Ethan Manning
Incredibly refreshing and informative. This book could be particularly helpful to former Christians, trying to think differently about death and the afterlife.
For me Christianity as taught by parents, created a mental and cosmological box that encased all knowledge learned in life. Knowledge was 'worldly" and it always contained an asterisk, this stuff is all subject to the universe that God created and it's rules. As if God, Heaven and Hell existed totally outside of the universe.
So seeing where these ideas came from, who wrote them, who didn't write or teach them, and how contemporary philosophy and religion influenced early Christian thought, it's just made a strong case for the fact that Hell and Heaven are man made concepts. They are wishes of people who want post mortem rewards and punishments. A kind of religious coping mechanism (often for a minority group who was persecuted politically and for faith).
I liked that it summarized the ideas of the afterlife thought of by ancient writers and philosophers too (Homer, Epicurus, Lucretius). Epicurus and Lucretius managed in a couple sentences to radically change my outlook towards death. It's a shame their ideas didn't have as much influence as ones from Christianity because feel like it could lead to people living fuller lives, to being steered by one's own ambitions and joys, rather than a fear of hell.
Incredibly refreshing and informative. This book could be particularly helpful to former Christians, trying to think differently about death and the afterlife.
For me Christianity as taught by parents, created a mental and cosmological box that encased all knowledge learned in life. Knowledge was 'worldly" and it always contained an asterisk, this stuff is all subject to the universe that God created and it's rules. As if God, Heaven and Hell existed totally outside of the universe.
So seeing where these ideas came from, who wrote them, who didn't write or teach them, and how contemporary philosophy and religion influenced early Christian thought, it's just made a strong case for the fact that Hell and Heaven are man made concepts. They are wishes of people who want post mortem rewards and punishments. A kind of religious coping mechanism (often for a minority group who was persecuted politically and for faith).
I liked that it summarized the ideas of the afterlife thought of by ancient writers and philosophers too (Homer, Epicurus, Lucretius). Epicurus and Lucretius managed in a couple sentences to radically change my outlook towards death. It's a shame their ideas didn't have as much influence as ones from Christianity because feel like it could lead to people living fuller lives, to being steered by one's own ambitions and joys, rather than a fear of hell.