God and Afterlife

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Paphnutius' date='Dec 5 2005, 09:52 PM']Cogito ergo ego sum?! 

Really though, one of the preambles of faith is that humans can know that there is a God through light of human reason.
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It's a dogmatically defined teaching, too. Look up [u]Dei Filius[/u] from Vatican I.

[philothea]

[quote name='Paphnutius' date='Dec 5 2005, 08:52 PM']Cogito ergo ego sum?! 
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Tee hee.

[quote name='Paphnutius' date='Dec 5 2005, 08:52 PM']Really though, one of the preambles of faith is that humans can know that there is a God through light of human reason.
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I know, I know. I'm being lazy and uncharitable and jumping to the (I fear) inevitable conclusion. Bad me.

I hope it's obvious that do think things can be reasoned out and known.

[jezic]

one might find a belief in the afterlife something of a peculiarity because so many humans want to live forever and it would seem to be a natural extension of that.

However, if you can prove that God exists, it would seem to go against reason to create a creature in his own image to have it cease to exist in a short while later. It would seem to be a litlte bit strange.

[Guest JeffCR07]

[quote name='Raphael' date='Dec 5 2005, 08:26 PM']Technically, we can know some things.  We know that God exists, but that doesn't mean we know anything about Him besides.  We know that we exist.  We know concrete mathematical relations, etc.
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Actually, as an Anselmian, I must say that I find all the truths of the Faith to follow from our understanding the notion of God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" : lol

[philothea]

[quote name='JeffCR07' date='Dec 5 2005, 10:57 PM']Actually, as an Anselmian, I must say that I find all the truths of the Faith to follow from our understanding the notion of God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived"    :  lol
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Aaagh!

Pesky sober philosophy students!!! :

[Guest JeffCR07]

hahaha, we strike again!

[morostheos]

[quote name='JeffCR07' date='Dec 5 2005, 11:57 PM']Actually, as an Anselmian, I must say that I find all the truths of the Faith to follow from our understanding the notion of God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived"    :  lol
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oh gosh, I really hope we don't start that discussion again.... :

[Aloysius]

from what we know of the physical world: matter cannot be destroyed. this seems to be a universal constant to all material creation. it stands to reason that the spiritual world would reflect this and spirits would never be destroyed, but live on forever.

of course you might say we know matter cannot be created-- but all this means is that we know of no means to create matter, that something created cannot in itself create new matter. but since it logically follows that all matter must have been somehow created from nothingness (unless you follow a hindu eternal universe theory, scientifically for that I suppose you'd have to accept that stretch of the imagination scientists call a theory about all matter cyclically compressing then big-banging then compressing then big-banging for eternity) and since God is uncreated, He is exempt from this rule.

He is exempt from the theory that spirits couldn't be destroyed as well, but it logically follows that if He has chosen for all matter to never be destroyed it is very likely He has chosen for all spirits never to be destroyed.

of course, this argument if taken to its logical conclusion would probably challenge the traditional Christian view of animals with mortal souls (the only possible traditional exceptions being a pet could be kept in existence solely for the purpose of the human who loved it, in effect the love of the pet owner lifts it up).

spirits living on forever might, and in this case it is scientifically kindof more logical except for its failure to account for population growth, lead to the conclusion of reincarnation as well I suppose... but I would argue against that if you were thinking it did