If reincarnation is forbidden by the laws of
this universe...
What about the people who get SCREWED in
this life..?
I knew (not personally, but knew of) a 23-year-old
girl who died of melanoma a couple years back... dead before she'd even gotten a chance to actually live.
What about the millions of people, who will never know anything but grinding poverty? (We're talking 2/3 of the human race here!) They'll never get THEIR turn at being rich, and the joys which go with being members of the privileged elite. Wouldn't that blow like a breaching whale???
There is a brain-damaged 17-year-old kid on my street, who is going to miss out on most of the really great things this world has to offer... if he wants to be a champion woman-chaser, for instance... he'll need ANOTHER life here, won't he..? Otherwise, the joys of hot sex will be an eternal mystery, to "gnaw at his guts" for quadrillions and quadrillions of years as he has to rely on the accounts of OTHERS to understand what it would have been like... stuck for eternity in a crushing cesspool of boredom, curtailed free will, and "purity and holiness" (ugh) with NO WAY OUT...

(WTF is "holiness", anyway? I've NEVER heard this concept explained to my satisfaction..!)
If you "only go 'round once" then a lot of people are going to get GYPPED. All they will ever know is what it is like to be an ef-ing LOSER... being a winner will be forever a deep dark MYSTERY to them. (And as you all know, mysteries with no hope of solution SUCK the big one...)
Give me scientific materialism (over the above scenario) ANY day. The traditional Western "heaven and hell" doctrine - as espoused by most Christians, most Jews, and as far as I know, ALL war-worshippers (aka Muslims) - is so revoltingly horrific, only a monstrous PIG of a "God" could have decreed it. (And come what may, if "God" is listening, I hope "he" (does "God" have a thingy?) is writing it down as I speak, so I can spit it back in "his" face on "Judgement Day."
(BTW, what's eating B-man this time, you ask? Well, my best buddy came back to visit me this holiday season. He's recently become a Southern Baptist (used to be a "pagan".) He basically told me (not in so many words, but STILL) that my cousin Pat is in Hell, and my agnostic (and VERY stubbornly so, far more than I am) father is ALSO going to the Big Weenie Roast. Makes me want to kick "God" (if "he" exists) in the teeth, quite frankly. I love my father INFINITELY more than I could ever care for some farty, ghosty, gassy, ethereal "Saviour Deity", thank you VERY much...)

B-man

B-man you're right to love your family first and worry about hell second...
don't let it get to you...I think the world is headed towards religious reformation, like a revolution in a way...well, people like you, like me, like this board, we will get it socked to us due to the changes coming.
not that I'm saying anyone's beliefs are better or worse than mine...I'm just talking the death throes of religious idealism.
I'm hoping it doesn't take as long as I'm thinking it will.
some have predicted one world religion, I just hope I'm alive to see it.

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Hi Brendon,

Having someone tell you this is a pain for sure. 

My grandfather (a pastor) condemned my brother to hell in front of a congregation of people both at his funeral and the next Sunday during his sermon.

If you look at this from their point of view you might see how afraid they are and that is why someone like this believes as they do... it's seems to be a result of their own fear and need for confirmation that they themselves won't go to hell.

Like Alysia mentions, I'm looking forward to the day when all of us live in understanding of the belief systems we've created... why and how they were created and how we have the power within us to create the kind of world we live in.

Love and blessings to you Brendon.

Kathy