Although 'day' would have no meaning: in heaven, there would be no need of moon or stars by night, or sun to shine by day. So maybe 'day' mean eternity. 72 virgins, and no more, for all of eternity. Ration it out, fellas.

Dear Individual,

«if I were God none of that crap would happen, that much I'd guarantee !»

I earlier made the bad mistake of answering your question over your head, way above your level of understanding.

Your current idea of God is derived from Western folklore rather than from serious study, thus my attempt to provide answers to your question failed because it was improperly superimposed over your particular idea of God.

It is as if a kindergarten class asked me about the moon and I was responding by writing differential equations on the blackboard to explain its motion.

I should have known better, I confused you and I apologise for this.

It is best for you to stay with the first answer that I gave Belly: No, I do not think that God tolerates stupid and nasty people.

If what helps you in accepting this answer is to believe that God does not exist, then so be it. That creation of Western folklore which some Westerners call "God", indeed does not exist.

---

Dear Joe,

«I would have thought that the natural condition of the universe is darkness, that light is the temporary absence of darkness.»

Had that been the case, then the presence of a bit of darkness would dispel the light.

«And maybe, instead of each of us being a god, that there aren't any at all.»

It seems that I confused you also: we are not gods. Indeed we are God (although understanding this requires more study), but God is not a god.

I am not saying that there are no gods at all, but I do not wish to confuse you even further about it. Suffice that I was only discussing God (with a CAPITAL-G), then we could leave the question of the existence or otherwise of gods for another day.

I do appreciate your last post (Sunday, 6 October 2019 3:48:11 PM).

Dear Belly,

«My God was going to reward me with eternal life, apparently on my knees in constant worship»

There is no need to reward you with what you already have - you ARE eternal, anyway!

Worship is often described as even more rewarding and joyous than eternal life - what a glorious way to spend one's time, a prize, not a payment!

(but you will be rewarded with a new set of celestial knees that never wear out, never give you any pain...)

«My God I want to invent will dance with us and take his turn at cooking the snags on the Sunday bar b q»

Then you may be inspired by Shiva, who is also the Lord of dancers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poT6NfxH93k

and/or by goddess Annapurna, an incarnation of Shiva's wife which likes to cook for everyone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna_(goddess)

Yuyutsu my God may be interested in fixing the poor homeless and hungry it appears few of the many do
Maybe as we his/her children are failures he/she should do these things for us
Rather think my stay in heaven would not be long see I fear a life in servitude of some one who demands to be worshiped

your question over your head, way above your level of understanding.
Yuyutsu,
You're right, being superstitious & hiding behind whichever Religion is above my understanding.
Anyhow, Gods are being portrayed as beings/powers that need constant praise. Why ? God(s) created us with all our faults & then we're expected to toe the line ? I think the religious are either very hypocritical or very silly. On the other hand we have Bible/Quoran/etc but do we live accordingly ? No ! Not even the religious adhere to the scriptures recommendations. Is it just possible that the whole show is just one massive hoax to control people ? The animal kingdom does not appear to have religions & perhaps that is why they function so much better than us !
By all means have Faith in what makes you feel better but for crying out loud, stop being religious i.e. hypocritical.

But, of course, if 'day' meant eternity, and once an Islamist has re-assembled all his body parts, at least the essentials, then eternity means 'day': he will live together with his 72 virgins for one 'day', i.e. for eternity. He will always be surrounded by his 72 virgins.

And all he has to do is blow up a church, or a pre-school, or an old people's home, or a school bus, like a real hero. Strange god, which encourages those sort of atrocities, and rewards someone for it. Is such a god pure evil ?

Not possible, surely. But I'll stay atheist, just in case: I'll take the anti-Pascal option. Either way, no heaven for me :) Or hell, either, come to think of it.

Anyway, back to topic: when the Demographic Transition occurs in Africa, it will occur very quickly, with child mortality dropping to world levels, quickly followed by fertility rates, and accompanied by vastly better educational (and life) opportunities for African girls and women. Soon enough, countries will be affluent enough to afford old age pensions, putting further downward pressure on fertility rates, so that populations will 'increase' mainly because of the greater life expectancies across the continent, not because of increasing birth survivors.

Joe