There are 1000s of religions of the world. Do most of them promise eternal life of some kind? What makes one believe one religion is better than another? By better, it is the only way one can achieve life everlasting. Could there be more than one way to an eternal life? Is there such a thing as eternal life? Try to be specific if you have a religion that you feel is the 'one true religion' as to why. http://www.comparativereligion.com/salvation.html One of the few elements that world religions share is the assertion that humans dont live in harmony with the Ultimate Reality. In other words, humanity does not manifest its purpose of existence. Life is a far cry from the ideal claimed by religion, so that humanity needs salvation from its present condition. In assessing the meaning of salvation in world religions we must analyze three important aspects: The resources needed for attaining salvation, the actual way of getting saved and the meaning of being saved. Concerning the first two aspects, some religions claim that salvation can be attained by using only inner human resources. They demand the use of meditation, accumulation of wisdom, asceticism, rituals, good deeds, etc. Other religions state that humans can be saved only through the grace granted by an external personal agent. This agent can be God, a bodhisattva, an avatar, etc. Ones duty is to recognize the impossibility of being saved by one's own efforts, and therefore accept grace unconditionally. There are also combinations of these two ways.
Well, I guess the idea that if a person disappears, the person in question usually knows where he is himself, so the same could be true for people who die.
Some flavors of Hinduism provide for eternal life. They believe that Nirvana is attainable for everyone, regardless of their religion. But they favor the notion that it must be earned - you have to work your way up through reincarnations from roaches to people to cows before the final reward.
Some of you may be old enough to remember the old Kennel Ration commercial that went My dog's better than your dog, My dog's better than yours My dog's better 'cause he get's Kennel Ration My dog's better than yours Try this My god's better than your god My god's better than yours My god's better 'cause (your religion here) live forever My god's better than yours And that's about all there is to it. They all use fear of death to get converts.
Humans have many funny ideas.. Fear tends to stoke the fires for generating them, too. Death is something all or most of us fear to some extent, I think, especially in youth, and obviously there has been no way around it in the real world since time immemorial. This leads people to seek comfort of some kind, which I think is often a major part of "making peace with God." People have to come to grips somehow with the concept of death. Believing that death isn't really death is one way they manage it, apparently, and it's nice to think of being with your loved ones for eternity rather than simply disappearing in the full sense of "ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
indeed. fear of death is the great stumble, and this fear has been exploited to the max since moses was a boy
Moses is suspect. He's a popular mytho-historical character for the Hebrews, but I think he's as historical as Romulus and Remus.
A wonderful sales pitch indeed! The ancient equivalent of a Nigerian lottery scam. Only the outstangly stupid or outstandingly greedy fall for it.
