{"id":2870,"date":"2009-10-03T15:16:46","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T23:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=2870"},"modified":"2009-10-03T15:16:46","modified_gmt":"2009-10-03T23:16:46","slug":"eternal-life-v-death-panels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/eternal-life-v-death-panels\/","title":{"rendered":"Eternal life v. death panels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reader Aaron points out <\/a>the obvious: that when the Pope says that without faith, there can be no hope, he is referring to hope for \u201cthe most important reward of all: eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 Pace <\/em>my alternative suggestions for hope, the \u201cVicar of Christ on earth\u201d is not referring to the steady improvement in knowledge, health, and comfort that human ingenuity keeps showering upon us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nGiven that God can\u2019t be bothered to lift a finger to insure that hundreds of Indonesians reach middle age before being buried by an earthquake<\/a>, however, putting one\u2019s hope in his willingness to deliver eternal life seems about as justified as handing over the remainder of one\u2019s assets to an investment advisor who just blew the first portion at Atlantic City.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0
\nOh, but what are a few mortal years here and there compared to eternal life, the response will come back.\u00a0 The difference between 2 years divided by eternity and 90 years divided by eternity is imperceptible.\u00a0 That would be a good argument, but it doesn\u2019t square with the way most believers (and most people generally) usually approach matters of life and death.\u00a0 If the loss of a child to an earthquake is but an inconsequential thing compared to God\u2019s promise of eternal life, why should we be worried about alleged \u201ddeath panels\u201d deciding that tax dollars are not efficiently spent providing a bypass operation to an 85-year-old stroke victim?\u00a0 Yet many believers seem to think that an additional six months at the end of a long life, even if passed while barely sentient, are preferable to a natural death.\u00a0 That, too, is a perfectly respectable argument.\u00a0 It just doesn\u2019t fit with the view that God\u2019s failure to rescue all potential victims from a natural disaster (which he could clearly do, since believers pray to him on a daily basis for far more trivial things) should not be counted against him because he compensates for his inaction with the promise of heaven after death.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps then the argument is: Oh, well, preserving life on earth is the responsibility of humans; God can ignore the daily slaughter of the innocents and still be considered loving because mortal earth is not his domain.\u00a0 He is responsible only for the afterlife.\u00a0 That, too, might be a plausible rejoinder, but for saints, relics, and miracles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reader Aaron points out the obvious: that when the Pope says that without faith, there can be no hope, he is referring to hope for \u201cthe most important reward of all: eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 Pace my alternative suggestions for hope, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[228,352],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2870"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2876,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions\/2876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}