[Dialogue] Why is religion still alive?

[Joyce Bonafield]

      What an interesting conversation!   I don't think about "heaven"...and I'm sure whatever does come after this, if it's half as awe-inspiring as this life, will be just fine.
My daughter does worry about "getting into heaven" and thinks that I might not, since I don't do all the things her church says you must, nor believe all the things they say you must.  The "problem" of "heaven" may have to do with all those childhood images handed down via the church...which have body-less bodies and "peacefulness forever" etc.  I'm just going to settle for leaving it a Mystery at present, and discovering whatever comes after when it does come.   Steve Jobs, when "crossing over" this past October, could only say (his last words), "Oh, WOW!"
     
        Joyce Bonafield-Pierce


________________________________
From: Bud Tillinghast <rev.bud at mac.com>
To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at wedgeblade.net> 
Sent: Monday, January 9, 2012 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Why is religion still alive?

I haven't run out of interest in being me after almost 80 years. Still learning, still relating, other than bodily breakdown, when should I start feeling my life is hellish?

Bud Tillinghast

On 9 Jan 2012, at 08:49, steve har wrote:

>    Why is religion still alive and...
> 
>    Bishop Spong, author of Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World and
> 
>    The problem of heaven
>    http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1970695
>    An argument against the rationality of desiring to go to heaven might
>    be put in the form of a trilemma: (1) any state of being that both
>    lasts eternally and preserves me as the person I am would be hellish
>    and therefore would not be a state of being that I could have any
>    reason to desire; (2) any state of being that lasts eternally and yet
>    fails to preserve my personhood by turning me into a non-person would
>    not be a state of being that I (qua person that I am) could have any
>    reason to desire; and (3) any state of being that lasts eternally and
>    yet fails to preserve my personhood by turning me into some other
>    person would not be a state of being that I (qua person that I am)
>    could have any reason to desire. This paper offers defenses of each of
>    the three horns of this trilemma and concludes that there is no
>    rationally compelling reason for any human being to desire to go to
>    heaven.
>    Steve Harrington
> 
> - Ignored:
> 
> 
> - Done.
> 
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: steve har <stevehar11201 at gmail.com>
> To: dialogue-request at wedgeblade.net
> Cc:
> Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 10:47:21 -0600
> Subject: Fwd: The Problem of Heaven by Brian Ribeiro :: SSRN
> http://www.bookforum.com/blog/archive/20120109#entry8848
> 
> Why is religion still alive?
> 
> Bishop Spong, author of Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World and
> 
> The problem of heaven
> http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1970695
> An argument against the rationality of desiring to go to heaven might
> be put in the form of a trilemma: (1) any state of being that both
> lasts eternally and preserves me as the person I am would be hellish
> and therefore would not be a state of being that I could have any
> reason to desire; (2) any state of being that lasts eternally and yet
> fails to preserve my personhood by turning me into a non-person would
> not be a state of being that I (qua person that I am) could have any
> reason to desire; and (3) any state of being that lasts eternally and
> yet fails to preserve my personhood by turning me into some other
> person would not be a state of being that I (qua person that I am)
> could have any reason to desire. This paper offers defenses of each of
> the three horns of this trilemma and concludes that there is no
> rationally compelling reason for any human being to desire to go to
> heaven.
> 
> 
> Steve Harrington
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Steve Harrington
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Dialogue mailing list
> Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
> http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net


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