Atheists, God and the afterlife.

That might explain one of the reasons why we're here right now, on this website. We may very well indeed be grasping for something that isn't there.

 

I believe in God and I believe that mankind is wicked and that only God can choose a man or a woman. We cannot choose God because of our wickedness. God chooses some for everlasting life in heaven and God chooses some for eternal damnation. He is the maker and we are the pot

 

Can someone give me a quick summary of the last 22 pages

 

It is certainly evident when we look at social media and the rise of the selfie phenomenon, and it could be argued on a forum the self image is just more an intellectual one rather than taking a pic with your phone.

On a forum projection of a self behind the words is prone to lead to all sorts of misunderstandings, and certainly a lot of energy can be wasted in investment in a self identity vs. if we are strictly discussing the topic.

This topic has ramifications in terms of addiction recovery. The traditional 12 Step model seems to rely on both the idea of a higher power as well as an individual self, where you are supposed to surrender the self to HP. With Buddhism I would describe it more as "life on lifes terms" to use recovery language, specifically relating to karma, cause and effect, where there is the way life works and you basically respect that and respond in the context of the network accordingly, and by network I don't mean just this or any given online forum but also the web of life itself.

I suppose the logic of being on this site could be like the belief in an afterlife in the sense that we are looking for recovery, and specifically a reboot - (rebirth?) where life is promised to be better in that future phase. The danger tends to be that one is not fully present/mindful here and now and just wants to look for a strategy to get to the better future regardless of whether there is a metaphysical belief ... even people who believe in Buddhism orsomething similar hanker after enlightenment as a future time bound event where it is a discontinuous leap into something better.

“Though my View is as spacious as the sky,
My actions and respect for cause and effect are as fine as grains of flour.”
-Padmasambhava

 

Greetings, I am a Calvinist. I believe:
Unconditional Election:
God does not base His election on anything He sees in the individual. He chooses the elect according to the kind intention of His will (Eph. 1:4-8; Rom. 9:11) without any consideration of merit within the individual. Nor does God look into the future to see who would pick Him. Also, as some are elected into salvation, others are not (Rom. 9:15, 21).