Christians are commanded to do what God wants, not to advance our own interests.
Last I checked, yes. After all, if you don’t survive the jump you can’t jump again.
I don’t think the OP is necessarily asking “Why don’t Christians take unnecessary risks”. Maybe a better way to put it would be to ask why, if Christians believe in an eternal reward in the afterlife, why do they fear death so?
I asked this question a few years ago, and I’m not sure I ever got a satisfying response.
It seems to me that life here on Earth is less than nothing compared to eternity in bliss- so why don’t Christians view it as such? If you die saving the life of one person, or even just to improve someone else’s life, you did a good deed AND you get to your eternal reward a lot sooner.
The saying is, “There are no atheists in foxholes”, but from what I can tell, there aren’t very many true believers in those foxholes, either.
I think a better question is “Why are people so quick to believe that if a Christian doesn’t skydive, it must be because he fears death?”
First of all, I’d like to see some hard figures before we conclude that Christians don’t skydive. I’m a devout believer, and I’ve been itching to try it out. There are only three reasons why I haven’t done so: (1) the cost, (2) the fact that I’m not thrilled by the idea of tandem skydiving, and (3) I can’t get any of my friends – Christian or otherwise – to try it out.
Second, there could be any number of reasons why they don’t. The most devout Christians tends to devote a lot of time to their churches, to charitable activities, to prayer, to Bible study, and to acts of devotion. This limits the amount of time that they can spend on other activities. Heck, I’d love to get another advanced degree, but the cost and the time investment required make this prohibitive.
Third, even if we were to grant that Christians want to avoid the risks involved in skydiving, this isn’t necessarily motivated by outright fear. It could be that they feel that it would be an imprudent thing to do, given their family or ministry obligations. And so forth, and so on.
Christians fear death so? That’s a hasty conclusion, to say the least.
Speaking for myself, I am no longer terrified of death, and my conversion to Christianity was a key point in reaching that state. That doesn’t mean that I court death, but it does mean that I no longer feel a need to organize every I do around the goal of extending life for the maximum possible length of time.
I can’t think of a reason why religious affiliation would have anything to do with other interests, unless you think sky divers do it because of a death wish.
Can’t help you with that one - you don’t want to get too cheap with anything sky-related is all I’m sayin’ here.
The look into “static line” and “accelerated free-fall” as options, which you should be able to get with a little searching and/or asking for it.
If you go skydiving you will make friends who like to skydive, probably the first day you try it.
But, more on topic - yes, people frequently forgo one activity either in favor of another or due to other obligations in this life which they feel are important. Also, a lack of a fear of death doesn’t automatically translate into seeking death. I mean, if you’re going to heaven and going to spend all eternity there what’s the freakin’ hurry, right? It will be there when you get there.
I’m not super religious, so I can’t speak for folks who are. But my theory about this is that the “fear of death” is largely a physiological response, which is evolutionary in origin. You may have mentally prepared yourself for death, you may believe that there is something better on the other side, but your body wants to live. Plenty of people are willing to do things that put them in harm’s way…join the military, become a firefighter, etc., and many of those people (Christian or not) have some religious or philosophical point of view that enables them to overcome the fear. But when death is imminent, their body reacts by doing what it can to stay alive. That doesn’t mean they aren’t “true believers,” I think instead it means that they are human.
BTW, have you considered that this is actually an argument against your position? After all, you usually don’t get to save someone’s life while skydiving. So why wouldn’t a Christian decide to forego skydiving instead?
And, as Broomstick said, why should they be in any hurry to get to heaven?
No, 'cause I don’t believe that skydiving is inherently dangerous. Heck, I’ve done it, and I’m an atheist- from my point of view, this is the only life we get. I’ve got to make it last as long as possible… but I felt that the experience of skydiving was worth the risk.
ITR champion- good on you. I can respect faith that is strong enough to really embrace the concept of an afterlife.
As many folks have pointed out, most people don’t skydive so most Christians don’t, in the same way that most Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Sikhs and Bhuddists don’t.
When I was active I would say that the overwhelmingly vast majority of the other skydivers that I knew were Christian.
Source: Religion in the United States - Wikipedia
So roughly three-fourths of the US population does not participate in the activities you describe as a result of their religious beliefs?
Cite?
And I agree. However, in response to the dubious claim that Christians don’t skydive, you proposed rephrasing the question as “If Christians believe in an eternal reward in the afterlife, why do they fear death so?”
So come on. If you don’t think it’s inherently dangerous – and again, I agree with you on that point – then why insinuate that Christians avoid skydiving because they’re deathly afraid of the consequences? As I said, it’s a hasty and completely unwarranted conclusion to draw.
It’s a tenet of Christian belief that people are flawed, limited, and not generally able to comprehend just how great their divine reward will be. Therefore while some Christians may find that their faith lessens their aversion to danger, if they do still fear death it’s not because their Christianity “doesn’t work”. It’s just that imperfect human nature acting up again.
Heaven is up on the fluffy white clouds.
Hell is down under the earth in the magma.
Moving from near the former toward the latter is morally backward.
I’m not a Christian, and I do not skydive.
I did fall out of a tree once, if that help with the data points.
Its all about the transition. None of the things cited provide a painless, 100% successful transition to heavenly rewards.
BTW, for statistical purposes count me as an atheist who does jump out of planes or into water with sharks. I did serve in the military but in a support role.
At the risk of looking stupid: I read and responded to the parody thead Why don’t Pirates Skydive? before I knew of the existence of this one. FWIW what I said there was
Many of these points have already been made in this thread.
In the case of Christians (which would apply to some but not all believers in an afterlife), I like this answer:
Christians can and do risk their lives to further God’s kingdom (see, for example, any Christian martyr, or at least any non-misguided one), but that’s different from risking one’s life in trivial or selfish pursuits.
Missed the edit window. Should have been does NOT jump out of planes…
But that begs the question of why Christians do *anything *which entails a risk of death.