I’m having my wake before I die. Waiting until afterwards is entirely pointless. I would prefer to be dead for the boring stuff like funeral and eulogies though.
You don’t really believe that, do you? I mean, not the Jesus stuff in general - just that specific quote. You really don’t think there’s a material difference between hearing one (out of hundreds and hundreds) cultural myth, and seeing a man who was demonstrably dead suddenly rise from the grave without any medical intervention, well past the point where he could conceivably have been misdiagnosed as dead?
I mean, I don’t agree with the OP pretty much at all, and as an atheist, I’m generally flattered when someone says they’ll pray for me,* but that’s an incredibly weak argument. I’d expect a lot better from Jesus.
[sub]*There are exceptions.[/sub]
Yes, I do. I admit I don’t remember the details of this nuns controversy and I had a feeling it was going to turn out to be something more like this. 
I admit I’m not sure how to feel about things like this: the nonsense Mormon baptisms of the dead, praying for people who are already gone, hosting seances and saying they’ve changed their minds about the afterlife. Certainly it’s offensive in that it disregards the opinions of the dead or claims they’ve changed their minds, and that that’s meaningful. It also does no harm to the deceased since they’re gone and it’s pretty silly on its face. It turns the whole thing into a ridiculous game, and it trivializes their own errand and beliefs because it’s so absurd and childish.
Skammer 'splained that in Post #73, which I assume you missed.
This strikes me as a ridiculously stupid comparison. I don’t believe in an afterlife. I’d really like to be wrong about that, because I’m not terribly keen on not existing, but I just don’t see any evidence for it. I mean, sure, the idea that there’s this eternal being who loves us unconditionally and will make sure we spend all eternity in perfect happiness is basically childish wish-fulfilment, but it would be pretty fucking cool if it were true. If folks like Skammer want to see me cut in on a piece of that action, I really don’t have any objection to it.
I did. I was not impressed.
Now that’s funny right there.
All the butthurtedness in this thread is making me sad. I feel a prayer is in order.
Oh Great and Merciful Lord of Butts,
please extend your mighty butt of healing
towards these butts which are hurting so.
Show them your ever loving butt of compassion
so that their hurtedness may subside
and their butts may find peace once again.
Amen.
Perhaps if I felt that either Shodan or Pandabear were being really sincere with their wishes, I’d feel similar to you.
Your post didn’t single out those two, though - you were talking about the sentiment in general. And while it’s probably a safe assumption that Shodan is being insincere every time he posts, I don’t think that should be considered a reflection on Christianity in general.
No, those are fair points. There is a difference between listening to handed down tradition and witnessing a literal resurrection.
Usually the parable is actually understood to be making a point about having concern for the poor, and the dangers of wealth, and not really a window into the nature of the afterlife. “They will not believe even if someone were to rise from the dead” is a literary device that forshadows Jesus’ own resurrection, which indeed failed to convince most of the populace.
Honestly I only quoted it because I was given the setup, so I provided the traditional response. Like if someone had posted “Does anybody really know what time it is?” and I said “Does anybody really care?” I’m not making an existential point about the nature of time, I’m participating in a call-and-response.
Fair enough.
Even given that the Bible is accurate in its reporting, most of the populace never saw the Resurrection to begin with, and the fact that his own followers didn’t recognize him at first probably cast further doubt on the story.
But it’s still a nice literary element. Jesus tells a story that ends with the observation that people don’t want to believe, and will refuse to believe even if someone comes back from the dead. Then not long later, Jesus makes exactly this demonstration. I’m just talking about the text, not the historicity of the event.
It’s just this sort of thing that interrupts every discussion about the theatrical merits of Our American Cousin.
You have to respect the balls, at least, of a dude who criticizes the morality of Mother Theresa.
FWIW, I have indeed sent religious cards to religious family members on several occasions. And in at least one case where someone asked me to pray, I said I would and I did.
The point is that the cards were for them, not for me. And prayer doesn’t seem like a major issue to me, anymore than yelling at someone who cut me off in traffic.
They’re never going to hear me and unless they happen to look over and see the spit splattering on the window, they won’t even know I’m angry. Of course the person I prayed for will never know if I did one way or another anyway, but it felt appropriate to follow through.
Are you talking about Eve?
I’d love to know the redeeming qualities of Falwell that need to be defended so.
No, I just stepped out for a quick bowl of pus with St. Catherine of Sienna!
I liked Skammer’s comeback to my post. Bible literacy is cultural literacy, and I respect that.
I also respect not religion, but religious people. As a teenager I worked in a Catholic cemetery and buried hundreds of people, and tended their graves, and was considerate of the people who loved them who were still alive
Later I was a hospice volunteer. I sat with dying Christians, a Hundu on one occasion, and a Buddhist on another. I supported whatever religious belief they wanted, and if they found support in it, I won’t say it was actually a self-deceptive burden.
If I’d been Christopher Hitchens’ hospice worker, and he wanted to keep smoking and drinking for comfort, I’d have supported that, too.
So unless you e done more for religion, purely out of a belief in respect and kindness as values in themselves, than I have; but instead gauge human decency in terms of being offended on God’s behalf over a post on a message board’s free-fire zone, then fuck you.
(which is what I couldn’t say to the poster who pulled my post from here into the genteel forum)
Eve’s balls would be rather a sore subject . . .