On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 13:05:28 -0500, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

toller wrote:


Some people believe that belonging to a local church,
temple, mosque or synagogue will get them to Heaven.

No one thinks that going to a synagogue will get them into heaven, since
anyone going to a synagogue knows there is no heaven.

So what's the point of going to a synagogue then? AAMOF, why profess
any
faith at all if there is no heaven?

One goes to synagogue for communal prayer. One professes a faith because
it
helps them lead a morally correct life. Both are optional aids to leading
a morally correct life.
If believing in heaven works for you, then it is what you should believe;
all paths are equally good. (You won't be dissappointed. (no opportunity
to be))


Appears the Sadduccee sect won -- at least in the version of Judaism you
are discussing.

No reference in the Bible to heaven or any sort of life after death in the
Bible. (er, Torah) Well, there is that one story where King Saul
consults with spirits, but he was mad at the time.

I understand that the notion of heaven as being a pleasant place that the
average person went after death was rather radical at the time and that
establishment of suicide as a sin in Christianity was the result of too
many Christians immolating themselves in order to escape their miserable
existence in Pagan Rome and go to a better life in heaven. We are now
seeing something similar among loony-tunes who profess to be Muslims (I
understand that no orthodox Islamic sect believes that suicide-bombing is a
path to heaven, but that doesn't stop the nutcakes--does Islam also have a
hell to which they could be consigned?).

This is inconsistent with scripture or history. Old Testament writings,
including Psalms (" ... and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever
..."), Job, (" ... and I will see him with my own eyes, mine, and not those
of another ... ") all gave indication of life after death. In the synoptic
gospels, the teaching of Christ are replete with references to the
afterlife and the refutation of the Sadduccees' denial of the resurrection.
The Epistles of Paul further refute those who denied the resurrection of
the dead. I have read nothing in any history of the early church of
Christians immolating themselves -- this immolation was done by the Roman
government during various persecutions of the church. Both Old and
New-testament (i.e., Jewish and early Christian teachings always forbade
suicide).



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The absence of accidents does not mean the presence of safety

Army General Richard Cody

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