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What did my parents tell me......

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jezzifishie:
I was raised a Baptist. (I'm a Brit though, and as far as I can tell English Baptists and American/Southern Baptists don't have all that much in common). I don't remember ever asking my parents about death, and strangely it rarely came up at church. The sermons tended to focus on how to be a good person, and make this life better for people. I liked it because it was practical. I'm not a Baptist any more though - my church refused to ordain a woman, so I left.

I haven't been to many other Baptist churches, so please tell me if I'm wrong about any of this!

greatbritton:

--- Quote from: jezzifishie on 16 Dec 2008, 03:09 ---I was raised a Baptist. (I'm a Brit though, and as far as I can tell English Baptists and American/Southern Baptists don't have all that much in common). I don't remember ever asking my parents about death, and strangely it rarely came up at church. The sermons tended to focus on how to be a good person, and make this life better for people. I liked it because it was practical. I'm not a Baptist any more though - my church refused to ordain a woman, so I left.

I haven't been to many other Baptist churches, so please tell me if I'm wrong about any of this!

--- End quote ---


well, in my experience, the basics of possibly all religions is love, love others, love yourself...y'know...which is the best thing about religion, it's so much simpler than coming up with it on your own, finding a way to love idiots (the general populace), without religion, is extremely difficult. In that manner, religion is extremely practical!  It's another whole ballgame when religion teaches people to hate, my oldest friend is evangelical and he hates anyone who doesn't claim his exact beliefs as true.  "proof bananas were made for man is the fact that they curve toward your face"  when I asked him what happens if you hold it any other direction he changed the subject. 

The baptist church of which I used to be a member had the first ordained woman on the eastern seaboard, so maybe you should come over here, I can take your place over there, after all, I am looking for a simple way to gain citizenship there! 

slandurgurl:

--- Quote from: zombor on 15 Dec 2008, 17:06 ---Religion is a decision more than a "brainwashing", I mean, here you all are, some taught different religions deeply and some not and you have made the decision to believe in those teachings or not. If someone truly believes that your life (and/or potential  afterlife) will be better if you believe in a religion, than are they not showing love for you by trying to teach you the religious teachings, in the hope that you will believe? Even if you do not like it or think that it is terrible, they are doing the best thing they can think of to make your life better in their eyes.
You do not have to like it, but I hope that you can understand what I am saying. People do not think they are "brainwashing" people, they think they are trying to help them, they are showing love for them. So the hatred and anger is unnecessary, you can just decline the teachings, if not now, then later. Fighting and namecalling is not going to help, it is just going to prove to the other people that they are right.

But on the topic of what my parents told me, they did not tell me anything, I just read a lot of books and attended church when I was younger, and decided for myself what I was going to believe in when i was old enough to make that decision. No one I cared about died (people and pets) until I was about 11, and until then, the fact that I would no longer be able to see them again did not matter to me so I never thought about it; death just happened, and there was no point in worrying about it, because I was unable to do anything about it. However, that practicality was useless when people I did care died. . . because I missed them.

I believe in God and Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and heaven after you die, and if nothing else (and there is so much more), it is much more preferable than the empty hopelessness and terrible nothingness of believing that you will never being able to see the people you love, being able to grow and interact with them after they and you die.

--- End quote ---

Speaking from experience, teaching religion to children is very akin to brainwashing.  What child, when told that if they don't believe in God they will burn in hell for all eternity, will choose not to believe? 

As far as your take on witnessing goes, how would you feel if someone told you your life would be better if you believed something that goes completely against your values?  That if you didn't change your world/life views, you were going to suffer in your afterlife?  As far as the hatred and namecalling goes, yes it's pointless, but how much of that do we see from the Christian right?  "God hates fags", for example.  I thought God was love.  The biggest problem I have with Christianity is the Christians - the majority of them do not live or act on the teaching of Christ, and they feel they must force their beliefs down the throats of anyone who doesn't think the same way they do, to "save them". 

Not believing in your God or your heaven doesn't equal hopelessness or nothingness - that's like saying those who aren't religious don't have any basis for their morals and values.   It's insulting and patronizing.  Just because I have the courage to admit that I don't know for sure what will happen after death doesn't mean I don't think there may be something more. 

Rocketman:

--- Quote from: Min Min on 15 Dec 2008, 00:32 ---Personally, I don't understand why people have such a problem coping with not existing after death. After all, we get a hell of a lot of practise at it before we're born :)

--- End quote ---

Because there was nothing to lose. Non-existence now means you lose everything the world has to offer. It means you leave behind family and friends. It means those same family and friends eventually stop caring about you and move on with their lives.

Siibillam-Law:
Mark Twain said, and it makes me smile oh so, "I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

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