Does sperm contain soul?
This is an extremely difficult question for Christianity. I believe Thomas Aquinas made the (generally accepted) argument that the soul is NOT transmitted with the sperm, that it comes separately from God. This deals with the issue - only known by implication then, but very apparent now - about what might happen to all the sperm that doesn't become a baby. Of course, it does present a small issue. If the soul is not transmitted to a baby via the sperm, how does original sin get passed on? It's another one of those slightly tricky issues for Christianity that can be dealt with by doing some obscure mental gymnastics, but to anyone not prepared to accept such nonsense, simply highlights another inadequacy in their bizarre belief system.
In modern Christianity, is the concept of a literal burning "Hell" now "going to hell" ? That is good or bad?
The word Hell is an English translation of the Hebrew word Sheol, and signifies an abode of departed spirits. It also corresponds to the Greek Hades. In common speech it generally denotes the place of torment for the wicked however it is has often been held both in Jewish and Christian churches that it consists of two parts, paradise and Gehenna; one being the abode of the righteous and the other of the disobedient. Gehenna, or Gehenna of fire is the Greek equivalent of the valley of Hinnom, which is a deep glen of Jerusalem where the idolatrous Jews offered their children to Moloch. It was afterwords used as a place for burning the refuse of the city. (2 Kings 23:10) and in that way became symbolical of the place of torment (Matt. 5:22,29-30, Mark 9:43,45,47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6) Expressions about "hell-fire" are probably due to the impression produced on men's minds by the sight of this ceaseless burning and are figurative of the torment of those who willfully disobey God. As to the question of the teaching of the eternal Hell-fire-damnation adding or reducing the number of atheists; I doubt there is much effect outside the believers with the exception of the Norse people who would welcome hell's fire as a blessing. To the Vikings hell was a wasteland of ice and cold.
Jews: What are your basic beliefs: Heaven or Hell? Reincarnation? Judgment?
Jewish answer: there are many views because the afterlife isn't described in Judaism. Most Jews don't focus on the afterlife, we let G-d worry about that. Jews focus on the here-and-now: keeping G-d's commandments, studying Torah, caring for others and helping to repair the world. Some Jews believe that when someone dies and they are righteous, we go to join G-d immediately. If we aren't righteous they spend a short time away from G-d. Some Jews believe that we enter a sleep-like state until the Messiah/Messianic age and then join in the new world to come. Some Jews believe in reincarnation until the Messiah/Messianic age or until one becomes righteous enough to join G-d. Jews do NOT believe in an eternal torment/hell. That would not be part of the righteous plan of a loving G-d. There is NO discussion or description of “hell” in the Jewish Tanakh. Some believe the utmost in evil souls simply cease to exist
Why do I always hear 'HIM' (meaning GOD, or the Supreme One, or whathaveyou) talk back when I pray ?
I see what's going on. Some people cannot think as well as others. That could be one factor. You aren't expecting to hear anything and THERE IT IS. Some people's minds are completely devoid of thought,.. they can't even think of a song or a family members voice. A question I would like to ask is if you are speaking out loud when you are talking to yourself? Because there are "Ghost". My family had a family "Ghost". They never told me until I was older but now I know who/what it was. My Great Grandmother was a very careing person, she was just a mother but she had the title "Good Mother Witch" or some translation like that. Basiclly she was like the Neighborhood's Free Medical & Consoleing (she was not a Doctor nor a Consoler). She also took care of injured Animals. Well after she died, she stuck around. Infact my mom remembers her Grandmother takeing care of her after she had died. But noone had told me all this until I was maybe in my teens,.. probably 20's. She has saved many lives in our family. "Ghost" or "Spirits" like her are supposed to be rare. It's because most "Ghost" are the result of a violent or painful death (that is the theory anyways). She use to turn off and on lights. She yelled at me to turn of the stove. She had someone rush out of a garage and then the second level thingy in the garage collapsed. There were many times I walked into my grandparents house and what I thought was my grandmother-- a woman would yell about the Gas Leak. So I would say something to my grandparents about it later and they would say they don't know anything about a Gas Leak. Then it would turn out THEY HAD A GAS LEAK. That was what I heard from her the most XD BTW-- Some people Nickname these types of "Ghost", "Guardian Angels". A couple people have voiced their belief that these people are some how part of God's plan, containueing to work in this world to spread good will... or whatever. Seems like it kinda conflicts with things if you think about it. But I have interacted with and experienced these things so I atleast know there are "Ghost".
Why do people believe that "hell" is not real?
