Is The Preached About Afterlife A Conspiracy In And Of Itself?

The most common belief within religious faiths is the belief that the human soul that believes in the one true God of the universe will remain immortal for forever after the death of your human body. If you do not believe then basically (depending on what interpretation you believe) you are either literally sent to a burning lake of fire or the soul dies along with your body in the grave you are buried in.

Sounds easily enough. Believe and you are all set!

My first question is a hypothetical one (is there any other type? ).

Lets say after you die, there is an afterlife. Your soul does in fact live on.

What I would like to know is what your beliefs state will happen next...

(obviously, your answers can only be opinion based, and you dont have to answer them to participate in the thread if you dont like...they are just trying to get you to think in detail about what you believe will happen in the afterlife...the conspiratorial part is at the bottom)

1. When and how is knowledge provided to you by 'God'?

Upon judgement? While you are in line to be judged? What will you have clear definition of? The beginnings? The story of Jesus Christ? How it all ends down here? Your family? Who God is? How the earth and the universe was created?
All of the above? None of the above?

Is it some visual that God provides? Will there be some mental knowledge zapped into you somehow? Please explain what it is you think will happen and how.

2. If you, by some slight chance, don't get to 'see' 'Him', how will you know 'He' exists?

3. If there is not some overwhelming presence confirming 'His' existence, what happens if you come to the conclusion that maybe the religions on earth may have had it wrong?

4. How do you have memories of your past earthly life? And how are you going to even know if you believed in God or not?

If you would like to expound on what you believe the answers are then please feel free to do so. (the conspiratorial part is at the bottom)

So when you die do you:

All of a sudden find yourself running through grassy meadows with the rest of your deceased family members or possibly find yourself parading around on golden streets? What does your faith tell you to think about this apex of your spirituality? What does it say will happen next?

Now, please entertain me a little longer. What if you have no answers, no presence felt and no visual representation of 'God'?...

You therefore come to the conclusion that God in fact does not exist the way you thought 'He' would. Are you immediately sent to hell? Does your soul immediately cease to exist? Do you think God cares whether or not you actually believe in him after you are already dead? Is there sin and a new style of earth in the afterlife the way the Greeks thought of the afterlife? Are there reprocussions for defying 'Him'?

What if you keep your faith and nothing ever happens? You soul drifts aimlessly around in the space/time continuum with no reconciliation with your past loved ones. Will you think it is yet another test of faith? What would your reaction be?

OK. Enough with all that speculativ equestioning. I find those kinds of questions intriguing, but obviously each individual answers are going to very widely and are un proveable...So...

This leads me to a small little speculative argument I would like to exhibit. This is not an attack on your beliefs. Nor am I implying I am right and your beliefs are wrong, but I would like to get your thoughts on such an idea...

Maybe the traditional thought of only liveing for the after life is one grand conspiracy. Maybe it was meant for the poor to not live for their earthly life or reach for earthly possessions...All the while the rich have no problem living like kings and taking advantage of the person who will reap benefits of the afterlife but live like slaves on earth... ??

I think this is a conceivable argument considering who these words were written for. If you look at the beginings of Jews and their ancestory, they were considered at the very least second and third class citizens in ancient Egypt and some even argue they were slaves...Maybe the message is not even conspiratorial, but more for consolable reasons.

Like "Hey ,keep your chin up...you are going to be living on golden streets and eat like a King on the other side...Dont worry about these bastards that treat you like slaves here"...And therfore they continue to work and do all the things that they are supposed to do because they will be "rewarded" in the afterlife...

So what do you think? Does that sound feasible?

I will leave you with these words from Bob Marley:

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!

Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!

"Maybe it was meant for the poor to not live for their earthly life or reach for earthly possessions...All the while the rich have no problem living like kings and taking advantage of the person who will reap benefits of the afterlife but live like slaves on earth... ?"




You hit the nail directly on the head there my friend. It's what I've always thought, as well.

Especially considering in the christian churches, especially, the ones living like kings are the ones preaching for everyone else to lay down and take whatever life (god) is gracious enough to allow yuo to have.

Upon judgement? While you are in line to be judged? What will you have clear definition of? The beginnings? The story of Jesus Christ? How it all ends down here? Your family? Who God is? How the earth and the universe was created?
All of the above? None of the above?

Yes, yes, not much obviously! Probably the end, maybe krishna, probably hell, gone, probably allah, I wish!
Partially the above and none. lol, hard to keep up!

