Monday, July 9, 2007
[Edit - I added some comment below. AND - I forgot. This is AOL video. If you're reading this on a feed, you'll have to click on the post title above to see the video. Clicking on the link below is useless, and I have no confidence in AOL's keeping it up for more than a day or two. So don't delay. Sheesh. Ask me again why I left AOL.]
Ok, I apologize. I've got to stop posting so many times a day! But I keep finding stuff I want to keep.
This sounds interesting. I'll be watching or recording Friday night. This guy makes sense on one of the reasons I've rejected formal organized religion. I just hope the network sticks to people like him, who have studied and thought. No whackos, please.
[I removed the video because every time anyone entered this journal, the browser took them directly to this point, I assume because the code provided by AOL made it an embedded page. To see the video, click here.]
Later------
I got an email response to this already, an AOLer who is upset that I would promulgate "such garbage".
Ideas for intellectual discussion are not per se a bad thing. Ideas can become bad when they are used to threaten or coerce.
Where one falls on the religious spectrum will determine the reaction to speculation on the existence of Hell. Some will be horrified by the apostacy (the reverend's congregation? the AOLer?), others will be looking for vindication. I think most will simply find it water cooler fodder, with very little effect on what they already believe.
Just for the record, I do believe that everyone has a soul. The mind and body is merely a tool for the soul. The soul enters at birth and leaves at death. But I don't believe in Hell, or Purgatory, or the usual concept of Heaven. My beliefs are quite different.
Here's a question - is the soul simply your mind? If it's something separate, if it enters and leaves, what does it do while it's here? Is it really just sitting there, twiddling its thumbs and tapping its foot? I believe that if you listen, your soul will talk to you. It knows, and if you listen, it will tell you. You don't need someone outside to tell you.
.
3 comments:
This is a question I've asked myself - would an all-loving God really condemn people to perpetual torture?
I don't think so. But then that means I have to accept that Hitler and Stalin (etc etc) are not in Hell.
I think I read once that the transformative love of God would make them see the horror of their ways and repent.
Sounds like a plan to me....
I remember this guy - he was on a really great episode of This American Life, which, by the way, you would love (if you don't already know it). Here is a link to the episode - it's called Heretics.
Silk, I can attest to the fact that yes, there is a hell. In fact, there are innumerable hells. I've taken several round trips myself. You don't have to wait till you're dead.
eveellen
Post a Comment