Quote Originally Posted by rat1 View Post

This passage you quoted stood out to me the most.
I find the Christian attitude toward death especially interesting. Of course death is everywhere in nature.
But for a Christian, death is viewed as a punishment... a damnation. In other cultures, like in south american, native american, indian cultures... death is viewed as a liberation. A return to bliss.
How one looks upon death is a reflection life lived. Some die content... others in misery.
A religions view on death is very telling.
For a Christian, death is the ULTIMATE damnation. Why is that? What guilt drives this fear of death; of punishment and damnation?
At the most unconscious level, Christianity is driven by child abuse. This is why the highest levels of the Roman Catholic church are permeated with child molesters.

The original Christians were horrified of death...
The Hebrew sect that wrote the New Testament, starting in ~70AD, began mummifying themselves. They believed when they died, their mummified corpses would be preserved and resurrected with the return of Christ; an event they expected to happen shortly.
They actually removed their intestines and hung them on hooks symbolizing liberation from the sins of the body (sin was a drive originating in the intestines and genitals).
Of course that never panned out.
I'm not commenting on this topic (in general) as it is way beyond me and typically I tend towards "Live and Let Live." And to be honest I only skimmed the first page of this thread. Just wanted to point out, though, that in my father's Southern Apostolic-Pentecostal Christian family they do not view death like this at all. Death is always looked upon as a great freedom and release from the sins of the flesh. They always refer to death as "coming home" and kind of idealize it in some strange way. I don't know many Christians outside of that group of people associated with my father's family, so maybe other Christians (from different sects like say Catholics, Lutherans, etc) don't look at death the same way?