# Just Can't Understand



## BowtechDan (Mar 24, 2014)

Why do religious folks make such a big deal all their life about christ, and PRAISE HIS GLORY!  But when someone dies to "be with him" it's boo-hoo?  Seems to me if you believe, death is where the rubber meets the road.  How many times can one rationalize?

And why ask "prayers for me"?  If I love the creator, and I'm on the way to meet the creator, and my family believes in the creator, y'alls hind-end should be gloating my hind-end!


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## SemperFiDawg (Mar 25, 2014)

BowtechDan said:


> Why do religious folks make such a big deal all their life about christ, and PRAISE HIS GLORY!  But when someone dies to "be with him" it's boo-hoo?  Seems to me if you believe, death is where the rubber meets the road.  How many times can one rationalize?



It's "boo hoo" for the same reasons parents cry when a child goes off to college or overseas.  You know you are gonna see them again,  yet you are still sad because you are gonna miss them until you do.  



BowtechDan said:


> And why ask "prayers for me"?  If I love the creator, and I'm on the way to meet the creator, and my family believes in the creator, y'alls hind-end should be gloating my hind-end!



Gloating?


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## SemperFiDawg (Mar 25, 2014)

I assume by the way you differentiated yourself from "religious folk" (pretty broad category) that you are either atheist or agnostic.  If that is the case, may I ask you a question.  

Are atheist and agnostics not sad when a loved one dies, and if so why?  If so, why is there sadness at all.  

As an atheist, intellectually you have to know this is just part of the "circle of life", and life is just a random collection of basic chemical elements with no inherent value outside of itself.  So why the sadness.  If you feel sadness at a loved ones death, how can you explain its' very existence?

The knife cuts both ways you know.  Your world view must be able to offer answers to the same questions you ask of others.


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## 660griz (Mar 25, 2014)

SemperFiDawg said:


> Are atheist and agnostics not sad when a loved one dies, and if so why?  If so, why is there sadness at all.



Yes. Sad. Cause all the joy they will ever get is gone. All the joy we could get from them or with them is gone. We will NEVER see them again.


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## centerpin fan (Mar 25, 2014)

BowtechDan said:


> Why do religious folks make such a big deal all their life about christ, and PRAISE HIS GLORY!  But when someone dies to "be with him" it's boo-hoo?



It's not always "boo hoo".  It really depends on how the reading of the will turns out.


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## SemperFiDawg (Mar 25, 2014)

But if joy and sadness are just an exchange of neurotransmitters across a synapse, you can get that from any other activity that causes the same synapses to fire; exercise, fishing, collecting rocks.  If man is just a fancy lump of carbon, a loved ones passing should bring us no more of a sense of grief than losing our favorite rock, and conversely replacing the joy they brought to our lives should be as simple as replacing them with a rock that causes the same synapses to fire.  If a person has no transcendent value and is just a collection of carbon, again why the sadness?  A lump of coal is carbon, so is graphite.  Do you experience the same sadness when you break a graphite fishing rod?  No.  You don't, because instinctively and inherently you KNOW it's not an apples to apples analogy.  You may espouse it, but YOU know it's not true.  Human beings do have a transcendent value that elevates us in our consciousness over a mere collection of atoms.  Intellectually you may yell it from the roof tops, but your emotions bear witness against your words and attest to the truth.


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## bullethead (Mar 25, 2014)

SemperFiDawg said:


> But if joy and sadness are just an exchange of neurotransmitters across a synapse, you can get that from any other activity that causes the same synapses to fire; exercise, fishing, collecting rocks.  If man is just a fancy lump of carbon, a loved ones passing should bring us no more of a sense of grief than losing our favorite rock, and conversely replacing the joy they brought to our lives should be as simple as replacing them with a rock that causes the same synapses to fire.  If a person has no transcendent value and is just a collection of carbon, again why the sadness?  A lump of coal is carbon, so is graphite.  Do you experience the same sadness when you break a graphite fishing rod?  No.  You don't, because instinctively and inherently you KNOW it's not an apples to apples analogy.  You may espouse it, but YOU know it's not true.  Human beings do have a transcendent value that elevates us in our consciousness over a mere collection of atoms.  Intellectually you may yell it from the roof tops, but your emotions bear witness against your words and attest to the truth.



Tell that to the crazy cat lady when one of her cats die or why there is bigger public outcry when a dog is found abused and the local news reports it and yet in the same newscast a mugging victim never even gets a second look...or why the commercials for the ASPCA showing pictures of cats and dogs(with sad music in the background) and a celebrity voice is "speaking" for the animals asking "why are we beaten" bring in more donations than the commercials for starving children...

You are on another one of your assertive rants with ZERO evidence to back you up. Emotional bonds are emotional bonds. I have seen grown men never shed a tear at a funeral for family members and bawl like a spoiled brat when they blow a chance at a deer or have a lunker trout snap a leader off.

There are no absolutes no matter how you convince yourself to think there are.


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## SemperFiDawg (Mar 25, 2014)

If there are no absolutes then your cat lady ain't crazy, just dancing to her DNA.


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## bullethead (Mar 25, 2014)

SemperFiDawg said:


> If there are no absolutes then your cat lady ain't crazy, just dancing to her DNA.



YEP! She certainly isn't dancing to the higher power influence you claim.


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## BowtechDan (Mar 25, 2014)

660griz said:


> Yes. Sad. Cause all the joy they will ever get is gone. All the joy we could get from them or with them is gone. We will NEVER see them again.



yep


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## SemperFiDawg (Mar 25, 2014)

BowtechDan said:


> yep



BTD, care to reply to me?


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## BowtechDan (Mar 26, 2014)

SemperFiDawg said:


> BTD, care to reply to me?



No, you might open a can of synapseass on me.  Like that's something extraordinary. 

Basic psychology terms stuff there.


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## formula1 (Mar 27, 2014)

*Re:*

BowtechDan:

Just wanted to say that Christ is life to me and death is only the beginning for me, whether you accept it or not!

But at least you know how to choose the right bow!!!


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## TripleXBullies (Mar 27, 2014)

formula1 said:


> BowtechDan:
> 
> Just wanted to say that Christ is life to me and death is only the beginning for me, whether you accept it or not!



That's exactly what he's saying. Why would you cry over a loved one passing when you know it's "only the beginning," for them. You should celebrate.


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## formula1 (Mar 27, 2014)

*Re:*



TripleXBullies said:


> That's exactly what he's saying. Why would you cry over a loved one passing when you know it's "only the beginning," for them. You should celebrate.



And that's exactly the way I see it, that is, for those who die in Christ.  We rejoice with their 'homegoing'.  The tears are often of joy for them but also of our loss that we don't have them with us anymore.  In reality, that second part is somewhat selfish on our part.

But there are those loved ones who die without Christ which do cause bitter weeping.

Not that you believe the scriptures, but even Jesus wept at the loss of his friend Lazarus, then promptly raised him from the dead.  I would say weeping is a normal process of grieving even for believers.

I wish you only the best, whether you agree or not!


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## 660griz (Mar 27, 2014)

formula1 said:


> In reality, that second part is somewhat selfish on our part.



Thank you for your honesty. That is what I think it boils down to also.


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## TripleXBullies (Mar 28, 2014)

formula1 said:


> And that's exactly the way I see it, that is, for those who die in Christ.  We rejoice with their 'homegoing'.




This may be another topic, but if our souls are the eternal pieces of us, it would be a homecoming.


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