View Single Post
Old 12-04-2004, 12:47 PM   #17
XMEN Ashaman DTM
Forum wh0re
 
XMEN Ashaman DTM's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
Age: 46
Posts: 965
Send a message via ICQ to XMEN Ashaman DTM
Default

Just a quick note...

Quote:
*grins* My only comment now is the only Heaven comment. If there was only heaven and there is a no harm no foul agreement between God and Satan - then any action on the earth can be completely justified. Murdering innocents, torture, there is nothing under the sun that won't eventually take you into heaven, and so actions in this life become completely meaningless.

Not exactly. Whether you have an afterlife or not, and whether you go to heaven or hell or neither, doesn't mean that you can just do what you want while you are here on earth.


Whatever you believe, it's your actions here on earth that count now. If you were brought up believing that you only get this one shot at things, what would you do?

Would you despair and fear the coming death? Would you rejoice and go out and rob a bank because you know that you'll never see hell? Would you wish and pray to anything and everything for some semblance of yourself to last beyond your death?


I know what I would do: not worry about things after I can no longer make an impact on this world. To me, it's pointless to worry about heaven and hell and have that thought be your motivation for doing good things (or bad things) in this world. In my mind, self-preservation is not a viable reason to do the right thing. To be honest, I don't really care about heaven or hell.

I just care about living my life to the fullest, by experiencing new things, meeting people, having children, exploring how things work, and so on. I also care about not harming others, unless they are harming me or someone else. I'll very likely kill someone if they're trying to kill another person or cause them great harm, and I would be sad that I had to do that to stop that person. And I care about making sure that the things that I do in life have a positive impact for the future, no matter how small those things seem.

I am not ever motivated in what I do by religious beliefs... I've separated those from what drives me, because they are not the reason that I live the life I do.

I had a bit of this discussion with my dad before. He said that the way he sees it, he's got four options: there is no god and believe, no effect; there is no god and don't believe, no effect; there is a god and believe, positive; there is a god and don't believe, negative. The only downside is if there is a god and you don't believe according to my dad. He's right. But in my view, it doesn't matter because in any case, you are supposedly judged by your actions on earth. And if God really takes part in our lives, I'm not going to sit here and worry about what things I do, will do, or have done in respect to my chances of getting into heaven. I'm solely concerned with doing good in the here and now for the benefit if all.
XMEN Ashaman DTM is offline   Reply With Quote