it so. I experienced an "out of body" episode myself. I was an atheist when it happened and I was an atheist when it was over. I distinctly remember the ambulance attendant, (who was a guy I knew) saying, "I don't have a pulse." I remember thinking to myself, "Well, apparently I'm dead." There are neurological explanations for these events. I wouldn't worry too much about heaven or hell. Both of these can be experienced on a daily basis right here.

Thanks for applauding the fact that I do not blindly accept the "facts" that Jesus lived, that God exists, etc. I was just talking to my dad a few hours ago about God, and he said that he attended a lecture with my mom for skeptics and that they claimed that there was a lot of record out there from the 5 accepted ancient historians that documented that time (he mentioned Josephus, which my dad pronounced "Joe-cee-phus"). I told him that I recalled reading somewhere that there was a well-reknowned atheist that disputed the claims that there was all that much documentation of Jesus (I can't remember where I read that but it's probably in one of my books somewhere).