What Kind Of God Would Judge Me For Not Being Christian?

Don't be silly.
Who else would Wotan have called on his mobile phone to keep Brunnhilde surrounded by eternal fire.?????

 

Hey look, I'm not a regular poster here. I FULLY understand that people aren't going to listen to me. I'm not here to convince you. Suffice to say that if one doesn't believe, they absolutely positively MUST know without question that they are right.

This isn't arguing politics where the consequences are nothing more than being wrong. If one makes the wrong choice here, it's FOREVER! Again, not just a hundred, a thousand or a million years...a right or wrong decision has consequences forever.

 

Well, the Pope says there's no hell, so you're safe.

 

sheol=hell, mankinds common grave

 

Perhaps the devil invented all religions as the ultimate lure/test of morality/conflict avoidance...the good lord by comparison doesn't care who you worship, he only cares that you are good.

 

God only acknowledges truth. Christian or not, if one is true, then at that moment they are closer to God than those who are not true. The question then arises, what is truth?
Answer: unconditional love.

 

Sounds like He's a metalhead!

 

To acknowledge what is not true would be like believing in something that is not real. Humans are full of such unreal beliefs.
No wonder Jesus said at the end. "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing".

 

You're on the right track. Anyone who reads the teachings of Jesus would understand that he never asked us to believe a certain creed, but he did ask us to do what he told us to do. Someone asked which church Jesus would attend if he came back today. The answer is "none." Jesus would go to the nearest synagogue.

 

The Jews then responded to him, "What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."

Truth is not localized in a building, but within all people. One's spirit is closer to the truth than one's body or mind.
Jesus' teachings were about truth. And indeed, the truth will set you free from fear. Religions are fear based.

 

Not necessarily. You posit a situation in which one's eternal fate hinges on belief. Belief in what? And why should we suppose that if we make choices in good faith to the best of our knowledge and ability and don't get it right we're doomed forever. It could be there's no "forever" for us. That we simply cease to exist upon death. Or that a merciful deity will take pity on us if we do the best we can. Why not? I think eternity exists as a dimension of present reality. "The Kingdom of the Father is spread out everywhere upon the earth and people do not see it." Thomas 113 Eternity always exists outside of time, and can be found in a second of beauty or knowledge or experience of God.

 

Supposing that we are the human body. Upon its death, we would cease to exist.

Supposing that we are not the human body, but have a human body _ like we have a vehicle. Upon its death, it is only the body/vehicle that ceases to exist. Like a dead car, we simply step out of it, and still exist. This would imply we are a spirit, taking a ride in the body-vehicle.

Due to free-will, the spirit-mind gets influenced by the body-mind (body-mind-spirit; mind bridges both body and spirit). That is, the spirit gets infected by untruths, such as believing we are the body-vehicle.

Suppose we believed that we are the human body, and the body died. Our untrue belief would keep us in the body/vehicle 'forever'. Why, because we no longer have any brain function to change our mind/beliefs.

 

It's for those who obey, but that starts with thought. They are a law for themselves. It's all about what you chose to do to prove God is in you.

"For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)" Romans 2

 

This type of ultimatum which is in the vein of Pascal's Wager is baffling to me. It's like you're presuming the essence of life is this game being played and that even if one doesn't know or understand the rules, they are still subject to an outcome that's indefinite. Do we assume belief in the material world is simply enough to sway the eternal consequences? If not, what are the other variables? Morality? Surely we can entertain the idea of an instance where someone not believing lives a generally more moral life than someone who does believe. If morality is in play, perhaps it's not moral for the non-believer to ascribe to false beliefs.


This idea at it's root seems like, more than anything, one based on fear, which is not a desirable way to live life. If we are to presume a spirit world exists, I don't see why we necessarily need to ascribe to one dictated by the stringent rules of rules of religions. Even among religion there is variability regarding the afterlife: eternal judgement, reincarnation, moksha, etc. But what's to stop us from conjuring up even more ideas about a spirit world? Perhaps we're only unified as spirit in this human vehicle and upon death we go through some sort of spiritual mitosis where our spirit divides, perhaps spirit exists but goes into a dormant conscious state, perhaps spirit goes to a different dimension where the spirit does not carry over any baggage from this existence, etc.

Once we entertain the notion of a supernatural world, we no longer need to be bound by rationality.

 

No 'forever'? Perhaps, but the same Gospel of Thomas also says that the person who finds the right interpreation of the sayings it contains 'will never taste death'. It can't be that their gnosis would end with the death of the physical body.

The idea that a merciful deity will take pity is good, and frankly, probably represents our best hope....but what about the people who choose not to do what they know is right ?
Or who go from cradle to grave with never even a fleeting glimpse of anything beyond the bounds of the ordinary mundane world? It's sad to say, but I fear there are many people who never really experience a second of knowledge, beauty or experience of God/Spirit/ what ever the tag. Again I can only offer my opinion that they probably get re-cycled in some way.

 

Th

I'm assuming that our beliefs, to the extent they're important to us, are part of our consciousness, which is not a physical thing but depends on a functioning brain. When we die, I expect my consciousness to cease to exist, although I could be wrong about that. I can't prove that it's so, but I don't think there is proof otherwise. I don't think we can "suppose" ourselves to a meaningful answer about that. So when I die, I expect my beliefs to cease and my body to decompose and rot away. The brain will probably be the first to go. Whether or not any belief systems have been imprinted on the soft tissue of the brain is presently unanswerable, but the brain will be gone in due time. All things are transitory except change.

 

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I admit to picking and choosing my beliefs. Saying 113 is one of the few in Thomas I agree with, but it has profoundly shaped my thinking. That goes for most of the gnostics, whose complex neoplatonic metaphysics would be difficult for any modern thinker to defend. They may think they found true gnosis, but I think they were out to lunch. But in principle, I agree with the idea that unless a person experiences insight (s)he isn't truly alive. Thomas 56: Jesus said, "Whoever has become acquainted with the world has found a corpse, and the world is not worthy of the one who has found the corpse."

 

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I agree we need to find insight. I'm not convinced though that the gnostics in general were any further out to lunch than the orthodox, who seem to imagine that acquiesence to a pre-formulated set of dogmas is all that is required.