Why is death, not birth - important? Fear?

[mir]

Why does Christianity (over?)focuses on death rather than the birth of people?

 

Everyone is talking about what is happening after death, not before birth...

Is fear the factor which makes religious spin their wheels?

 

And for those religious who don't feel they are having a good life - Why dont they think of what happen before birth that made their life in such way?

 

Btw, try the religious test at...

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=10907&first=yes

[ronthepon]

Because we all have been through birth, and there is not supposed to be anything mysterious about it.

 

No body remembers the instant(s) during or before birth, and hence nobody expects any pondering about it.

 

Death will come, while birth is a headache already had over with.

 

Hmm... and if religion does try and make stuff about it, then well, things will clear about how much crap it holds.

[mir]

Hehe. But someone must have asked the question, what came before birth?

Was there a life before birth? I find it curious, why no-one tell anything (in the Bible for instance) about a "before-birth-life"?

[Boerseun]

I have asked that same question previously on Hypo (Previously, on Hypography...) [/soap opera voice-over]

 

...and I guess the only reason for that, is that birth is over, whatever the qualities of your pre-birth consciousness. Death is still coming, and the nature of Death will have a lot more people worrying than that which is over and done with.

 

Me, personally, believe that after death you'll experience about the same as before life. Zilch. Absolutely nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada.

 

...and that's about it, I guess.

[mir]

Zero. Zip. Nada? There is of course no reason why it should be more, if you use Occams razor.

 

Well I believe the consiousness may last forever. But in another time dimension, since the sense of time also dissapear when you die.

 

But the body of course becomes energy for other organisms. And so your body lives forever as a long chain of energy-transformations to support the next life of organisms and eventually dissapear as heat into the cosmos.

[Boerseun]

Well I believe the consiousness may last forever. But in another time dimension, since the sense of time also dissapear when you die.

Our consciousness in life is hosted by a slimy, wrinkly ball of goo called 'the brain'. If consciousness is to carry on after death, what do you propose would be the vehicle for it?

 

Consciousness isn't a mysterious thing, repeated experiments have shown that a rather hard bump to the cranium, enough to rattle the brain, is sufficient to cause unconsciousness. This experiment can be repeated and will give the same results, time and again. Consciousness seem to have a bit of difficulty in reappearing upon removal of said brain, in a modified version of this experiment. And Death would simulate much of this... so from where would consciousness 'reappear' after death, pray tell?

[mir]

Our consciousness in life is hosted by a slimy, wrinkly ball of goo called 'the brain'. If consciousness is to carry on after death, what do you propose would be the vehicle for it?

 

Wow, really? 0.o

You got me there.

But if I dont mean consciousness, but a feeling, does it make any differents? What about the chemistry in the brain?

[ronthepon]

First of all, the brain is not slimy. It is wrinkled, but not slimy goo.

 

If conciousness can be erased temporarily by unconciousness, and well... simple sleep, then feelings can be erased, even while conciousness remains, by severe depression. Hell, even shock does the trick.

 

Uhm... check out the discussion on the following thread, it had been long and (as I hope) semi-exhaustive.

 

http://hypography.com/forums/watercooler/8885-why-do-we-feel-way-we.html

[HydrogenBond]

The thing that is talked about in the bible, concerning birth, is that one is born with orginal sin. The eastern religions might call this karma, past lives, etc., or baggage from the historical past that one starts with at birth. The eastern religions recycle life through Karma and reincarnation to create an evolving cycle of life-death-life. The Judeo-Christian stop the reincarnation recycle at one's future death. In other words, J-C assumes one has reached the end of recycle or Buddahood in this current life and the next stop is paradise or another darker place that is out of the eastern recycle loop.

[hallenrm]

Everyone is talking about what is happening after death, not before birth...

Is fear the factor which makes religious spin their wheels?

 

People talk about "after death" and not "before birth" for two simple reasons:

 

1. They presume that death precedes birth, any way! :doh:

2. The death is presumed to be a release from life, and a possible rebirth sans the difficult situations of the present. After sometime most of us desire a change, death is the door to that change.

[Boerseun]

Simply put, birth is in the past, death is in the future. We can't change the past, but we can empty people's wallets through hollow promises and threats to be realised somewhere in the unknown future.

 

In the East, religions include such vague terms as the I-ching. In the West, we have it down to tangibles, like the religious dogma of the ka-ching.