Death.. Then what?

[Torch]

Makes sense. In my own personal experience when two people marry from differen faith, their children tend to not be religious. Since it is more acceptable now for people to do that, it will happen more often.

I'd say that it is more due to immigration in general than inter-religious marriage. When people are only exposed to a single belief, they'll assume it to be true. When they're exposed to many beliefs, they have doubts about all of them.

[Lingus]

Well yes. But a combination of both. Because there are a lot of people immigrating and there is a large mixture of cultures, there are going to be more inter-religious marriages, and their children are going to not only not going to have a single faith within their family, but they will also be able to see a wide variety of life styles and religions.

Immigration itself does not necessarily cause this. I'm sure many families from other countries will keep their religion, and teach it to their children. Their children will follow it because it is a tie to their culture. They will get to see many other religions, but they will not necessarily choose them or choose to stop following their religion because it is not the tradition that their family follows.

Of course, that's in a general sense. I'm sure there are people of mixed faith families who choose to follow one or both relgions, and people of single faith families with strongly religious parents who choose to stop following their religion.

[Chaos]

What's this?  This topic again?!

Yep, well, I got on the internet and was brought to my homepage, MSN.com, and I saw this article, and I thought I'd link it, since it actually is RELEVANT!  :O

http://www.newsweek.com/id/220296?GT1=43002

EDIT:  Incidentally, I'm not presenting this as evidence as supporting any argument, because it really doesn't.  I just thought some people might be interested to read it.

[God-I-Suck]

WHY DID YOU BUMP IT!? NOOOOOOOO

[Titan]

WHY DID YOU BUMP IT!? NOOOOOOOO

Yeah like that helped a lot.

Anyways chaos that article seems really interesting.

Which reminds me of something my english class disscused last year. Our teacher told us that no matter what we do it has no effect on the universe. Like if you kill a family,from a cosmic stand point its neither good, nor evil. It just is. Thought it was an interesting way of seeing everything.

[LeGuy]

Titan - technically, from a cosmic point of view, you never said that. So we might as well dismiss it and continue acting as if there is good and evil.

Well, not really. I was making a point -- I mean, you did say that. We all saw the post. And just like you did just post on the Stick Online forums, if someone murders a family, they still murdered a family. Even if the earth exploded, or a black hole swallows the Milky Way, or a hundred thousand galaxies all explode for no reason, in the cosmic sense, it really wouldn't matter. But nonetheless, it still happened in one sense or another. The big picture is just a picture, not the picture.

[Lingus]

What's this?  This topic again?!

Yep, well, I got on the internet and was brought to my homepage, MSN.com, and I saw this article, and I thought I'd link it, since it actually is RELEVANT!  :O

http://www.newsweek.com/id/220296?GT1=43002

EDIT:  Incidentally, I'm not presenting this as evidence as supporting any argument, because it really doesn't.  I just thought some people might be interested to read it.

This article says everything I believe in about the afterlife for the most part. I relate to the skeptical attitude, and I agree with the arguments against the book being reviewed. Thanks for linking this Chaos. I think I can effectively end discussion on this topic and point anyone curious about my opinion to the link.

I especially like the part at the end about faith/religion not being able to console someone who is grieving. It's true, if someone tries to tell you the friend/family member you have lost has "gone to a better place" and that you should be happy about that... they don't understand what it means to have lost someone close. That notion just does not help you get past the immense pain and loss that you feel.

[Jake]

I especially like the part at the end about faith/religion not being able to console someone who is grieving. It's true, if someone tries to tell you the friend/family member you have lost has "gone to a better place" and that you should be happy about that... they don't understand what it means to have lost someone close. That notion just does not help you get past the immense pain and loss that you feel.

I think it completely depends on if that person believes in the after-life or not. I mean, if someone believes in life after death, then a simple reminder that their loved one went to a better place could really help. It's the job of the comforter to know when or when not to use the "after-life" card to help someone who's grieving.

[JoEL]

WHY DID YOU BUMP IT!? NOOOOOOOO

Yeah like that helped a lot.

Anyways chaos that article seems really interesting.

Which reminds me of something my english class disscused last year. Our teacher told us that no matter what we do it has no effect on the universe

No offence kid, but your teacher doesn't know jack.

[Lucifer]

WHY DID YOU BUMP IT!? NOOOOOOOO

Yeah like that helped a lot.

Anyways chaos that article seems really interesting.

Which reminds me of something my english class disscused last year. Our teacher told us that no matter what we do it has no effect on the universe

No offence kid, but your teacher doesn't know jack.

No offence kid, but you don't know jack. This topic is purely for voicing opinions, and inspiring thought. Don't shit on someone's comment just because you don't agree with it.

[Mystery]

WHY DID YOU BUMP IT!? NOOOOOOOO

Yeah like that helped a lot.

Anyways chaos that article seems really interesting.

