Quote:
Originally Posted by aklim
Maybe it is the fear of death or the end of existence that prompts us to invent religion. To give us hope that it isn't over, to give meaning to what you are doing, etc, etc. Much like imagining there is a warm fire waiting for you after the long trudge in the cold or there is a reason for the struggle like going to college, etc, etc. Doesn't mean there is a fire waiting for you or there is a good job after graduation.
I mean, what is the real point of heaven, besides the existence not ending?
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I believe that would be the view or a view of the atheist. That is, religion is created by man to distract and dilute finitude and one's impending mortality. However, the Chrisitan sees God and the sublime as the end game and the current, tangible world is the distraction. In the big picture, it's a different way of addressing those who believe and those who do not, just a different vocabulary and analysis. The atheist perhaps has an understanding of the fear of death and all the distractions, artifices, and other mechanisms which are created to bury one's fate. However, implicit in that paradigm is the understanding that all these constructs are by definition man made. Whereas, the Christain may very well do the same exact thing, except with his acceptance of his earthly finitude is the Belief of an after life governed by an all loving God. That all loving God is beyond man and not something created by man. Thus, the implicit decay with man made items is removed, and this may be where the concepts of eternity stems from. However, this is not a construct of the mind but a real, tangible God which created everything. And, because God exists outside of time and space which we occupy, the notion of Faith takes over. For the atheist I suspect, the submission to Faith and something beyond one's existence is not something in the cards. For the Christian, that is the hand dealt and to be played.
