Death, COVID, and religion

Recreation Fun & Games
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I’m putting this in ‘fun and games’ because it’s not entirely serious. I’m curious if there is any correlation (on Forumosa at least) between religious faith and fear of COVID. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a simple way to set up a poll with multiple variables.

So …

Q1: The possibility that I or someone I care for will die of COVID is:

  1. High enough to keep me awake at night, and to justify big changes to the way I live my life
  2. High enough to make me rather anxious
  3. Not particularly worrying, but not irrelevant either
  4. Low enough that it doesn’t figure much on my personal radar of danger
  5. Almost certainly zero

Q2: I would describe my spiritual position thus:

  1. I have absolute and unshakable faith in the existence of a deity (or multiple deities), to whom all of humanity is completely subject; I trust that he knows what he’s doing in this instance.
  2. I believe there is more to the universe than meets the eye, and suspect that there is some higher purpose in the human condition than the acquisition of smartphones.
  3. I’m not really interested in hypothetical questions about stuff we can’t see, or which lies beyond the limits of knowledge.
  4. I don’t believe in orbiting teapots.

Q3: Regarding the existence of an immortal soul:

  1. We all have one, and it continues to exist when our bodies are finished with.
  2. It’s possible that such a thing exists.
  3. I’m not sure and I don’t really care.
  4. LOL.

Feel free to add “none of the above”!

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4,1,2

But I don’t believe we are subject to God. I believe we are meant to become his equals eventually.

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Almost all of the white people and christian/catholic people i know are afraid. Some just straight paranoid. To be fair, They are also the most realistic about our insane air pollution…

I notice it seems very much correlated to anxiett type issues. All my taiwanese friends and family that lean more towards anxious/ocd tend to be scared of the ccp virus. They also tend to be far more likely to be brainwashed and controlled by other people. Be it family, religious companies, teachers, partners or whatever. they are also more likely to be suckered into buying stuff. Marketing and sales prey on these types of people, although they wont publicly admit that immature people, abused people, religious followers, submissive partners etc are all FAR more easily tricked into buying things or following what people say. Or joining cults. Or building a bunker for ww3.

Watch the shopping channels and.listen to the shopping radio here. Its SOOOOOOO bad its impossible to comprehend. Then watch said channel with above mentioned groups and see how justification comes out despite their knowing how embarrassing this is.

If only weed were legal in taiwan, it would be so entertainig watching people watch tv.

5

Q1: 4 for me here in Taiwan, 3 for friends and relatives elsewhere (Canada, England, and the US in my case). I would say 5 for me personally, but it seems to be a bit tempting fate.
Q2: 4 (I know I should answer 3. but …)
Q3: Same as Q2.

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4/4/4

You picked those numbers on purpose so that Taiwanese people think I’m dying!

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Luckily there were only 3 questions.

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COVID-19 greatly shook up a very large strand of people around the world to the realization that they can die at any time and suddenly and they are not ready for that.
This is not cancer that can be fought if caught early on, or even have at least a few months to live if notified in the last stages of it.
COVID-19 did this (shook many people to the core) more than any threat imaginable, not even Cold War nuclear holocaust scaredness was like this. Look at all the fights in media and chat forums. Always some group against another group. Some even vociferously hate the other group. It’s a non-stop us-vs.-them since early-2020.
One can tell from the past year of reading any COVID-related thread on forumosa who are the ones who fear a sudden death of the unknown (COVID) more than anything, which is neither good nor bad, just noticeable.
Some, perhaps like myself, will go about trying to lower that death risk (of dying from the unknown) for everyone (wear masks when appropriate), yet have prepared for the worst (perhaps own death), but hope for the best, every day.
How many people have written wills or set up estates for their children since COVID? (rhetorical question, no need to answer). One does not even need children (nor be married) to set up will or estates, but that’s for another topic perhaps.

To sum up: We’re all going to die. The grim reaper will find you easier than COVID-19 can. It’s how you live your life here on earth (including in relation to all others you come in contact with), in whatever way you believe, that counts.

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Christian perspective:

The fact that Christians are even shaken up by the Grim Reaper coming at any time is concerning. As the Bible made it clear that tomorrow is NEVER guaranteed. In fact this is how evangelicals have tried to pressure people into making a decision ASAP. If they can’t even believe in what they preach, then their faith needs reexamining.