2. If you, by some slight chance, don't get to 'see' 'Him', how will you know 'He' exists?

If I get hit by a car and go somewhere else, i'd think i'd be pretty damn sure of what and where I am, and who the guy is over there, sentencing me to eternal damnation.

3. If there is not some overwhelming presence confirming 'His' existence, what happens if you come to the conclusion that maybe the religions on earth may have had it wrong?

If there all wrong, well, I suppose I am right! lol, if it's the god JKLFDSJFS then, their all damned to hell, supposing he/she trans/ created a hell. Or is much more merciful, and everyone goes to heaven, since noone could figure out that rubix cube.

4. How do you have memories of your past earthly life? And how are you going to even know if you believed in God or not?

From the church I was brought up in, (no longer believe, theist hands off!) I would've guessed that we would have knowledge and recollection of everything, Before birth and after death, and all inbetween and outside of our realm which is now.

All of a sudden find yourself running through grassy meadows with the rest of your deceased family members or possibly find yourself parading around on golden streets? What does your faith tell you to think about this apex of your spirituality? What does it say will happen next?

It's a nice thought, a beautiful and elegant thought, but why not make the best of what we've got right now? Why not run through the meadows we have now, why not phone the family member we haven't talked to in decades, why must the afterlife please all things. I say now, not after death.

Golden streets, would make me think very absurd things of whose running the place. lol

What if you have no answers, no presence felt and no visual representation of 'God'?...

Then obviously, I've gone to where 90% of people have insisted i'm going! lol.

"Hey ,keep your chin up...you are going to be living on golden streets and eat like a King on the other side

This is like me saying, hey tomorrow, you'll feast upon the legs of bush and obama cannabilistically, and you will slaughter iran and israel, and bring peace on earth.

A clearly outrageous claim.

Feasting merely upon the weak, who don't realize that their lives are #, and they have no say in the fact their lives are #, abandoning them to hell in which their lives happen to be.

Go up to katrina victims, and tell them, hey, you'll die from a cause which could've been prevented by damns, and what not, help from the outside, but breathe in that water, it will all be good soon.

Or go to an Iraqi, ALLAHU AKBAR, get shot in the kneecaps, go through guantanamo, allah, will soon bless you afterwards.



lol, you ask alot of people in this thread, I doubt you'll get many replies.

But here's my five bucks.

If I understand your post, then yes, one aspect of religious instruction is compensatory justice after death.

But the premise that people are rewarded in the afterlife on account of their faith simply is not "the most common belief within religious faiths." Among Christians, it is the typical Protestant view, but neither Catholics nor Eastern Orthodox agree. Protestants are about 20% of Christians world-wide, give or take.

(Hard numbers about religious belief are hard to come by. Estimates can be had from religioustolerance.org and adherents.com, and other sites.)

Among other Abrahamics, Allah doesn't hand out berths in Paradise just for faith. There is an elaborate personal judgment, referred to as "the scales." Round numbers, there are about as many Muslims as Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

Jewish ideas about all aspects of human-divine interaction differ from the later Abrahamics, including after-life questions. And there are lots of non-Abrahamic religions as well, with their own ideas about happens, some with no god, others with scads of gods.

My guess is that the importance of compensatory justice depends on the community. The long-standing attraction of Protestantism for African-Americans is often attributed to its offer of a better life to come, yours for the asking. But what of a well-off Anglican community?

Maybe future reversal-of-fortune is less attractive to them . So, maybe they don't emphasize that aspect quite so much as some others might. Indeed, it is easy to find Christians who believe that prosperity in this life is God's way of saying thank you, and a taste of more to come.

If there is an afterlife, then I'll be interested to see how God manages all the different expectations people have about what the accommodations are supposed to be like. Unfortunately, according to several theories, all I'll get to see personally will be Satan's operation.

conspiracy?? na, it's incompetence.

possessions and the pointlessness of worldly goods is denounced in most spiritual beliefs. this is because possessions do not bring us peace or happiness when attained and the pursuit of them leads to a deferral of happiness.

that's what the bob marley song you quoted means when it says "find yours on earth". this idea is based in his own spiritual beliefs.

when practitioners of some spiritual system don't bother their backsides to actually take the time to understand their religion, their going to be taken for a ride. that isn't a conspiracy, that's just a confidence trick, it's a con. the information is there for the practitioners if they want it.

[edit on 31/8/09 by pieman]