Were it not for Death, do you think Religion and Faith would even Exist?

Suppose we had no doubts about the afterlife. If there was only one explanation of (after)death and it was accepted by all without question. Would we still need religion to reinforce that belief?

Death is a test of faith.

Religion can be used more than to just to self-serve ourselves to secure an appropriate afterlife. Religion is used to find acceptance in the death of those around us. (what's that quote: Dying is easy - living is the hard part).

Yes, agree with this line of reasoning. You got me thinking..... Let me ponder this some more.

I beg to disagree that death is a test of faith because it comes to all whether he or she is a person of faith or not. Death is only the natural third part of the cycle of birth, life and death.
 
I beg to disagree that death is a test of faith because it comes to all whether he or she is a person of faith or not. Death is only the natural third part of the cycle of birth, life and death.
And I would contend that Death is not the test, but rather the end of the test. It is the defining point to which noone can earn credits beyond.
 
And I would contend that Death is not the test, but rather the end of the test. It is the defining point to which noone can earn credits beyond.

I have no other option but to agree with you. That's how we see death.
 
There are people smarter than the others. They try to dominate. If it was not death, it would have been some other point on which they would have shown their superiority, and would have dominated.

That's how the Nazis dominated for a few years. They thought to be superior and the only great ones on earth. Their assumption was disproved in a very painful way never to rise again.
 
Well to me death is a release from this life ... When you're born you have no further use for an umbilical cord... Death is a graduation ... Death is a transition ...birth is a transition from fetus to infant.
 
I think it is our belief death is a transition to something else...it is our wish death is a transition to something else.....none of us knows bupkis.

We've been told by others, we've been pointed to scripture/writings that this is the case....we've been told by people...who believe, who wish but don't know.

Of those who have second hand evidence (they talk to the dead, or G!d, or Jesus) we don't often believe them, we more often believe others who are long gone that others believed talked to the dead, or G!d or Jesus...
 
It is an absolutely simple thing. We make it complicated. After death (in grave or in cremation), the body disintegrates and the molecules that make it up go to other living and non-living things.
 
It is an absolutely simple thing. We make it complicated. After death (in grave or in cremation), the body disintegrates and the molecules that make it up go to other living and non-living things.

yuppers...


Reincarnation

"What does Reincarnation mean?"
A cowpoke asked his friend.
His pal replied, "It happens when
Yer life has reached its end.
They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck,
And clean yer fingernails,
And lay you in a padded box
Away from life's travails."

"The box and you goes in a hole,
That's been dug into the ground.
Reincarnation starts in when
Yore planted 'neath a mound.
Them clods melt down, just like yer box,
And you who is inside.
And then yore just beginnin' on
Yer transformation ride."

"In a while, the grass'll grow
Upon yer rendered mound.
Till some day on yer moldered grave
A lonely flower is found.
And say a hoss should wander by
And graze upon this flower
That once wuz you, but now's become
Yer vegetative bower."

"The posy that the hoss done ate
Up, with his other feed,
Makes bone, and fat, and muscle
Essential to the steed,
But some is left that he can't use
And so it passes through,
And finally lays upon the ground
This thing, that once wuz you."

"Then say, by chance, I wanders by
And sees this upon the ground,
And I ponders, and I wonders at,
This object that I found.
I thinks of reincarnation,
Of life and death, and such,
And come away concludin': 'Slim,
You ain't changed, all that much.'"

Wallace McRae
 
It is an absolutely simple thing. We make it complicated. After death (in grave or in cremation), the body disintegrates and the molecules that make it up go to other living and non-living things.

I agree. This is what happens to the physical body. It breaks down and becomes part of the earth from which it came.
 
Or my favourite – an old Yorkshire folk song. (Ilkley Moor is not the place to be caught without a hat in bad weather!)

Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee?
chorus (short n sharp first 2 lines, long and slow on the 3rd):
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane
Tha's bahn' to catch thy deeath o' cowd
Then us'll ha' to bury thee
Then t'worms'll come an' eyt thee up
Then t'ducks'll come an' eyt up t'worms
Then us'll go an' eyt up t'ducks
Then us'll all ha' etten thee
That's wheear we get us ooan back
I've omitted the repeats of each line, and the chorus, but when done properly, this goes on for ages!
 
That was very nice, Wil. The grave and the hoss. Thanks to Wallace. The folk song also is beautiful, Thomas. Dem old folk knows truth (I am sure the Yorkshire folk would have said that differently).
Nmaste Jesus, fantasizing about the incorporeal body!
 
It is an absolutely simple thing. We make it complicated. After death (in grave or in cremation), the body disintegrates and the molecules that make it up go to other living and non-living things.

Yes, the physical part is simple. It's the (potential) other part that is not so much.
 
Never say never Shib. Horrific concepts seem to come back around all too often. All it takes is for the right set of circumstances to come together to launch a new horror on the world.

HaShem has prepared Israel for any eventuality. At the time of Hitler we didn't have the Israel of today.
 
Well to me death is a release from this life ... When you're born you have no further use for an umbilical cord... Death is a graduation ... Death is a transition ...birth is a transition from fetus to infant.

You are right. Death is a transition from life to the grave wherefrom none will ever return. (Isa. 26:14; II Sam. 12:23; Job 10:21)
 
I think it is our belief death is a transition to something else...it is our wish death is a transition to something else.....none of us knows bupkis.

We've been told by others, we've been pointed to scripture/writings that this is the case....we've been told by people...who believe, who wish but don't know.

Of those who have second hand evidence (they talk to the dead, or G!d, or Jesus) we don't often believe them, we more often believe others who are long gone that others believed talked to the dead, or G!d or Jesus...

That death is a transition from life to the grave wherefrom none will ever return, I have not only the Scriptural evidence in Isa. 26:14; II Sam. 12:23 and Job 10:21 but also real evidence eyewitnessed by all of us. Have you ever seen one who has returned from death? That's real evidence.
 
It is an absolutely simple thing. We make it complicated. After death (in grave or in cremation), the body disintegrates and the molecules that make it up go to other living and non-living things.

That's right, I mean, if you have the worms in mind. That's how the body disintegrates.
 
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