Which reminds me of something my english class disscused last year. Our teacher told us that no matter what we do it has no effect on the universe

No offence kid, but your teacher doesn't know jack.

No offence kid, but you don't know jack. This topic is purely for voicing opinions, and inspiring thought. Don't shit on someone's comment just because you don't agree with it.

Quoted for truth.

By that, he meant no HUGE impact on the universe, not nothing at all.

[Cactuscat222]

Yeah, that is a nihilist view - when we humans all die, everything we have ever done will be forgotten, and have no impact on the rest of the universe. We will just disappear, without a sigh in the wind from anything else.

And quite honestly, unless we start galactic traveling or other such things, it is very true; What you do today won't matter in a million years, if not a 1000 or even a hundred.

[Lingus]

I especially like the part at the end about faith/religion not being able to console someone who is grieving. It's true, if someone tries to tell you the friend/family member you have lost has "gone to a better place" and that you should be happy about that... they don't understand what it means to have lost someone close. That notion just does not help you get past the immense pain and loss that you feel.

I think it completely depends on if that person believes in the after-life or not. I mean, if someone believes in life after death, then a simple reminder that their loved one went to a better place could really help. It's the job of the comforter to know when or when not to use the "after-life" card to help someone who's grieving.

I guess I can't say if that's true or not since I don't really believe in an after-life. I don't know if it would comfort me were I to truly believe in it. My thoughts are that even for someone who does, it only comforts a small part of the pain. It only touches on one aspect of the grief. Yes, you are definitely worried about where that person has gone and how they now feel. Being told that they are in heaven and are safe and with God or whatever belief system you follow says is a good afterlife will make that person feel better about those worries. But a major portion of what almost everyone grieves over is what will happen to themselves. People grieve because they have lost someone. Knowing where they are doesn't bring the person back.

[DarkTrinity]

I especially like the part at the end about faith/religion not being able to console someone who is grieving. It's true, if someone tries to tell you the friend/family member you have lost has "gone to a better place" and that you should be happy about that... they don't understand what it means to have lost someone close. That notion just does not help you get past the immense pain and loss that you feel.

I think it completely depends on if that person believes in the after-life or not. I mean, if someone believes in life after death, then a simple reminder that their loved one went to a better place could really help. It's the job of the comforter to know when or when not to use the "after-life" card to help someone who's grieving.

I guess I can't say if that's true or not since I don't really believe in an after-life. I don't know if it would comfort me were I to truly believe in it. My thoughts are that even for someone who does, it only comforts a small part of the pain. It only touches on one aspect of the grief. Yes, you are definitely worried about where that person has gone and how they now feel. Being told that they are in heaven and are safe and with God or whatever belief system you follow says is a good afterlife will make that person feel better about those worries. But a major portion of what almost everyone grieves over is what will happen to themselves. People grieve because they have lost someone. Knowing where they are doesn't bring the person back.

Im not sure if it's more of the fact that you'd know they're okay... But I think part of it is believing you'll be able to see them again someday when you pass on too.

[Jake]

I think I can liven this topic up a bit.

So lately, I've been associating myself with paranormal activity more than normal. I don't believe in ghosts or anything that consciously exists with no physical form... Except for maybe God. But even then I have doubts. Anyway, last night I had been discussing being possessed with my friend, and generally just talking about demons and ghosts and whatnot. It's always been my goal to taunt a spirit enough to have it show itself, because I could then at least have some circumstantial evidence that they exist. Later that night, I go home, research paranormal shit online, talk to Chaos, then go to bed. At about 5:15 in the morning, I'm about to fall asleep when I hear a knock on the door outside my room and the door swings open slightly. I was like "oh noes" and ran down the stairs (my bedroom is upstairs).

Annnnyway, I didn't think much of it. My mom asked me what happened, and I was all like "Oh just got startled by the door making noises lol ttyl". It wasn't really that big of a deal. I mean, I was just about to pass it off as a weird coincidence... Although it was a strange one simply because a knock on the bedroom door doesn't really equate to something falling or anything that could really tangibly happen as far as I'm concerned. I'm the only one upstairs, and have no pets. So anyway, my sister calls me up and she's like "Mom says that you got scared of a ghost or something last night" I'm like "yeah it was slightly weird... Happened at 5 in the morning when I was trying to sleep", and then she's like "Really? Because at 5 in the morning I was praying for you. I know you've been straying from God lately so I asked him to knock on your door (she meant this metaphorically)". At that point I was like "yeah !@#$ing right!".

To sum it up, I hear a loud strange knock about fifteen minutes after my sister is praying for God to "knock on my door". She doesn't even live in the same house as me. Coincidence? probably. Strange? Oh yeah. If God does exist, this is at least evidence that he doesn't have a keen ability to detect metaphors. Never-the-less, it gives me something to talk about at parties. Girls love shit like that.