h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

GargleBlaster! I seem to have missed you recently. Just a quick thought. If god made itself known to us humans then we would have to acknowledge its existance. We would probably then serve god and through serving it learn to begrudge and hate it. God is (according to Christianity. It's a shame that most christians dont act the same way as god) Anyway God is a God of love and doesn't want people to hate him/her/it therefore doesn't show itself. Hopefully that makes sense. If not then I'll have to write better sometime.

Spread the love!!

Is there any kind of theological Christian consensus (or even debate)about what happens to people brought up in other religions, if there is but one God, and he's a Christian God. How different would people's beliefs have to be before they didn't qualify for heaven.
If there isn't a consensus, what are the mainstream competing theories.

Equally, what happens to a person brought up in an agnostic or atheist society. Are the sins of their fathers visited upon them?

If a new born baby has an automatic pass to heaven, how old and/or naughty do they have to be before they have to start to need a bit of belief as well. What about people born with insufficient mental apparatus to understand the concept of God, or even to understand language.

In computing terms - what's the minimum specification to be saved (or damned).

Heh, I've gone over the stuff on his page so I can peruse it off-line.

I wonder if that Freedom From Faith bunch will accept me, seeing as I'm probably more extreme than all of them put together.

I thought the basic premise behind all these religions is that god has somehow mysteriously revealed his/her/itself, then removed all evidence of it, and disappeared.

As for people acting like god, it's really just an ideal that you have built up in your mind, and no human can add up to your perfect ideal...especially since everyone's ideal is different.

I'm sorry but I can;t be bothered to read all the preceeding replys, so I'm putting my two pence in here from th start point. If there was a god in the beginning, of any kind -Allah, Buddah, Bill Gates, The giant refrigarator - I believe he created our brains to see what we want to see when we die.
Ok that wasn't too clear. I'll try again. We don't use 90% of our brains right? so whats it for? I reckon it stores up everything we ever experience, sight, touch, smell, emotion, love, our friends behavioral patterns, - everything. When we are in a lot of pain or we die our somethingsomething glad gives us a shot of natural morphine (I can't remember what it's called something like pheromone but, obviously, not that)this probably sends us on a trip waking up all the stored memories. I think that in this instant the world we will spend the rest of eternity in will be built either out of our good memories or our bad ones depending on wheter we are sent to heaven, hell, pergatory or Eastbourne. (the old life flashing before your eyes rutine)
If we do bad things in our lives which, we know to be bad then, when we die our conscience judges us and we either send ourselves to heaven or send our selves to hell. (I know I am not alone in this apinion because in the film Beetleguise all people who hated them selves and committed suicide, end up as civil servants on the other side.) How we judge our selves and where we go will depend on how we were brought up, ie dependant on which or any god we believe in.

So all of the above quote is true, there are no false religions, nobody is wrong ever and everyone should be happy. If I weren't the only person to believe in this philosophy there would be no more wars and peace for all men. But Eh! whatcanyado?!

Hey Dude! Many Christians believe that they have a personal relationship with God. Whether this is true or not is of course open to debate. Christians gain much satisfaction and peace from the fact that they believe their "Father" in heaven is looking over them, helping them and giving them support "maybe an invisible cruch" Whatever the reality of it is , these people gain real satisfaction and support through their faith. Even if we disagree with their belief structure. (i don't hold with some of the christian faith) you have to evny them in some way. they have somewhere to turn when things go wrong, and a community of support in their churches. I understand all of your points but only if someone has taken a leap of faith can they truely understand (probably)

You're not the only one!

I happen to believe almost exactly the same thing. I think that whatever someone believes is going to happen when they die will happen. The Christians will go to heaven, the practitioners of most Eastern religions will be reincarnated until they can become one with the universe, the atheists will just be dead, and so on. I think that there is a higher power and that there is only one, but different people percieve it in different ways.

I also have a theory on the whole 'if our lives are dictated by God and everything is planned out, then what about free will' debate. I'm sure everyone here has read one of those choose-your-adventure books. And that is how our lives are plotted out. The choices you make decide where you end up. If God is all knowing, then it knows what could happen for every possible situation, and all these possibilities are known, but we get to choose which way to go.

I couldn't tell anyone why they should believe in God, but I can say why I think people believe. People believe in God (or lack thereof) to explain what they can't understand. And people believe in tha afterlife because we want to live forever, and since it's obvious we don't, we believe in heaven or reincarnation or whatever.

Whatever you believe it is true for you. No one can make you believe something that you weren't already predispositioned to believe. No one can say what is valid or not. Some do, but it doesn't change anything, people are going to go on believing whatever they want. And that is fine with me.

