>>Scriptural conception of death as the end of human individual consciousness.<<

You might or might not believe in afterlife, whatever that word means (“after” requires time, hence some event or events that natural science should be able to investigate though it is obviously not), however I doubt that personal salvation, redemption, Jesus’ resurrection etc are compatible with a belief in “death as the end of human individual consciousness”. Nevertheless, here I am not an expert, Rhian’s insight is more qualified than mine.

"This has largely been the product of research into the biblical sciences."

What on earth are 'biblical sciences', and how do you research them? What you apparently mean, Peter, is that people are no longer credulous enough to swallow evidence-free accounts of eternal life as the payoff for obeying the rules laid down by exploitative churches. Whether or not that's true -- and I doubt whether it would fly in, say, Nigeria, now with the largest Protestant population on the planet -- it's turning a bug into a feature when you try to depict that as a good thing for religion.

It's rather like those ads which induce you to buy something by telling you how much fat it doesn't have: "Munchy-Snax, now 82% fat-free!" Your new, improved religion -- 'Now 20% less unbelievable!' isn't going to fool anyone.

Who would have thought the entirely unproven martyrdom mythology would have created so many devotees, still clinging to their belief systems in spite of the fact that no laying on of holy hands has produced so much as one single case of promised spontaneous remission.

Therefore proof positive that the empowering holy spirit is just more of the mumbo jumbo mythology or the placebo effect!? Which just proves via phenomena like fire walking or pointing a bone, that the mind is indeed a powerful instrument!

It's all about faith they say, so also when they claimed the world was flat at the centre of a six thousand year old universe!

Simply put faith just didn't make it so any more than any other faith alone supported mythology! Rhrosty.

Rhian,
You are quite right to point out some exceptions in biblical literature. But I think I have carried the gist of it, particularly in a 1000 word essay. There is a huge difference between the conception of Israel and its myth-driven neighbours. However, I suspect they were not entirely free of it. The cult of sacrifice in the temple being the one big elephant in the room.

George,
I had thought that you would have caught on to my materialist view by now. It is obvious from the resurrection narratives that they carry theological truth rather than historical truth. Clinging to historicist and literalist readings of the bible and the resultant theological results has produced the great chasm that now exists between believers and unbelievers and the loss fo theological culture in our time.

JohnJ,
Go to the great universities in the world and you will find departments of biblical studies that research language, history, exegesis, form, narrative, etc of biblical literature. This is a science in the broadest and no the narrow Enlightenment sense of the term. It is a discipline of study that has its own rational and is thus a "science". Our ignorance of this time honoured activity in Australia exists because the theological sciences were excluded from our universities from their origin in the name of the new learning.

Hi there DAVID F...

The opinions you shared with us in your most recent thread, I generally agree with you. I'll not attempt to insist there's absolutely no future for any of us after we die. It sounds both supremely arrogant and it completely lacked sensitivity ? I think I didn't express my views particularly well either with my last thread, directed to DAFFY DUCK'S views ?

We all handle death of loved ones in different ways, and grieving is very much a personal thing. Personally I don't know how to grief. Death to me is just another event in my life, something to be embraced when the time comes. It's for this reason DAVID F I tend to agree with you, when you say, live the best life you can, while the opportunity still exists for you to do so.

This notion of the existence of the paranormal, the occult, vampires etc. is rubbish, as is ghosts and all the other so called supernatural occurrences that have allegedly happened. I think since time in memorial we humans have feared death, so over time we've developed these mechanisms, like religion and other superstitions, to give us all aid and comfort when we're confronted with our own end times ?

Sells

Universities of old were religious institutions very much into the fiction that is the Bible. Such "teaching" has since been exposed.

Miracles and Noah's Ark are for priests who minister to the credulous.