If you want to ask a question

So it would actually be rather like it is here on earth - people segregated according to their religious beliefs in different mansions. Because every religion thinks theirs in the one and only God.

Lilygran, you say:-
"I think this is where the tolerant secularist and the believer have to part company. As far as we're concerned, matters of faith are matters of fact. Do you want us to say, 'this is what the religion teaches, but of course, it isn't true' ?"

No I don't, but I would hope you to be able to admit that even for you it cannot be more than a matter of belief, for surely a matter of faith can ultimately only be a matter of belief? A verified fact ceases to be a matter of faith.

As an atheist I do not believe that there is a god, but I cannot prove it any more than Richard Dawkins can, and I do not expect science ever to be able to prove the existence or non-existence of some kind of supreme being or originator of the universe. At it's most basic, who lit the touch paper for the Big Bang?

Ana! I hope you're not laughing (too).

jingle I am becoming increasingly confused by your posts. You seem to veer from indignant to flippant. And I felt sure you were a Christian yourself and yet you are being quite scornful about some of the Christians on here.

Spirit. No-one will need a body. Not that I am really convinced that there will be anywhere to need spirit either, but if there is, then bodies would be too clunky.

And how would anyone get around if their body had been seriously damaged by a traumatic death? The Egyptians believed you had to have the whole body - they added fake parts when they mummified, even added a rolled-up bandage to one corpse which had lost a small vital appendage.

jingls spirit I would think (the body is what is left behind here).

Lilygran I don't the Pope himself is that 100% sure.

So why the "many mansions"?

And yet the creed says "I believe in . . . . the resurrection of the body . . ."

eloethan I'm not sure I like some of the Christians on this thread.

I am a bad Christian. Perhaps even a failed one.

Jings Try this mansions link. www.craigkeener.com/tag/in-my-fathers-house-are-many-mansions/

It may make it clearer (or it may not)

"In the context of John’s entire Gospel, there is no reason to assume that the “Father’s house” refers to heaven, though it might be an allusion to the Temple (John 2:16) or to the Father’s household (John 8:35; and we are His new temple and His household). More helpfully, Jesus goes on to explain the “dwelling-places” (NIV: “rooms”) explicitly in the following context. The Greek word for “dwelling-place” used in 14:2 occurs in only one other verse in the New Testament—in this very context, in 14:23, part of Jesus’ continuing explanation of 14:2-4. “The one who loves Me will obey Me, and My Father will love that one and we will come make our ‘dwelling-place’ with that person” (14:23). The related verb appears throughout John 15:1-10: “Dwell [abide]” in Christ, and let Christ “dwell” in you.

Elegran - the appendage!

Re my query about christians taking over pagan festivals, no-one knows the exact dates of events in the NT so christian festivals were timed to coincide and then 'take over' these festivals:

www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/holidays2.htm

No, jingl, I wasn't being facetious at all. My post was a serious response to Eloethan's statement

I thought the mansions in "in my house there are many mansions" symbolised the various belief systems that all lead to one God.

Whatever Ana.

I guess we all have to decide on the answers ourselves.

That sounds a likely explanation, ana. Let 's hope they don't carry on fighting.

Not sure why you think I deserve that. Not to worry...

My last post was to jingl of course.

No, it wasn't meant to be an explanation rosequartz, I was questioning Eloethan's interpretation that's all...

In the light of biblical writings and both historical and current global realities, why do Christians persist in talking about peace on earth and goodwill to all men?

It does make sense, though ana

Ana! It's alright. Take no notice. I'm just in a "no-one understands me" mood.

Jingle and anyone else.
This conversation now sounds like a debate about how many angels can sit on the head of a pin.

It generates more heat than light!

You can take the stories in the New Testament as a standard way of teaching ideas and it has some good ethical values which owes quite bit to the ideas of Buddhism. You can choose to think this man was a wise teacher or a divine incarnation.

The old testament is part a catalogue of Jewish history and a group of people trying to get some organisation and basic rules for an ethnic group beset by aggression from other tribes wanting the most fertile bits of land which happened to be the valley of river Jordan.

Nelliemoser What an interesting thought but would a fairly primitive society in a small Roman province in the Middle East have access to the ideas of Buddhism a couple of thousand years ago?

Perhaps the Three Kings were Buddhists? They came from the east.

People travelled more than we think.

absent it is a laudable aim.

It intrigues me that believers are not puzzled why god has made him/herself so totally opaque that all these centuries of earnest discussion and study needs to take place to understand him/her. What motive might god have to make this as difficult as possible? - seems a bit perverse to me.

Why not "Hello, here I am; this is what you are here for; this is what I require of you." - and the same message all round the universe.