I'm very pleased to see the direction this conversation is going. I believe that your life is what you make it. Heaven or hell, pain or pleasure. the easiest way to pure happiness is by following the Golden Rule. If you love everything, even those nasty mosquitoes, you will find true love yourself. If in return, everything in the universe loves you, the effect is overwhelming, often scary. We handle this deluge of love (or lack of it) with sleep and when it becomes too much, we die. If you see "God" , dead relatives or beloved pets, it is because you loved and were loved. If you see "Satan" or menacing visions, it's because you hated and were hated. Everyone has a few skeletons, bad acts. You will pay for them, to a varying degree. Religious belief doesn't matter, we were all dealt the same cards. Live in love and you don't have to worry."-) It's all up to us.

Amen to that Ali babe!.. You have it pretty well figured. I was once a Christian and so i have a few lingering beliefs from that part of my life. These days i prefer to look at things on a more level playing field. I love, others love, we all love. Love is good therefore if I love as much as possible i am being very good. and will get love in return. If i hate everyone then I'll be hated by others and hatred is bad. It's more Karma than god. What goes around comes around!!.

We are all "gods" of our own personal universe, good or bad, it's our choice. i choose to love, ergo, my personal universe is full of everything i love. When you truly love everything, this universe is Heaven. Is that "it", Monkey Boy?

Sounds about right. If we can surround ourselves with love then thats pretty cool. There are no words to explain it correctly. you can only feal it

Hey! A few days ago I posted a reply to alicat about ingrown toenails and what to do about them. It ended up getting stuck somewhere in the middle of last week though, so it's about a third of the way up the forum page from here. (That'll teach me to answer stuff in the middle of the page.)

Oh, and the gland Fluff was talking about was the pituitary. The hypothalmus is in the same area, but I'm fairly sure that only releases hormones that regulate other glands & growth. It's been a while since my last bio class.

Ta mate! know anything about endorphins?

They're why we experience pleasure. Sex, drugs, and sometimes extreme pain can release them. Certain other actions can also release endorphins, but to a lesser extent. The eating of certain foods can release endorphins, i.e. chocolate for women (more so than in men) and spicy-hot foods for guys (why I like hot Buffalo wings). Some people like to throw emotion in there, and they are probably right. Talk about off topic.

No, no, definitely small Gods. Certain beyond belief.

Once again the You Get What You Believe argument (those believing they are hell bound go there and those no matter how mean who reckon heaven is for them are rewarded thusly), is a Pratchett one. Not sure which book, though I think Death says it.

Here are my other thoughts...
Firstly, I am inclined to just about believe in a God of sorts, for a few reasons.

1. The chances that the Universe exists and all are minute or whatever.
2.When playing Risk (the boardgame, bear with me for a while), those who are playing properly, always seem to get the best rolls.Those who are conceited or even cheat, often are dealt poor hands by lady luck. It happens so often it just can't be chance in my opinion.
3.Beauty, you know? Like, the world is really beautiful in almost very natural environment, no matter where you look. Surely if everything was just thrown together it wouldn't look so great, as Man has shown with Urban areas.
4.Life is so intricate that I feel evolution simply can't cover everything. All the little things that are there to protect us and how the body works, it freaks me out.

Anyway, having perhaps accepted that things were made, I will go on to demonstrate some less churchy views. Just because God exists, doesnt mean he's obsessed with us does it? He (or she, actually I reckon more a she, because the idea of God is really a human concept and creators are usually women [birth and that], so she) could be swanning off creating other universes, or just marvelling at the creation of it all.

And just because we were created and God cares for us and likes to show off miracles and help all the little people and all that, does it mean we have immortal souls? Why? Seems to me that this could be all it is. And why would she care if you ate pork/were gay/didn't go to church, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone I don't see how anyone can complain (apart from the pigs, but I'm no veggie, so I'll shut up lest I anthropomorphise any more of my breakfast), so God probably doesn't either.

And why do you have to go to church? Or pray? Whats the point? If I were God I really couldn't care less if someone got bored for Xnumber of hours throughout his life in some cold little building, that's not what matters surely. And God didn't write the bible that is just some crap people made up as the existence of dinosaurs proves.

SOOOOOOO......
-Just be good to one another, give money to charity you never no which deity could be watching. Do a good deed every day.
-Don't bother praying or worshipping ("He demands you worship him? How egocentric is he?") any God, as the others might get pissed, and pissed Gods aren't good.(the 10 commandments says don't worship other Gods, not you have to worship me)
-Don't expect an afterlife, but hope for one.

FINALLY....
If you follow my Believing/Not doing much about it method, you will nicely straddle the fence so that whichever side turns out to be right, you won't look silly.

Christians are Right= "I believed in God, I was nice to people what more do you want?"
Atheists are right = " So? I didn't waste any time in church or praying or anything"

I thank you.

All these different religeons and beleifs...brr. Makes me want to curl into a ball and say "leave me alone!"

Honey, Death says that a lot! In Mort, reaperman - the whole death of Rats thing, Soul music even the colour of magic.

That's a thiught though, do animals go to heaven? (I believe everyone we ever knew goes with us to our own personal heavens because they are part of us in our 'souls'. So I spose that includes rats if you like them)