Definition: The word “hell” is found in many Bible translations. In the same verses other translations read “the grave,” “the world of the dead,” and so forth. Other Bibles simply transliterate the original-language words that are sometimes rendered “hell”; that is, they express them with the letters of our alphabet but leave the words untranslated. What are those words? The Hebrew she’ohl′ and its Greek equivalent hai′des, which refer, not to an individual burial place, but to the common grave of dead mankind; also the Greek ge′en·na, which is used as a symbol of eternal destruction. However, both in Christendom and in many non-Christian religions it is taught that hell is a place inhabited by demons and where the wicked, after death, are punished (and some believe that this is with torment). Does the Bible indicate whether the dead experience pain? Eccl. 9:5, 10: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol,* the place to which you are going.” (If they are conscious of nothing, they obviously feel no pain.) (*“Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB; “the grave,” KJ, Kx; “hell,” Dy; “the world of the dead,” TEV.) Ps. 146:4: “His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts* do perish.” (*“Thoughts,” KJ, 145:4 in Dy; “schemes,” JB; “plans,” RS, TEV.) Does the Bible indicate that the soul survives the death of the body? Ezek. 18:4: “The soul* that is sinning—it itself will die.” (*“Soul,” KJ, Dy, RS, NE, Kx; “the man,” JB; “the person,” TEV.) “The concept of ‘soul,’ meaning a purely spiritual, immaterial reality, separate from the ‘body,’ . . . does not exist in the Bible.”—La Parole de Dieu (Paris, 1960), Georges Auzou, professor of Sacred Scripture, Rouen Seminary, France, p. 128. “Although the Hebrew word nefesh [in the Hebrew Scriptures] is frequently translated as ‘soul,’ it would be inaccurate to read into it a Greek meaning. Nefesh . . . is never conceived of as operating separately from the body. In the New Testament the Greek word psyche is often translated as ‘soul’ but again should not be readily understood to have the meaning the word had for the Greek philosophers. It usually means ‘life,’ or ‘vitality,’ or, at times, ‘the self.’”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1977), Vol. 25, p. 236.
O.k. One more time: If you believe Gandhi is going to Hell, how is that not a hateful belief?
It is not the job of some religionist to determine the eternal fate of one's 'brothers and sisters' in the human race ~ that is between them and the Ancients of Days. The concept of a literal, actual hell, is a misinterpretation and sorely incorrect concept to attribute to the God of the origins of all things and beings, who is Love and whose patience, mercy and forgiveness knows no bounds. Our LOVING heavenly Father never did such a thing and the concept is wholly humanly concocted by the ancient peoples of our world. Human beings all too often in the day and age of enlightenment and quickening forget that God is ultimate and superior and absolutely perfect in all his ways, which are so not the ways of human beings and the ways of this world. This world has a lot of thinking to do as concerns the just and judgments of the administrators of the universe. There is no way a God-knowing individual would continue in the belief that God would have even have ever entertained such a notion as hell. While some people can and do create their own figurative 'hell' by their nefarious choices, these are the ones who stand in danger of becoming as they never were in the afterlife, but this is not up to you and me to judge. All things true, good, and beautiful are eternal spiritual realities that never pass away. Literal Hell is certainly not a spiritual reality. Eternal fate decisions of others is not our job. Only our own eternal fate is in our own hands. To become more real, spiritually is what is required of every soul. So, I'm explaining how LOVE, which is not God, but God who IS love, does NOT do "hell". That's only human.
With "Soul Sleep" how do Jehovah witnesses and others explain the Gospel being read to the dead in 1Peter 4:6?
Compare these scriptures: Matthew 8:21, 22: Then another of the disciples said to him: “Lord, permit me first to leave and bury my father.” 22 Jesus said to him: “Keep following me, and let the dead bury their dead.” Ephesian 2:1, 2, 4, 5: Furthermore, [it is] YOU [God made alive] though YOU were dead in YOUR trespasses and sins, 2 in which YOU at one time walked according to the system of things of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now operates in the sons of disobedience...But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, 5 made us alive together with the Christ, even when we were dead in trespasses—by undeserved kindness YOU have been saved— "Was Peter there referring to persons who were physically dead? Since the physically dead are “conscious of nothing at all” (Eccl. 9:5), these dead mentioned by Peter are the same as those Jesus spoke of when he said: “Let the dead bury their dead,” and those referred to by the apostle Paul when he wrote: “It is you God made alive though you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Anyone living who is dead in the sight of Jehovah can come to life in a spiritual sense by hearing the word of God, repenting and following the Lord Jesus. The hope for the literal dead is the resurrection and the opportunity then to hear the good news and to be judged."—Matt. 8:22; Eph. 2:1. I hope it helps. @Sasi: Ezekiel 18:4: Look! All the souls—to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son—to me they belong. THE SOUL that is sinning—IT ITSELF WILL DIE..
I used to think schizophrenia was the hardest to treat. Then I worked at a residential facility for chronically mentally ill adults for a number of years. They worked primarily with different types of psychosis, severe mood disorders and sometimes borderline personality disorder. They also took some people who were developmentally disabled like on the autistic spectrum as well as those who were intellectually disabled (formerly called mentally retarded). What I noticed was, of that population, the ones with the poorest ability to improve were the ones who had both borderline personality disorder and were intellectually disabled. Not only did they engage in very self-defeating behaviors,but they lacked the intellectual capacity to make connections in regards to their behavior so were very unlikely to change. Those with different types of psychosis that were intellectually normal were able to make use of interventions and therapies along with medications and fared better.I never worked with those with severe eating disorders or chronic substance abuse etc… so I can’t speak about them.