Cycling UK Forum

simonineaston wrote:

Entirely possible but the reality is those good things did happen due to religion.

Not denying that - my point is that all of those good things, like kindness, helping your neighbour, cooking food for strangers, objecting to cruelty, looking after animals, sticking up for the oppressed etc. etc. can just as easily take place without any help from any god/s - or to put it another way, you can be a Great Person all on your own! All it takes is will power. No divine intervention is required.

I think we're saying the same point about that aspect but the good things I was thinking of are more large scale than individual values. That quote was in relation to the aspects if good religion did in the past.

I remember from a documentary that the earliest days of an England the administration of state was by priests and church on behalf of the monarch. That role, the clerks of state if you like, has its remnants in titles used in legal roles. Aiui clerks of court had their origins in church positions within state.

Oldjohnw wrote:Al I am so sorry. My sincere condolences and very best wishes.

Yes - +1 to that.

al_yrpal wrote:If its there, yes please. My Mrs died last week, I loved her very much and I would love to think I would be seeing her again. But, I am not a Christian and I dont believe an afterlife awaits us.

As for Christians, there are plenty around here, Church attendance is very strong. I know many and many of them are wonderful people doing there bit for others. They have been very supportive of me through the last 3 awful years. So, dont write Christians off. Even though my wife was not a believer like me we will say the Lords prayer at her funeral for them.

Al

I'm so sorry I missed this at the time. I was working horrid hours & hardly on the forum, but please accept my belated sympathy.

My condolences Al, I missed your earliest post too. It's a difficult time of year and the current restrictions don't help. We are keeping ourselves to ourselves this year as Mrs Rjb has an a health issue. Not looking forward to going into the RDE in the next week or so.

I've worked out that heaven is another existence where the soul goes, I have personally seen spirits/ghosts twice.
And hell is this life existence because for creatures to be able to kill other life forms.
So life's purpose is for not to hurt others and you shall reach enlightenment.
Makes sense to me.

simonineaston wrote:

Entirely possible but the reality is those good things did happen due to religion.

Not denying that - my point is that all of those good things, like kindness, helping your neighbour, cooking food for strangers, objecting to cruelty, looking after animals, sticking up for the oppressed etc. etc. can just as easily take place without any help from any god/s - or to put it another way, you can be a Great Person all on your own! All it takes is will power. No divine intervention is required.

This has been discussed on the forum before. It's hardly praiseworthy doing all the right things just to have a good CV when you're ringing the bell at the pearly gates.

One life, once chance to get it right. That's all.

Goodness for goodness sake and not as an insurance premium.

The Golden Rule - doing to others as you would have them do to you - is in some form or other in all the world religions, some of which precede Christianity.

Hundreds of years ago life for common people was pure drudgery.
Homes were cold, damp, dark and dirty. Daily life was hand-to-mouth fight for survival with nothing ahead but a decline to ill health and death.

Not a lot has changed for some then.

thirdcrank wrote:This has been discussed on the forum before. It's hardly praiseworthy doing all the right things just to have a good CV when you're ringing the bell at the pearly gates.

It may or may not be praiseworthy, but it's a straw-man version of Christianity, surely. The point of Christianity is that God takes the initiative, not us. He sorts out the CV at the pearly gates. Anything the Christian does is in response to the gift of an entrance, not to earn it.

Plenty of us including me have a fairly heavenly life now
Rich, healthy, fit, got too many books, too many cycles

Vorpal and rjb thankyou. Her final gift to me was to tell me to find someone after she had gone. And, I have. We both believe that we were guided somehow.
Good luck at the RD and E.

Al

Best wishes for your future happiness Al. IMO there's no better tribute to a happy marriage than the survivor being able to find renewed happiness with another partner.

I'm at the stage in life where a lot of friends/ family/ neighbours are dying. It seems sad that one or two who have found somebody else have been the target of nastiness.

Your late wife seems to have had the same attitude as mine: perhaps she wanted to be sure you always had a nicely-ironed shirt.

Good luck!

Al, I missed your original post. Condolences, and I'm glad you've found someone else to be happy with. I hope you'll have many years together.

---o0o---

Now, about religion... I have absolutely no belief in the supernatural, and never have had since I grew old enough to start thinking for myself. I can remember looking up at the stars from our back garden when I was 15 and thinking "what the hell would a bunch of Judean shepherds known about cosmology?" However, I still enjoy Steven King's novels and get a bit of a chill from horror films. "Good Omens" is one of my favourite books, ditto TV serials.* I suppose that's an echo from the bit of our brains that still lives in a cave on the Savannah and shivers when something grunts outside.

* remember serials? They're what we had before some US marketing prat decided that it sounded too much like breakfast fodder.