My Beliefs..

[abc]

I'm Atheist so lets get that out in the open.  ;)

I simply believe that we only have a "heaven" and "hell" because if we didn't then look at how many people would just go about doing dirty things? I think of Heaven, Hell and God as fairy tails personally.. Just one of those things that our parents have told us, (passed down generation to generation) to keep humanity undercontrol.

[Eric]

Social Control Theory.

[abc]

Mhm, Exactly.

[Sidoh]

So you've rejected the faintest possibility of a supernatural being having anything to do with the creation of continued observation of the universe?

[Miamiandy]

I am Jewish. However, I also believe that religion exists because people can't imagine themselves just dieing so they have to imagine having something to do after death so as to think it doesn't just end at death.

[abc]

So you've rejected the faintest possibility of a supernatural being having anything to do with the creation of continued observation of the universe?

Yep.

[Sidoh]

Yep.

Why?  You realize that requires as much faith as a person who believes in God?

I am Jewish. However, I also believe that religion exists because people can't imagine themselves just dieing so they have to imagine having something to do after death so as to think it doesn't just end at death.

Then you believe religion is a man-created illusion?  I wouldn't walk around claiming I'm Jewish if I believed that. ;P

[abc]

eh

[Sidoh]

eh

Being an Atheist requires a person accepts the assumption that God doesn't exist.  Assuming without proof is faith.  I'm not trying to persuade you out of your beliefs; I just want you to recognize the reality of them.

[abc]

meh, I understand where your comming from and all, and I get faced with the question all the time "If you don't believe in god..then how were we created?"

[Miamiandy]

I am Jewish. However, I also believe that religion exists because people can't imagine themselves just dieing so they have to imagine having something to do after death so as to think it doesn't just end at death.

Then you believe religion is a man-created illusion?  I wouldn't walk around claiming I'm Jewish if I believed that. ;P

Technically, being Jewish doesn't require faith in God. It is a culture as well as a religion. I keep relatively kosher (don't eat meat&cheese together, don't eat pork, shellfish, etc., but I do eat unkosher meat.) I celebrate the holidays and such. I do believe there is a God. I meant that although I am of the Jewish faith, I believe that the AFTERLIFE part of religion was formed due to the fact that humanity can't imagine their own deaths and need to think that there is something afterdeath.

[Sidoh]

meh, I understand where your comming from and all, and I get faced with the question all the time "If you don't believe in god..then how were we created?"

That's not where I'm intending to go with this.  My point is to make you realize that you're believing in something without proof.

Technically, being Jewish doesn't require faith in God. It is a culture as well as a religion. I keep relatively kosher (don't eat meat&cheese together, don't eat pork, shellfish, etc., but I do eat unkosher meat.) I celebrate the holidays and such. I do believe there is a God. I meant that although I am of the Jewish faith, I believe that the AFTERLIFE part of religion was formed due to the fact that humanity can't imagine their own deaths and need to think that there is something afterdeath.

I'm well aware with the ethnicity associated with Judiasm.  My point was this: I don't see many people born into a Jewish family proclaiming their association with the lifestyle when they don't accept the religious beliefs it entails.

[Miamiandy]

I never said I didn't accept the beliefs. I just also believe that the reason religion was created was since we couldn't imagine our own deaths. I do think I understand that idea but that I also I guess understanding that and am still a participant in my religion. And by the way, Judaism doesn't really focus as much at all about what happens after death as Christianity, the Ancient Egyptian's religion, or Islam [heaven&hell; goind to The Happy Fields of Plenty (Egyptian); reincarnation]. At least not as far as I've learned.

Maybe that is why I feel that I can believe both beliefs.

[Sidoh]

I never said I didn't accept the beliefs. I just also believe that the reason religion was created was since we couldn't imagine our own deaths. I do think I understand that idea but that I also I guess understanding that and am still a participant in my religion. And by the way, Judaism doesn't really focus as much at all about what happens after death as Christianity, the Ancient Egyptian's religion, or Islam [heaven&hell; goind to The Happy Fields of Plenty (Egyptian); reincarnation]. At least not as far as I've learned.

Maybe that is why I feel that I can believe both beliefs.

Judiasm is Christianity with the belief that Jesus Christ has come extracted.  I'm pretty sure that the existence of Heaven and Hell were made quite clear several times in the Old Testament.

I am not attempting to ridicule your beliefs, but I don't think that ignoring an aspect as important as Heaven and/or Hell of a religion allows you to be an advocate.  That's like believing in the laws of the united states, but not agreeing with the existence of rewards (privileges) or punishments of obeying/disobeying them.

[Miamiandy]

The way that I have grown up and the community the I live in. I have never seen much focus on what happens after death. When I've inquired to my temple's clergy as well as a few others, I have been told that there isn't quite the beating that you'll go to heaven or hell in Judaism as there is in Christianity. Good deeds are a commandment and considered to be a blessing. They are not considered as being the deciding factor of what one does after death (if one does anything.) Bad deeds, or sins, are repented for every year come Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, and the event on Rosh Hashannah in which we symbolically cast away our sins. We will not be condemned to hell.