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How about tossing that relic of a book aside completely. Follow the Commandments (which predate Moses, if he existed at all) and skip the ones demanding fealty to one God. Add the fact that you will also treat women, children, and people of a different color with decency and fairness (somehow those got excluded from the original document). Realize that there is zero proof of the Exodus or of Moses on Mt. Sinai. Take that and the other stories of the Bible as myth (as they truly are). Forget whether Saturday or Sunday is the Sabbath. You will be surprised that your life will not change. That the Earth will continue to rotate around the sun and that certain calamity will not follow. Understand that you were taught to fear a God that was created by man. That there is in fact nothing to fear. Not even death.
''Take that and the other stories of the Bible as myth (as they truly are). Forget whether Saturday or Sunday is the Sabbath. You will be surprised that your life will not change''
you couldn't be more wrong.
letting go of that particular view of the bible and reality changes you in a fundamental way, which changes your life
different mind with which to perceive life, different life. The 'details' of life may not change, stiil a welder, still 5'10" still in debt, but YOU become different, which of a necessity changes your life
Part of it usually involves a reduction in fear as well as joy
sort of a trade off
Joseph Campbell, student of myth and all things 'religious', used to use the term terror/joy when referring to religious phenomenon
Interestingly, the pleasure and pain centers in the brain are very closely linked [hypothalmic region I think]
so maybe that explains terror/joy
the human nervous system is wired to notice difference, so a reduction in fear[and the immediacy of life myth may preserve] naturally reduces that childlike joy we experience thru contrast
Myth and religion at their best preserve our immediate emotional experience of life and give us a buffer or shield from psychic entropy
But as with all things of value, there's a price we pay
----
''That there is in fact nothing to fear. Not even death''
Dying unsatisfied with unfinished business in this life is something to fear, and whether the actual process of dying apart from that is nothing to fear or not, well, when someone comes back from it and says it's a breeze...
I can't imagine that Christians would ever believe that they died with unfinished business? Afterall it is all according to God's plan.
To live without fear of death has taught me to be more aware of my surroundings and I have also learned not to take unneccesary risks with my physical body. Sort of like living in moderation something I definitely did not do before. I want to extend life not fear death. It is inevitable. Having died for a short period on an operating table taught me alot. I got a true second chance. I used to mountain bike, now I run, that sort of thing. Age is a definite factor as well.
Awareness should not be confused with fear, the two shouldn't be confused. The unaware are much more likey to walk in front of a car. Fate isn't the only thing in play.
I've read Campbell, Armstrong, Borg, none of them sufficiently explained it.
Christians are people too. You can say they would just say we'll wait until we're in heaven, but suppose they want to express an emotion to a hellbound relation? No waiting then[see the book of Luke, Chasm, tongue, fire, cool, etc].
Christians come in all flavors, from the surprisingly rational to the totally irrational
I once asked a Pastor at my mom's church if she believed that if I took a shovel and dug long enough I'd end up in hell
she said 'yes'
I made the illustration not to be caustic, but to make sure she understood my question if she thought hell was a physical place.
If you want to be technical there is no such thing as a living Christian; like Kamikazees, all the good ones are killed in practicing[their faith]
after all to follow Christ and his life is to martyr yourself, tho those with a metaphysical bent would use 'self' in a more Buddhist sense.
as for your claim to not be afraid of death, well, I've been close to death as well, and familiarity did not breed comfort for me.
can I ask how you know not to be afraid of something you've never experienced?
or is your stance, I've never experienced it, so why should I fear it, not knowing whether it is an unpleasant experience or not?
Logic would say it's not rational to say death is nothing to be afraid of, if one has no data on the matter
all we can do is shrug our collective scientific shoulders
LOL on the comment about the pastor. Do agree with you that Christians come in all flavors. I do have quite a few Christian friends. We have just learned to agree to disagree and leave it at that.
I just don't fear the inevitable. Death is going to happen to all of us. We can make certain concessions as I have done to try to delay that fact but it is not under our control. I don't fear going to hell, no fear of judgment or condemnation. I don't fear the unknown (maybe looking forward to seeing the rest of the show I missed). I just don't fear it. I have seen others die right in front of me. A couple with the most pleasant smiles on their faces. I've always been a bit different regarding these matters. But we should all make the most of the one life that is known. Never assume anyone is correct as to what is on the other side.
a thought:
maybe the Pastor thought I was 'unsaved'
maybe the Pastor meant if I kept digging long enough I'd die of a heart attack
and end up in hell that way!
:-)
I don't fear death in the abstract either, but abstract and conceptualizing it, and having one foot in the bucket is two different things
I'm afraid to die in that I'm afraid to leave this life 'unfulfilled'
as for the experience of dying, what it feels like, it may be the most pleasurable feeling available to us, for all we know
and as perverse as life is in all its contradictions and paradoxes, having the most pleasant thing in life being leaving it would seem entirely appropriate to me