The Sage Nabooru Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 I was afraid, terrified of death as a Christian. In Lutheranism, your salvation depends entirely on your own faith, and unless you spend every waking moment both praising God and repenting your own worthless hide, that damnation option is always left open. I was always scared of dying, and of the Apocalypse. Whereas the Catholics could settle on Purgatory and get masses and prayers to make things easier, with us it was black or white: you either went to heaven or hell. Nothing in between. Because there was so much stress on our sinfulness and inherent filthiness, I never felt good enough to go to heaven. It scared the shit out of me, whenever I thought about it. I knew I'd probably go to hell. A couple weeks ago it was a real blizzard outside, but I still made the effort to go to my shitty job. I never made it there. Right on the big hill outside of the shopping center, my car gave out after slipping like its tires had been greased on every stop sign and red light up to that point. It slipped off the road, onto the shoulder, and I had to think fast (which is hard, since it turns out my reflexes aren't what I'd hoped they were) to put it in park and get it to hold the hell still. I called my mom and waited. At one point, it appeared a truck came off the road just as I had, right ahead of me, and then started slipping backwards straight towards my windshield. It turns out it was some guy who wanted to know if I'd been helped (to tell you the truth, what with cell phones and all, I kinda viewed his action as an annoyance), but I genuinely felt for a few seconds that somebody was going to plow right into my face. I was not afraid of dying. What scared me was that I might be mangled and be forced by a pro-life society to live on machines for a few weeks and with numb pain and soreness the rest of my life, minus a limb or two. If I knew I'd be killed immediately, painlessly - well, pfft, what the fuck would worrying about it do? And at any rate it's not as though I've enjoyed my time here on earth. I was more afraid of the pain than of dying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 In Lutheranism, your salvation depends entirely on your own faith, and unless you spend every waking moment both praising God and repenting your own worthless hide, that damnation option is always left open. That sounds like a very different kind of Lutherism than I have been exposed to these past four years at the Lutheran seminary. They teach that grace is irresistable. Whether you want it or not, grace is there. I understand that means you couldn't be damned if you wanted to be. I asked, So why preach your religion? Answer as near as I can remember: I think life is better with religion. I encountered humanism and Abraham H. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and self-actualization before I encountered Lutheranism. The hierarchy of needs and self-actualization theory explains my personal experiences far better than Christianity and I would push it like people push religion. But somehow, it does not seem right. You cannot force a flower to open before its time and you cannot force a person to self-actualize. Both are an inner process of Life that cannot be imposed from the outside. The person has to be willing, though. Christianity got that part right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panther Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 I sat here pondering and reading and then came up with something else. Sometimes living can be scary as hell as well.... Depends on where you are at in your life. Depression and feeling as if you are only in survival mode would be scary. Having your life take a drastic change and starting fresh can be scary. How about people that suddenly lose everything and are homeless or people that are in the throes of a drug addiction? Suffering with a terminal illness or watching your body deteriorate in front of you? Feeling like life is passing you by without fully living it...that would be scary. Sorry to sound depressing here foks....just thinking about real life situations..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CerebralHypertrophy Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 This post made me remember some late night childhood memories. I was raised Catholic, so of course had heard about hell and eternal fire. I remember laying in bed at nights and pondering the concept of eternity. I'd think about it for a while, maybe 5-10 minutes, and get this eery/mysterious feeling of awe/fear. I'd think about being in a horrible place for eternity and would start praying. Saying my "Our Father" and "Hail Mary's." The fear of death and what lies after is real. It is unknown. It can't be proven. This has to mean that either A. This is some sort of test/matrix/ant farm sort of world or B. Death is equivalent to our existence before we were born...aka nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mythra Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 The fear of death and what lies after is real. It is unknown. It can't be proven. This has to mean that either A. This is some sort of test/matrix/ant farm sort of world or B. Death is equivalent to our existence before we were born...aka nothing. Hi C.H. Welcome to ex-c. Always nice to see another clear thinking person show up here. p.s. I choose "B" as the correct answer.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonkey Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 The fear of death was one of the biggest impetuses in my deconversion, along with the second coming (which in my mind is worse than dying). Freedom from religion is freedom from the fear of hell. How anyone can feel comforted by a system which dictates that the majority of people will be sent to an eternity of unimaginable pain and torment is beyond me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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