They don’t believe in that bullshit any more than you do.
If they really believed that Big Brother is always watching them and will pass judgment when the time comes their behavior would be completely different, they might even be tempted to actually read that book they claim is his word. Alas…
I am an atheist and have always been one, so feel free to reject what I say here, but I think I understand why they aren’t, and let me illustrate with a story from my own life:
When I was 26, I moved from the Indiana town where I had spent my whole life to Los Angeles for work. I left my parents, my friends, even my wife for six months because she was finishing grad school. I knew I would see them all again eventually, but I still didn’t want to leave them and if there were a way I could have delayed it for years but still have been able to have a dream job in L.A., I probably would have. The first night when I got to L.A., I cried and cried because of everything I had left behind even though I was looking forward to a bright new future.
So it’s not that they don’t want to go to the afterlife, it’s that they want to experience this life as long as possible. They want to be with all of their friends and family now, not wait for them all to die so they can be reunited in heaven.
Yeah, but without the carrot, people would fight against the stick. Every religion has both the things you shouldn’t do and the reward for not doing them.
The more deeply you think about heaven the more hellish it sounds. Basically you get stuck in this drugged-out bliss perpetually in worship of god. Because you’re stripped of all your corporeal problems and desires. You’re not going to hang out with friends (who would they be? Do they get a say what life stage they appear as?) None of your corporeal hobbies are there. Maybe your spouse decides they want to hang out with their previous partner who died in a car crash? You don’t learn. You don’t grow. You don’t get new experiences. You have nothing to look forward to. You’re a slave to stasis.
The only answer to solving these problems is to place the person in a bubble. But that creates a whole new set of problems. Heaven sounds pretty shitty.
Roughly the rules are interpreted as if you spend your life in the service of somebody else or society you go to heaven. Of course, those in power see themselves as serving society because they give guidance. If you do things going against that, so disobey the leaders, you go to hell. It’s how they tried to keep the populace in line. The rest is window dressing.
So this turned into a bit of a rant and while it's likely nobody cares I'll post it anyway.
I don't know about Christianity but at least in Islam this isn't how it works. So there's a hadith that says that death is the worst of what comes before it and the easiest of what comes after it, because the day of judgement is just that bad. There's another that says that in the day of judgement it will be so hard that people will want Allah to start it even if they go to hell. No matter how much you think you've been a good person it's not at all something to look forward to. And that's not counting how even as a Muslim depending on what you did in your life, you could go to hell, spend a certain time there according to your sins in life and then go to heaven. Again not something most people want to find out, especially because Islam teaches that with the exception of prophets everyone sins and that we all need Allah's forgiveness and mercy to go to heaven. The kind of arrogance it'd take to actually hope for death because you're confident you're going to heaven can in fact be the reason you go to hell. A devout Muslim will never think "oh I've been really good in life I can't wait to die and go to heaven".
Then we get into how in the day of judgement people will have mountains of good deeds and mountains of bad deeds and people's (temporary; again all Muslims will eventually go to heaven) fate will be decided over a single good or bad deed. Most people thinking seriously about the afterlife will want to live as long as possible to do good deeds and beg god for forgiveness for their bad deeds. Again, no sane Muslim will think "yep, I'm doing alright, death please".
I’ve asked a number of religious guys what happens if you kill infants, would they go to heaven? If so, why don’t we since that will result in eternal happiness without all the life suffering and risk going to hell.
One person (Catholic) told me, the babies would go to heaven if they were baptized and then killed. The other person (Christian) told me they can’t determine this because they’re not God.
Yes. At the same time some aren’t that sure or scared of death. And the rules are that detailed that lots of people have committed some kind of offense and can’t expect to go to heaven for sure.
Also the bible has implemented some additional rules so you can’t take a shortcut to heaven… Suicide won’t do it because (surprise) it’s a sin… And generally speaking god is just testing you with this life. That’s kinda the only thing why it matters and why you would want to behave and live it like he intended.
Also there is martyrs, suicide cults etc taking that shortcut straight to heaven.
Yes. I am excited to escape this evil world and finally be with God where I won’t suffer any more. I am excited for Christ to come back and destroy all evil in this world as well. Maranatha!
No, they’re scared shirtless of death. They know despite the self righteous facade that they are shitty human beings and expect to find themselves in hell.
For me outside of the natural scariness of it if your not into reincarnation then this is yout only chance on earth and hevon may be good but I’m not done yet getting my own personal kind of high score
Jesus’ verses to us about life being a gift resonate here. The duties we have aside that may shift the balance, it’s too unique an experience to say Heaven surpasses it in gift status. I wish I enjoyed mine more though, I’m more indifferent to it.
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