Everything Under the Moon

Heaven, Hell, reincarnation? Death scares me because I have no idea what to expect. What happens to us? Do we just cease to exist? Is Hell having to live life over and over again until we get it right? Are there other planes of existence where some spirits live? Is my soul, mine alone, or has it belonged to another in the past and will it belong to another in the future? I so want to know all of the answers, but I don't want to die to figure them out! ha ha

I guess I just wanted to discuss all of the alternate theories of death. Who's game?

Interesting subject.

I believe that our soul or spirit stays with us through our many lives. Once we die, we have the oppurtunity to go back and finish the parts that we did wrong in this life.

i like to think our soul is assigned to another life to live. but honestly no one has the true answer cant be proven just something to have for a hope. It could be something no one has imagen. Stick to what you believen in and wait to the en.

Well as a Wiccan, I believe in the Summerlands. A place where you go when you die...kind of a bit like heaven...a very natural place. There are way too many different phenomenon like ghost sightings and experiences to think otherwise....

Don't be in such a rush to find things out. I think that's the flaw in the design of man and woman...the constant desire of finding out what we don't know....I like to keep a little mystery in my life!!! lol :p

take care x x x

Perhaps it is a flaw. My mind is always whirling with questions and thoughts. I can't stop myself. Everytime I study a new religion I find a portion of it that I admire. The aspect of Paganism that I admire is the belief in the elements being so essential. The part of Christianity that I like is my vision of what heaven should be like. I don't like the idea of hell, and that without Jesus there is only hell in sight. I believe Jesus existed, but I can't buy into Revelations and Armageddon. I have heard that Pagans had a hand in the Canonization of The Bible, which in my mind discounts a lot of what The Bible says, being that the two religions are so different. I think a lot of The Bible is symbology and totally up for interpretation, and not always meant to be taken literally. However, I do believe that it contains a lot of historical reference. The same could be said of The Koran.

The Bible is a crock....Im sorry but really it is. Im angry that I followed it so blindly for so many years of my life. I even felt bad for leaving God behind at one point. Then I started learning about how much rubbish was in it.

The Old Testament - full of parables and stories that in no way should be taken literally

The New Testmament - OK, I believe that Jesus existed. But there are huge gaps in this testament. From the ages of about 18 to 33, Jesus' life is not told at all....he could've been going off with tonnes of prostitutes for all we know....hardly the behaviour of the Son of God.

Also, the Eccemunical Council decided what books should be kept and which should be burnt....a book written by five men....it might as well have had a page in the front saying "To my dearest daughter. All characters are fictional and have no basis on real people whatsoever...."

I'm extremely annoyed that people take this book to be gospel!!!

However, saying all the bad points about the Bible, there are some good bits....like the Ten Commandments...theyre very good rules to live by....essentially....like the Thou Shalt Not Kill bit is very good,..and treat your neighbour as you would yourself....like that one too....False idols one Im not too keen on (for obvious reasons).

Heaven and Hell was created by the Church to scare people into coming to church and giving their money....ridiculous!!

The whole religion is a joke....but, each to their own....if someone decides to believe in it, good for them...

Sorry for the rant, but its a sore spot for me!! lol! :p
x x x x

I feel where you are coming from to a degree. The one thing that irritates me most is the 10% tithing rule. If there is a God in heaven, he knows that if I gave any church that much of income that my children and I would be homeless and hungry. Now mind you I have respect for anyone who will sacrifice like that for something they believe in so deeply. I tried attending the church that I grew up in a few years back. At the time they were trying to raise 800k for a new sanctuary. I swear that collection plate was passed around once every ten minutes in the hour that service lasted. Come on now, do they need a missionary fund offering, a building fund, a Sunday school fun and so on so forth. Wouldn't it be logical to do it once and distribute the money where it needs to go? They built their sanctuary btw. It's nice, but it took away that homey feeling that I felt, being that I spent so much of my early years there.

My other irritation point, and this could be true of people in other faiths, is the arrogance that 'my religion is the right religion'. Religion is so personal and that is why I have spent my entire adult life searching for my niche.

To be honest, I dont think any religion is right....possibly not even ours...we will never know what is right and what is not....the only thing we do know is what feels right to us.

I feel very free in this religion whereas I felt very suffocated in Christianity...

I try not to come across like I think that our religion is the right one....cause I dont believe that....it's just like I said....Christianity is a sore spot for me....lol

As long as it makes that person happy...thats the most important thing I think x x x

The New Testmament - OK, I believe that Jesus existed. But there are huge gaps in this testament. From the ages of about 18 to 33, Jesus' life is not told at all....he could've been going off with tonnes of prostitutes for all we know....hardly the behaviour of the Son of God.

Actually, some historians theorize that he was in Egypt studying the Isis cults and others wonder whether he might have been in Gaul or even Britain at one of the druidic colleges. These notions arise from the fact that his ideas were far more similar to both Isis worshippers and druids than they were to the Jews or Romans of the time. If these theories are true, perhaps he did go with prostitutes since sacred sex is thought to have sometimes been part of those religions and it may well have been exactly the behavior you'd expect from someone with a special connection to the divine. Jesus actually had relatively little to say about sexual sin, perhaps because he didn't believe it was a sin.

However, you are quite correct that the Bible is extremely flawed and inconsistent. If anyone tells you they follow the Bible literally, all that means is that they haven't actually read all of it.

All kinds of things happen after we die. It depends on what we need to do to further our path.

This thread reminds me of a great Dark Crystal quote.

"He's dead." "Oh, could be anywhere, then."

I once saw a friend's spirit just after he'd killed himself. He was wandering the earth, making amends. Interestingly enough, he'd been a hard core atheist in life. He'd been given a choice of two doors... one with light in it, and one filled with darkness. When he first saw them, he knew that the dark door would give him the total *nothing* that he expected when he died. The light door? He had no idea what that door would bring, so he chose it.

Hence, he was wandering the earth, doing what he needed to do.

the meaning of life is to learn. I think that our souls must learn certian leassons before it becomes perfect, thus becoming one with the Gods. In that I belive in ones life the is an over all "theme" if you will, and if we learn that concept we go on to the next. if we do not we must retry.

What happens when we die? Our bodies become the grass, and the Antelope eat the grass...

If one belives in a higher power than themselves it is odd not to belive in an afterlife.

What happens when we die? Our bodies become the grass, and the Antelope eat the grass...

Hahaha! Indeed. I really don't know what happens when we die. I believe in a sort of spirit plain. (plane? I don't know which word to use. curse the english!) I beleive there is a type of spirit world and those on the spirit world still attached to the living world can come to visit, which would explain hauntings and what not. I also believe in recarnation. But I don't know what death will bring. I guess we'll all eventually find out some day.