Stuart,
You’re thinking about it all wrong… you’re not supposed to think about it rationally. Whatever the church says, we’re supposed to believe because god speaks us to through the church. And Jesus said there was an afterlife… how could Jesus have been wrong? And isn’t everything in the bible the word of god… you know, even though it was written by humans and some pope decided which books should remain in the bible and which shouldn’t… but it wasn’t really a man making the decision since the pope received divine inspiration from god about which books to keep around.
Sadly, religion is not about thinking rationally. It seems more like a method of social control; telling people that if they sin, they may enjoy this life, but they will spend all of the afterlife suffering eternally in hell, unless they confess which magically makes everything better… you used to also have to give money to the church to be forgiven. Really, I think that it’s brilliant. I don’t believe there has ever been a better way to get a group of people to follow your orders and adopt your beliefs.
Stuart, You’re thinking about it all wrong… you’re not supposed to think about it rationally. Whatever the church says, we’re supposed to believe because god speaks us to through the church. And Jesus said there was an afterlife… how could Jesus have been wrong? And isn’t everything in the bible the word of god… you know, even though it was written by humans and some pope decided which books should remain in the bible and which shouldn’t… but it wasn’t really a man making the decision since the pope received divine inspiration from god about which books to keep around.
Sadly, religion is not about thinking rationally. It seems more like a method of social control; telling people that if they sin, they may enjoy this life, but they will spend all of the afterlife suffering eternally in hell, unless they confess which magically makes everything better… you used to also have to give money to the church to be forgiven. Really, I think that it’s brilliant. I don’t believe there has ever been a better way to get a group of people to follow your orders and adopt your beliefs.
It is the simplest and most convenient way,