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Old 04.03.2014, 11:36 AM   #23
SuchFriendsAreDangerous
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The Catholics do NOT teach the concrete details of the future. The very premise of the "Last Judgment" is that Catholics DON'T KNOW for sure what will be the outcome, and this in turn is intended to motivate Catholics into a deep reflection about how to better appreciate and navigate THIS life in the present tense, because we can't positively affect the Last Judgment, but if we live recklessly, selfishly, we can surely negatively tip the scales.

Orthodox Hebraism as reflected in the Torah and the Prophets does NOT speculate about the Afterlife. "Sheol" is simply a place of death, like a cosmic waiting room. In fact, the Hebrew authors described Sheol in very nihilistic terms of nothingness, the absence of life, the negation of opportunity to experience God(s). Again as with the Catholics, this nihilistic sense of Death is intended to add stronger emphasis on THE PRESENT LIFE, not the future, because in Hebrew thought Death is an absence of God, where Life is the only opportunity to build that relationship and seek the liberating freedom of Grace.

The Muslims? Well they got A LOT of shit mixed up, but the 70 virgins in Paradise is NOT what we could call "orthodox" in any sense, rather, it is about as disorganized superstition as exists in those nudists Baptist churches in West Virgina or the late Westboro folks.. Superstitious speculation about the future that is not supported by an exegesis of the Sacred Texts or the Holy Traditions is NOT religion, it is by definition HERESY.

As to the Mystery cults you mentioned, well, interesting to note, while they did focus on superstitious speculation on the future and the Afterlife, notice they didn't spend enough time cultivating a working system to navigate and survive the present world, and so their "religions" are no longer active or existent..

You're busy skimming the surface of shallow arguments, and straw men at that. Theology is about diving into the murky depths..

Again, the conclusion of Theology is (a) the future (including any speculation about the Afterlife) doesn't yet exist and (b) the past has already happened, so we only exist in and have the present moment to focus on.
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