Lying to kids about heaven.. why insult their intelligence? ?

[Joanl]

And they will be able to 'rationalise' what true things their parents told them and what lies they told them. Do you not see the problem?

 

Not really because by then they will understand the reasons. That they were told these things to protect them from the truth cos they were only little. I was told that storks brought babies but I didn't hold it against my parents for lying to me when I was in agony having my own.....

[Bloomdido]

I have to disagree.

 

I think human beings are special. As far as we know we are the only animals asking these sort of questions and pondering the answers.

 

We have a higher level of intelligence (hard to believe sometimes I know...) than anything else on the planet. We have transformed our environment and we can adapt brilliantly. And yes this has made us extremely arrogant.

 

Surely the fact that we are still unsure about life and death, a higher power, the meaning of it all etc. is the one mystery that tames our arrogant streak.

 

We aren't just asking the questions and pondering , we are good at coming up with the answers as well, one of which is 'God did it'. God used to do nearly everything but since our knowledge of science has expanded, god is needed for very little these days.

 

Some people need him to have breathed life onto the planet and to give people a place to go when they die but he is not needed to explain thunder and pestilence any more. He is just the god of the gaps and the gaps are getting smaller.

 

What is there to be unsure about? Everything that lives is born to die. Have you pondered the concept of eternal life on a cube? I am arrogent because of people who invoke an invisible magic friend to give them hope or meaning or to deride others who do not adhere to the same tenets.

 

As Noddy Holder once sang, "I'm me, I'm now and that's all". That will do me. It's still amazing. The only certainty is what we are experiencing now. Enjoy it. It is all you know you have.

[*_ash_*]

Even our closest relatives, chimps, are millions of years behind us, what we have achieved since the end of the Ice Age is ... well, I don't know how to compare it, as there is no compare.

Or you could look at it another way. Which is probably more likely, that they aren't millions of years behind us, but are in fact millions of years ahead of their distant ancestry, which we are also. The fact that they are alive today means our shared ancestry must have meant that they evolved up to, or equally as well as us, or they wouldn't exist, as their, and our ancestors didn't.

By human, I mean you and I, and the other 8 billion of us.

We are the result of 5 billion years of evolution.

Nothing can compare to us.

I'm not sure we have evolved for quite that long.

I have a soul, old pal.

I grieve every day over the sins I have committed.

At the end of my working day, if I can get in bed content, that is a good day.

If I know that by deliberate intent I have offended, or insulted someone, then it preys on my mind, and the day is a bad one.

It is called humanity, or the soul.

 

 

Firstly, no one is without sin, or in layman's terms.. Nobody's perfect, so no one can judge or be judged in that respect.

 

Furthermore, is your reason for telling me that I lack a soul due to you taking offence to what I have said to you?.. Does someone holding a view that differs to your own qualify as an insult?.. Do you truly believe that a child should have this sought of reasoning instilled into them in order to possess a soul?, if so, they would be being misguided.

 

To both points ... I'm not even sure that a sin can be clearly defined. A sin is something [a word] that we have devised as an act that you shouldn't do. But who says what is right or wrong?

 

What I consider wrong, someone else might consider right.

 

If you aren't religious, then a sin can only be a act that a particular society or governance has told us is wrong.

[artisan]

All of the things you describe are functions of your brain.

 

No soul required.

 

The human brain and the soul are one and the same thing.

if you did a bit of joined up thinking, and stopped repeating your silly mantra about god you may wipe the wool from your eyes.

You believe in god more than any person posting on here.

You just wont admit the fact.

[Eater Sundae]

The human brain and the soul are one and the same thing.

if you did a bit of joined up thinking, and stopped repeating your silly mantra about god you may wipe the wool from your eyes.

You believe in god more than any person posting on here.

You just wont admit the fact.

 

Are you honestly able to replace the word "soul" with the word "brain" in all of your postings on this thread, and stand by the meaning of each post?

[llamatron]

Isn't it better than telling them that we go in a hole in the ground for the worms to come and eat us:?:

 

show them the lion king. The circle of life is a fact and its more beautiful than fake pixies in the sky!

[llamatron]

If and when I have kids I'm gonna go with the wise words of Mufasa:

 

Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.

Young Simba: But, Dad, don't we eat the antelope?

Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connnected in the great Circle of Life.

 

Hakuna Matata!

 

ahhh someone agrees! freaky!

[danot]

Or you could look at it another way. Which is probably more likely, that they aren't millions of years behind us, but are in fact millions of years ahead of their distant ancestry, which we are also. The fact that they are alive today means our shared ancestry must have meant that they evolved up to, or equally as well as us, or they wouldn't exist, as their, and our ancestors didn't.

 

I'm not sure we have evolved for quite that long.

 

 

 

 

To both points ... I'm not even sure that a sin can be clearly defined. A sin is something [a word] that we have devised as an act that you shouldn't do. But who says what is right or wrong?

 

What I consider wrong, someone else might consider right.

 

If you aren't religious, then a sin can only be a act that a society or governance has told you is wrong.

 

My bold

 

Wouldn't that be a criminal act?

 

As you say, a sin can't be clearly defined, mainly due to everyone's level of common decency being varied.

 

People also have different attitudes, what you consider to be a wrong doing, someone else might consider it a blessing in disguise. Feeling remorseful about something you did to another person is simply the brains way of telling us that we've fell short of our own standards. Actions can't be measured by anyone else's standards, because what you are prepared to do, all depends on what you can live with.

[redwhine]

That is nonsense.

The body will go up in smoke, but the mind transcends and moves on.

Evidence, please.

 

(BTW ego in the sense I use it means self awareness, not arrogance, of which you seem to have a surfeit)

I love it when the ad homs start. They show how shallow (...non-existent?...) the arguments of the person making them are.

[redwhine]

Most certainly, It is all up to you.

Don't forget, the only place in the entire Universe that human life exists is here.

Nowhere else, any where.

(By 'here', I presume you mean on the Earth. There are human beings on the International Space Station.)

 

Only if you have searched the entire Universe can you truthfully make that statement.

 

Is that the case?

 

There is a reason for this, as yet undiscovered.

So why make up stuff; just say you don't know.