Eternal life.
Let me introduce you to the Law of the Conservation of Energy. This Law will be my eulogy. I want my grieving family to hear about this Law, so they will know my energy has not died. I want them to learn about the First Law of Thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. I want them to hear that all my energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was me remains with them in this world. I want them know that amid energies of the cosmos, I gave as good as I got.
The speaker can talk to my spouse and tell her that all the photons that ever bounced off my face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by my smile, by the touch of my hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by me. And as my widow rocks in the arms of my loving family, the speaker will let her know that all the photons that bounced from me were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.
They will explain that this is something that requires no faith in any god, Christian or otherwise. That humankind can measure this, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. I hope my family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound. I hope that they'll be comforted to know my energy is still around. According to the Law of the Conservation of Energy, not a bit of me will be gone; I'll just be less orderly.
The thing that sets Christianity apart from other religions is that, the other religions had great "teachers" and great "prophet". Yes Jesus was both of those. And just like all those teachers and prophets they all died. But what sets Christianity apart is that their teacher and prophet didn't stay dead. He came back to life 3 days later just like he said he would. THAT is the reason why most people follow Jesus. That is why i chose to get Baptized recently. Now this isn't coming from someone born and raised a Christian, Sure i had to go to church when i was young but i lost my way very quickly as sports and school became important.The thing that consistently blows up this old hat argument is the fact that there are other religions besides Christianity and most of them have different terms and conditions as far as an afterlife is concerned. Hell, even Christianity itself isn't always terribly consistent going from one denomination to the next. So, logically speaking, how does abiding by one set of beliefs give you an advantage after you die? If there is a god and you chose the right religion, then you're rewarded straight up. If there is a god and you chose the wrong religion, then you've potentially dug yourself into a bit of a hole by explicitly siding with a false god. If there is no god, then obviously nothing happens and the universe moves on.
(to all the others, i do not answer to trolls or anything of the sort. You get completely ignored altogether. If you want to actually contribute to the conversation then by all means do but until then. Ignore button)
The thing that sets Christianity apart from other religions is that, the other religions had great "teachers" and great "prophet". Yes Jesus was both of those. And just like all those teachers and prophets they all died. But what sets Christianity apart is that their teacher and prophet didn't stay dead. He came back to life 3 days later just like he said he would. THAT is the reason why most people follow Jesus. That is why i chose to get Baptized recently. Now this isn't coming from someone born and raised a Christian, Sure i had to go to church when i was young but i lost my way very quickly as sports and school became important.
So back toy you Vit, Christianity has a little bit more to offer than the other religious. The reason that i said that wasn't because of other religions. I was looking at the atheists who sit on the sidelines saying there is no God. Take the jump and find out for yourself. If there is no God then you were right and you can laugh about it 6 feet under. But what if.... what if what i am saying is true. What if there really is a God. Doesn't the curiosity want to know?
I find it valid indeed.Am I a troll you're ignoring? You don't find my post valid Baldo?
Historically speaking, resurrection isn't unique to Christianity. It's a pretty common religious theme that predates Jesus by quite some time. Really, I'd say that Christianity is so successful because it folds in so many supernatural and traditional elements from non-Christian sources into a pretty appealing everyman message (i.e., the stuff the historical Jesus likely preached). It also helps that it just so happened to reach the right set of major political players at a very key time in the history of Rome, ultimately enabling the Christian church to become a major political powerhouse in its own right.
"More to offer" is highly subjective. The problem is that your train of thought only really works for people predisposed to believing. For most of those who fall under the atheist or agnostic labels, "give it a try and see for yourself" is a horribly uncompelling means of satiating that curiosity. In fact, a very large percentage of skeptics and nonbelievers HAVE tried religion and found that it simply doesn't inspire them or instill any real sense of faith like it does for people such as yourself. Some people just have a heavy cognitive bias towards empirical logic over spirituality and the nature of faith is such that it doesn't jive well with empiricism at all.
Hmm but Christianity isn't only Spirituality and nature of faith but it also has a basis for that belief. The Bible has been around for a long time and is our history. I know that there are some that we try to reach and have failed or have had a bad church system. A few people i know grew up in a Baptist church and i can understand why they left. The message sent from them was usually "repent now or live eternally in the pits of hell". Hell, even my pastor grew up in Baptist church and has told us many times that he almost lost faith but he preaches on a caring god and a loving God.Some people just have a heavy cognitive bias towards empirical logic over spirituality and the nature of faith is such that it doesn't jive well with empiricism at all.
PsionicFox Is it not trolling? It feels like you are trolling.
Nope. That was not a troll. When I die, I want that to be my eulogy. I already have eternal life. I take great comfort that my particles were present at the Big Bang, and will still be present at the heat death of the universe.
The thing that sets Christianity apart from other religions is that, the other religions had great "teachers" and great "prophet". Yes Jesus was both of those.
What did Jesus prophesize or teach? I don't mean this to be snotty. I honestly don't know. My main conceptions are healer and martyr.
What did Jesus prophesize or teach? I don't mean this to be snotty. I honestly don't know. My main conceptions are healer and martyr.
Jesus was a prophet written about and exaggerated in a series of fairy tales.