Cecilie1200
Diamond Member
If Christians (or any adherent of a monotheistic religion besides Judaism) go to Heaven, or Paradise, and live forever in complete bliss, then why do they fear death, grieve the loss of loved ones (even the ones who also believe), and react with such outrage when people are killed. Shouldn't they be happy for the dearly departed? Shouldn't they be rejoicing? Shouldn't they welcome death?
(After having deleted the incredibly offensive and childishly unacceptable attempts at snarky humor)
Here's the answer, not that I think you're mature enough or bright enough to comprehend it.
We fear death because dying hurts. There are very, VERY few pleasant ways to separate a human body from living, and the vast majority not only hurt, but hurt in amazing and profound amounts. Just because I want to go to Heaven doesn't mean I'm eager to get hit by a bus. Duhhh.
We also aren't eager to die because we don't want to leave the people we love behind. However strongly one believes in Heaven and the afterlife, this world is all we've ever known, and our loved ones exert a powerful draw on us.
Third, God designed human beings with a self-preservative instinct that makes us avoid death. It's programmed into us, and is actually a sin to seek to end our lives early. We're here for a purpose, HIS purpose, and many of us have a personal commitment to our missions, whatever they are, that makes us not want to leave it unfinished.
We grieve for our loved ones, the Christian ones, not because we're sad for THEM, but because our world and our lives are poorer for their absence. Obviously. It's the same reason non-Christians grieve.
We react with outrage when people are killed because humans are not God, and it is not our place to take lives. Plus, murder is a sin, and we hate sin.
As for happy and rejoicing, let me tell you about my father's funeral. My father was the closest thing to a saint I ever knew, and that wasn't just my opinion. He was a devout Christian of the type that other people aspire to be and never achieve. The last ten years of his life were spent in a nursing home, where he gradually lost the ability to speak, to move anything but his head and one arm, and even to swallow properly. When he finally passed away, about half the people at his funeral were employees of the nursing home. If you know anything about those who care for the elderly, you know that they don't generally attend funerals of non-relatives, because if they did, they'd never do anything else. But they came to his, and every one of them stood up to tell us how much my father meant to them and how he had changed their lives. This, without the ability to speak.
My father's funeral was the most triumphant, joyous event I ever saw. Oh, sure, there were tears, because you don't lose someone like that from your life and not miss them, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that his life had been a complete success by any measure that mattered, and that if anyone ever went to Heaven, Dad did. (I say "if" because not everyone there was a Christian.)
So take that, shove it in your "why do Christians grieve?" pipe, and smoke it. Oh, and next time you ask a question about people you know nothing about, ask politely with some recognition of the fact that you know nothing.