However what concerns me is that there are Christians, particularly in the US, that have begun believing that COVID is somehow a hoax, and that the vaccines is the mark of the beast (meaning you get vaccines and you go to hell). First of all, I can’t even find any scripture that would back this up. You would need some really wacky interpretation of scripture to think this. Also, I have huge doubt as to the scriptural accuracy of the Left Behind series (books that many Christians take as gospel). Like Catholics, even evangelicals have taken non biblical teachings and attribute them to God. Hardly surprising considering that evangelical Christianity is a reaction to the Catholic church.

In fact finding rational Christians is proving difficult. Many Christians I meet are too afraid of hell to live life, and so they latch onto scripturally shaky teachings because in their mind, God will send them to hell for breaking some rules. This lead to problems, such as unhealthy marriage, terrible sex lives, mental problems, etc.

Which confuses me, because the Bible said we are already saved by faith. So why are so many Christians so afraid of hell? Hell is not something saved Christians should even be thinking about. After all, Jesus went to the cross so we didn’t have to.

I think the golden rule is still good, but those unhealthy traditions need to go.

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Hehe, thats kind of a main point people are aginst religions. Not just christianity. People of all walks tend to hypocrites that have mastered the art of justification. Its likely what led to our success as a species.

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2, 4. 4. I despise religion, and I’m terrified that my father in South Africa will die an awful, lonely death.

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I also wondered what on earth they were on about. If this is the end times, it’s pretty boring as apocalpyseseses go. Our grandparents and great-grandparents lived through far worse (particularly if our grandparents were born in Eastern Europe) and they weren’t all running around in circles screaming “the end is nigh!”. Even the ones for whom the end actually was nigh got on with life as best they could. Anyway, this is what I found:

And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

3 And I saw that one of his heads was, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world wondered after the beast.

4 And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

5 And there was given unto him a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven.

You can read all sorts of conspiracy theories into this. ‘Crown’ and ‘corona’ have the same root. The beast isn’t the antichrist, it’s the bloody virus! And we keep announcing we’ve conquered it, with lockdowns and vaccines, but still it lives! Who can make war against it?

People are worshipping it, quite literally. It’s taking over people’s lives and they are in awe of it. And of course it has taken over the world and is making a mockery of every other belief that humanity holds dear (except the belief in being offended - that seems to be going strong).

I’m not entirely serious here (although if this crap continues for 42 months, you’ll know I’m right). But the point is you can take this sort of hallucinogenic stuff and read whatever you like into it. There’s a certain sort of person, of a crystals-and-homeopathy mindset (I’m not sure that they’re actually Christians) who might find some allusion to vaccine microchips and whatnot in Revelation.

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You forgot

  1. Its already killed close to a dozen people I know.

Just sayin’.

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Damn, you got really unlucky. I’m genuinely sorry to hear that.

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I wish I was unlucky. Very common.

Don’t sleep on how well TW has handled it. Thanks for the condolences, appreciate it.

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Well, I suppose I must be extremely lucky then. Nobody I know, or nobody who is known to people I know, has died of it. Nobody in the company I work for (~100 people). We’ve heard of one or two disconnected acquaintances, but that’s all. This is in the UK, btw.

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Likewise, except that they’re both probably going to die of heart disease, and I’d quite like to see them before that happens.

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So far it seems that my hypothesis is not supported, but that’s mainly because we don’t have enough religious people answering.

Feel free to give scores on behalf of people of your close acquaintance! You probably know family and friends well enough to give the right answers.

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But the acceptance of God or a soul doesn’t necessarily mean religion. If there is no worship, systematic practices or enforcement of beliefs, I don’t think it really qualifies as a true religion. Einstein said God doesn’t play dice, or more correctly that he plays dice under strict rules created by himself. I say the opposite. I think he created infinite universes just to see how the chips may fall and has no real vested interest other than curiosity. We watch Netflix; God watches infinite variations of evolution.

I’m like you. I personally despise organized religion but understand the need for it in the emotionally weak. However, I don’t think that opinion means that one must abandon the idea of a greater power.

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Aren’t those works of fiction? Written by a Christian author exploring his ideas of what could happen.

Being saved is not a license to sin. Intentionally sinning is like spitting in the face of God and treating his sacrifice with contempt.