The ancient Egyptians pinned it: there was an afterlife, and all you needed to inherit it was wealth, a decent funeral, a deep enough and inviolable grave, and the right kind of pickling techniques.
Christians democratised this: rather than pickle your organs in the hope of reincarnation, they believed that some great supernatural divine …
The ancient Egyptians pinned it: there was an afterlife, and all you needed to inherit it was wealth, a decent funeral, a deep enough and inviolable grave, and the right kind of pickling techniques.
Christians democratised this: rather than pickle your organs in the hope of reincarnation, they believed that some great supernatural divine justice system would be set up to ensure that the 'bad souls' could be separated from the 'good souls' : adding the extra but conflicting incentive that the 'believers' could be separated from the 'unbelievers' . So, a bad man who believed and repented could be saved, but a good man who did not believe was doomed to the fiery pits.
As any line manager knows, all performance management systems are similarly flawed, and indeed, often counterproductive.
On any reasonable analysis, these two fundamental criteria of Final Judgement are both arbitrary and also in conflict.
I'm afraid that Santa will give me coal this year, for having an enquiring mind.
There is a rather wide swath of disagreement within Christendom regarding very substantial matters. Your summary oversimplifies. My belief is that there is an afterlife and it's God's call, but if our motives are selfish and self-serving, we aren’t paying attention. No, inquiring minds are welcome, and sorely needed! With the right attitude, questions about the meaning of Scripture yield a rich reward. But, as mentioned earlier, humility is the key prerequisite. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
The ancient Egyptians pinned it: there was an afterlife, and all you needed to inherit it was wealth, a decent funeral, a deep enough and inviolable grave, and the right kind of pickling techniques.
Christians democratised this: rather than pickle your organs in the hope of reincarnation, they believed that some great supernatural divine justice system would be set up to ensure that the 'bad souls' could be separated from the 'good souls' : adding the extra but conflicting incentive that the 'believers' could be separated from the 'unbelievers' . So, a bad man who believed and repented could be saved, but a good man who did not believe was doomed to the fiery pits.
As any line manager knows, all performance management systems are similarly flawed, and indeed, often counterproductive.
On any reasonable analysis, these two fundamental criteria of Final Judgement are both arbitrary and also in conflict.
I'm afraid that Santa will give me coal this year, for having an enquiring mind.
There is a rather wide swath of disagreement within Christendom regarding very substantial matters. Your summary oversimplifies. My belief is that there is an afterlife and it's God's call, but if our motives are selfish and self-serving, we aren’t paying attention. No, inquiring minds are welcome, and sorely needed! With the right attitude, questions about the meaning of Scripture yield a rich reward. But, as mentioned earlier, humility is the key prerequisite. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”