If God put you in charge of...

[Kuciwalker]

3. Then I'd do my best to be just.

LAME.

[Arrian]

It's true.

-Arrian

[b etor]

but where's the fun in that?

[DaShi]

What's just?

[Perfection]

Originally posted by Straybow

Originally posted by Perfection

Originally posted by Straybow
People who ignore hat names I thoughtfully provided would be banned.

You have given hat names?

Yes, in some thread months ago. "Bowler" is the only one that sticks in my mind. Although your salvation or damnation depends on it I can't be arsed to look it up.

Dear lord! How could I have left out the Bowler! That is so added!

[b etor]

bowler hat guy

[Winston]

I thought it was called a derby in American English.

[b etor]

uhh.... what?

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Winston
I thought it was called a derby in American English.

Sometimes even we Yanks can speak the Queen's English. Eh what.

[Vesayen]

Re: If God put you in charge of...

Originally posted by Perfection
If God put you in charge of creating all the afterlives and determining who goes into what afterlife, how would you do it?

The idea of "hell" is not a Jewish concept, being a Jew, I can't imagine a just G-D who would torture anyone for eternity, for any reason.

On the same token, "eternal bliss" seems pointless and bad in another way. Part of what makes "us" us, is facing obstacles and learning. The afterlife is very vague in Judaism but what some rabis have said is that "olam haba" which really just is translated to "the next world" is where people will learn at G-Ds feet forever. Not my ideal after life either, but I find it much preferable to the Christian idea of “endless joy”.

I don't like the concept of an afterlife of "eternal joy". If you subjected me to "eternal joy" I stop being me, I become another entity entirely. Part of what constitutes "me", part of what constitutes any human being, is learning and experiencing challenges, even if the challenge is not to find food, or avoid pain, or find shelter, even if that challenge is just to learn new things.

If I designed the "after life", it would have to be something where people still grow and get to experience "challenges" in some form. I would model my ideal afterlife loosely on our material universe, however it would of course have to be changed a great deal, to account for the fact that no one would “die” there. Entropy would need to get a serious overhaul as well.

"Evil" people need to be re-habilitated in some way before being admitted however. This is not a punishment. I have absolutely no idea how this could be done. However, being a puny flesh beast, I find the concept of someone altering my mind to be horrific, a moral evil. This rehabilitative process will have three guiding ideals. #1, this is not punishment, simply necessary to create a more idealized version of the material universe-if it is filled with "bad" people along "good" people, it won't work. #2 people will not have their minds altered to "fit in" like a computer code, we won't hit ctrl-x and simply cut out the immoral impulses or experiences of people. Guiding ideal #3, it will be done as quickly, from the perspective of the individual, as possible-no one is being sat in a class room for X arbitrary years, as long as it takes without rushing it and not an instant longer. This could be a peco second, this could be a century, as I have no idea what form this rehabilitation would take, I couldn't say how long it would take.

Everyone gets two other options though.

1. Everyone also gets the chance to "opt out", if they decide after some long period of time they are ready for non existence, they get it. If G-D exists, he owns us and he owns our souls, but as a puny mortal, I don’t like the idea of having control over someone else’s existence, it feels like a bizarre form of slavery. Everyone gets to opt out if they want, but they will be thoroughly informed, so they absolutely understand that opting out really IS opting out, they do not go to some "higher plain", their consciousness is not "absorbed" into some higher being. It is not some elaborate test. If you opt out, you really do end and anyone who opts out must be aware of this before they make the decision.

2. Everyone also gets a chance to re-incarnate into the material universe. Memories will not carry over into the material universe, but you would have full memory of what you did each lifetime. With the afterlife being an “idealized” material universe however, I don’t see much point or purpose for people to want to re-incarnate.

[Straybow]

I didn't find the post, but I did find a little note on my computer with the hat names:

balaclava
balmoral
bowler
deerstalker
homburg
kippah
wimple

[Jon Miller]

the traditional idea of Hell is not a biblical concept (OT or NT)

it came in from other (Greek?) influences

JM