@TheEnlightenedOne,
TheEnlightenedOne wrote:
If a man on the street corner shouts 'I am Jesus, repent your sins and I will take you to heaven with me', what do you do?
There are a lot of these out there. NATGEO even did a report on people who claim to be Jesus or the return. To me it makes absolutely no difference because religion itself is a scam to begin with. It will always be a scam and so I only feel sorry for those people who get duped into believing or conned into handing over all their money and possessions to follow these people.
If a god exists then that god knows what I personally require before I would consider myself a believer. The ball is in it's court. If it refuses to provide for me that information that I require then it is it's own failure not mine and any punishment on me that would result because of that failure is that gods own wicked doing. So I gladly invite it to actually provide for me the information that I require and so far it has not. That leaves me to only two conclusions. A that god does not find it necessary to provide for me the information that I require. (if so then I can care less about it) B. No gods exist in the first place and that is why I do not have the information that I require.
I think the meaning of life is far more precious and meaningful when we realize that this is the only existence we get. Once we lay down for the last time and take our last breath that is it and the I that we have come to know will no longer experience anything. But those who want to believe that they continue on after this life ends only seems to cheapen and make this life meaningless. Whats the point of having this small fraction of an existence when you are going to exist for ever in some other place. It cheapens this life to hold onto such thoughts. It makes believers complacent and desperately want that other life that they are not even certain exists. Sad really.