Is there "life" after death?

[bluezulu]

well i think K.B. could well be the wizard in the sky!

lets look at the facts, he has no faults at all ,he is always right about everything, and knows the answers to just about every thing. praise be to K.B. the chosen one!

[Newt]

KB - when you compare the total number of Christians who have ever lived with the total number of people who have ever lived, the percentage of Christians is certainly small enough to qualify as a minority since it is below 50% and probably way below that mark.

[corydoras]

I don't claim to be able to explain the creation of the universe...

What a shame Emma, you'd definitely be top of the list for a Nobel Prize if you could. The answer is that we just don't know. Like Ken said, "We don't know" is a good answer, unless like KB you have this child like need for certainty about everything.

 

http://www.big-bang-theory.com/

 

KB for what it's worth mate you are not the type of Christian that I dislike. At least you don't claim that your Bible is the Word of God, nor do you claim that the earth is only 6,000 years old, nor do you deny evolution.

[Vagabond]

Pascal's Wager has always seemed flawed to me. Given that most gods are sold to us as benevolent, but are in reality uncaring, selfish, despotic, cruel and vindictive, (like souped-up politicians really) it is clearly the moral duty of any upright honest person to be against them - ie to be an antitheist rather than an atheist.

 

A better bet than Pascal's is surely the atheists' wager - which allows for the remote possibility of a benevolent god :

 

"You should live your life and try to make the world a better place for your being in it, whether or not you believe in god. If there is no god, you have lost nothing and will be remembered fondly by those you left behind. If there is a benevolent god, he will judge you on your merits and not just on whether or not you believed in him"

As DavyR has already pointed out, in the absence of any proof either way, claiming a belief or disbelief in a god or a hereafter is irrelevant. It would be nice to say "let people believe what they want, as long as those beliefs do not impinge on the life-style of others" - but unfortunately, they do so impinge, religious leaders being the control freaks they are.

 

Making the most of one's life, which in my case involves doing as much fishing as I want to, seems rather more important than wasting ones time trying to convince creationists they are wrong.

Edited July 27, 2009 by Vagabond

[Vagabond]

. Like Ken said, "We don't know" is a good answer,

http://www.big-bang-theory.com/

 

.

 

Cory, we have crossed swords on Big Bang before - just as I don't believe in gods, so I don't believe the Big Bang theory provides a satisfactory answer for the beginning of things.

I see my objection is echoed within the very reference you give......

 

 

"Is the standard Big Bang theory the only model consistent with these evidences? No, it's just the most popular one. Internationally renown Astrophysicist George F. R. Ellis explains: "People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations….For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based on observations….You can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my view there is absolutely nothing wrong in that. What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that."⁴ "

 

A cynical view is that which model/hypothesis is followed often depends more upon the likelihood of a research grant than anything else.

[kleinboet]

All this talk of Wizards - where does that come from? Small minds that cannot comprehend that WE are NOT the end all and be all of the Universe? People that will believe in wizards, but not in the afterlife!!

 

Now, I will tell you something that I have told nobody else - As some of you know, I lost my cat a short while ago, and we lost Brenda's retired guide dog las week.

I bought an electric plug-in door bell so that if Brenda needed me she could ring the bell and I could do whatever it was that was needed.

the evening of the day Ingwe (my cat) was put down, the bell rang without Brenda ringing it! It happened again the following day when we had visitors. That night my fire alarm went off and I checked and the house and all was normal, so said out loud for the cat NOT to play with the alarm system as that was scaring me. The next morning the bell went off again! Now I bought the system sealed with a 'ding-dong' chime, but this time it went off with a Westminster chime!

When Brenda's guide dog was put down, I asked Ingwe to ring the bell when wheat arrived. I had gone to the shop and as I got back and walked, in Brenda was talking to neighbour who had 'dropped in' - the bell in the bedroom rang! and the neighbour heard it.

We have a young lady clean the house for us and she house-sits when we are away. When we got back from Rheepham she told us that the little cat we have (the only one left!) had gone 'walkabout' so she asked Ingwe to chase her into the house. about 30 seconds later the little cat came screaming into the house, just as if something was chasing her. Jemma (the young lady) said "thanks Ingwe" and closed the door!

How did this happen?

Edited July 28, 2009 by kleinboet

[chesters1]

because you named your poor cat after a missile ,its pi.ss.ed so its haunting you.

 

no soul there though as your seeing a complete cat

Edited July 28, 2009 by chesters1

[DavyR]

so said out loud for the cat NOT to play with the alarm system as that was scaring me. The next morning the bell went off again!

 

That's cats for you - malevolent little blighters (I know, I have to mind my daughter's little angel for her).

[DavyR]

Shine a torch from below our face and it seems strange and sinsister.

 

Some people don't even need the torch...

[Steve Walker]

I don't claim to be able to explain the creation of the universe, I do however strongly doubt a wizard created it by magic.

 

It was as sophisticated a guess as Bronze Age desert goat-herders could be expected to come up with, though - the error is in clinging to it when we have a better explanation.