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[quote=flyer]As a “believer” I’m also absolutely sure that the power of money is very
real–as long as we are in this world. That’s why we set up trust funds for our kids. Even though they’re all doing well on their own, we want to do our best to make sure they can enjoy life in the long term as we have.

Whatever happens or doesn’t happen after this world remains to be seen.[/quote]

Seen not in an ocular sense but in an Oracular sense. Or perhaps a jocular sense as I believe the whole of the cosmos is a massive joke.

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[quote=zk][quote=scaredyclassic]Inverting pascal wager …I am so confident in my position that I am willing to wager an eternity in heaven. Is any believers faith stronger than that?[/quote]

Wow. How about we call you “notscaredy.”[/quote]

I’m only really scared regarding $. I don’t believe I exist other than as a bundle of information. Money on the other hand is that and much much more. My belief is not based in faith. I am absolutely certain there is no heaven, no G-d that has any interest in us whatsoever. This I know to the absolute core of my being with unswerving certainty. How easy would it be to say ok, as part of my ed state planning hedge, I accept Jesus as my personal savior, thereby getting an option for potential eternal life. But no. I have no fear in this regard. I am equally certain that money and its power is real, or at least as real as anything in this transitory illusion.

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[quote=Blogstar][quote=zk][quote=Blogstar]
He wants to start his own religion and use it to make people do what he wants them to do and get rich.[/quote]

He’s not the first one.[/quote]
That’s what I told him.[/quote]

tell him he needs an angle.

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[quote=flyer]Speaking or not speaking of religion. From some articles I’ve read, it seems that some new stats indicate that increasing numbers of people of all ages, when polled, revealed they feel extremely fearful when they actually allow themselves to face the fact that this life inevitably ends in death.

In the end, mortality can definitely be a bummer.[/quote]

so is the purpose of religioin then inpart to not actually allow people to face the fact that this life inevitably ends in death, but that there is another different unseeable life aafterward?

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i like the “we have til we’re 50 then all bets are off” quote…

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[quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=scaredyclassic]Historically the catholics were pretty aggressive prosyletizers.

Aren’t the catholics still trying to get their membership numbers up by focusing on Africa and south america vrecruiting?

My wife’s family is Catholic but I suspect they may be crypto Jews whose ancestors glad the inquisition and only pretended to be cathokics[/quote]

Scaredy: At the risk of sounding snarky, aren’t we all crypto Jews when it comes right down to it?

I’m Jesuit educated, so I completely agree about the “aggressive” proselytizing and it’s a big reason I don’t practice it myself. It goes without saying that the Catholic Church, like the United States, can alternate between good works and horrifingly bad behavior in equal measures.

That was one of my main points on not confusing religion and spirituality, along with not confusing the Bible with faith.

As a Catholic, I’m familiar with the liturgy, just as being a Jew, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the use of Judiaca and the highly ritualized religious rites it’s used for. I’m pretty sure that you can easily distinguish between religion and spirituality in that example.[/quote]

spirituality is a basic human emotion that religion tries to monetize?

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[quote=njtosd][quote=scaredyclassic]I think many converters have a strange fantasy that there are vast hordes of Americans who simplyb h Avent been told about Jesus and the good news about getting saved. That’s why they have to let you know … it’s like letting people in on a legal little known tax break. It’s just so great. The word isntvout. It’s free money. How could you not want to hear about it?[/quote]
I have had many more people try to convert me to an organic diet (or gluten-free) than I have had try to convert me to a religion. The need of people to convince others that the “converters” have found the answer in life is very strong. Think of all the philosophies that people try to push on you – how to raise your kids, how to spend your money, how to eat etc. we can’t live and let live because we are, at base, social animals who need to share information with other members of our group.[/quote]

food and health and the worship of the body are the new nationalreligion.

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if the function of religion is merely to allow people to die with less fear, then we are truly nothing more than sheep being led through cutes calmly to the slaughterhouse.

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Inverting pascal wager …I am so confident in my position that I am willing to wager an eternity in heaven. Is any believers faith stronger than that?

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That said, just because something doesn’t exist doesn’t mean you shouldn’t respect it and that it has no purpose. We are wired to believe

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Linus’ unwavering and evangelical belief in the Great Pumpkin seemed kind of inspirational. His faith never wavered after so many disappointments. Yet the reader knew he was on a fools errand.

I do deny the existence of any spiritual experience independent of whatever altered brain state one achieves. You can take a bunch of drugs or pray all night or meditate or be saved, but in the end we are just exercising our neurons.

You can get pretty revved up waiting all night in the pumpkin patch but that doesn’t mean any spirits touched you.

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Historically the catholics were pretty aggressive prosyletizers.

Aren’t the catholics still trying to get their membership numbers up by focusing on Africa and south america vrecruiting?

My wife’s family is Catholic but I suspect they may be crypto Jews whose ancestors glad the inquisition and only pretended to be cathokics

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Ok. I retract. I meant the vocal strain of evangelists that make up most of temecula.

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seems like better marketing to make the entry a little more difficult.

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But I haven’t done that for a long time.

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