Philo, you are free to hang on until your last breath and so you
should be, but many others are not so silly and choose differently.
Why whould religious nuts have the right to deny them that
choice?

There are good reasons as to why a whole lot of Aussies are
off to Mexico, to buy their stash of Nembutal and smuggle it
back into this country. They want as least as many options as
even their dogs have.

Sure the Catholic Church runs hospitals, but so do many
large corporations. Its a very profitable business these
days, if you ever checked what they charge per day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortification_of_the_flesh

Suffering for your sins is indeed condsidered noble.
Umm, not me lol. I'll let others walk around with
little whips, beating themselves.

Yup we all suffer at some point, so being compassionate
means giving others the choice to minimise it, not forcing
them to endure it. That should be their choice.

I feel the love that my dogs have for me. They must
be full of "spirit" too :)

"Noble people are able to live with pain"

Ah, so there you go Philo, you seem to agree with the
Catholics!

Let people decide for themselves how noble they want to
be, not force your wierd dogma on the rest of us.

Philo, thank you for explaining. My mother was raised a Catholic and although she later became non-religious, she nevertheless finds it hard to let go of the idea of Hell; perhaps it will help her to know that hell wasn’t even mentioned in the Bible (OT)in the way she thinks of hell.

What many theists don’t understand is that atheists can experience spirituality without having faith in a god. Feeling awed by the beauty of nature is possible, and miracles of nature do not disappear without faith.

I do not see people merely as their body and recognise that people are their character and behaviour (it could be called 'spirit')- I merely believe that a god has nothing to do with it and that our 'spirit' will end when our body dies.
My spirituality and that of other atheists is not based on faith.

Everything theists say about heaven, hell and about gods is just faith; none of it is backed up by evidence.
If people tell me they have seen flying saucers above the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I wouldn’t mind believing it if only they show me convincing evidence. I'd like those people who’ve claimed to have seen these saucers to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, pass some kind of sanity test as well.

I think many theists would agree that it would be rather silly to accept, without evidence, what anyone claims to be true.

I am not ‘against’ believing in gods, I haven’t even consciously chosen to not believe in a god; I just don’t and I never have.
Theists really should be able to understand why atheists do not believe in a god or heaven or hell because they, themselves do not believe in the gods of others and of other civilisations’ concepts of what afterlife involves.

Euthanasia is a sensitive topic- and where there is effective pain relief or chance of healing, euthanasia should not be used as an option. But I find it quite cruel to deny sufferers of a painful terminal illness a quicker and kinder way out of life if they want that.

I agree totally, If a person is suffering some incurable desease and enduring pain far beyond the assistance of medication, let them at least go to the afterlife with some dignity. Euthenasia is and will be the way to go. A close relative should be given the legal right to say: "it's time.. let him/her go".
There is no use in sustaining life, if there is no life left to sustain.