Richard Swinburne - Do Heaven and Hell Really Exist?
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- Опубліковано 4 гру 2020
- What kind of God would create Hell? Does the nature of Hell offer insight into what that kind of God would be like? Does the truth of Christianity, Judaism, Islam depend on the reality of Hell? Infinite torment for finite sin? Are there other interpretations of scripture? Traditional views of Hell are odious and repugnant. Who'd want reality to be like that?
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Richard Swinburne is a Fellow of the British Academy. He is Emeritus Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at the University of Oxford.
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Only death will give us the truth so for now just live life the best way you possibly can
Good advice. Honestly never heard it articulated this way!
I was expecting at least 1 hour of this topic. I hope there is more to come
How much foolish apologetics do you need?
Yes heaven and hell exists. One is when you sleep, the other is when you tread on a piece of lego bare foot.
Correct
You really got it down to a nail
Hell doesn't exist and the only ones going to heaven are 144 thousand Jehovah's Witnesses
@@archangeljesus4369 it’s a joke satan
Very Very true
Definitely makes sense
The character of a person is tougher to change once it reaches a point of having many moral decisions.
Definitely makes no sense, since character is not a criteria for salvation under Christian dogma.
Swinburne has a very specific perspective and one that I for self adore, the way he explains and says his statements have a very persuasive taste and idealistic perspective as well which is one thing that men should read over, for Swinburne is ✨classe✨
...until you decide to actually think about them.
Elaborate about what you think
He said absolutely nothing in this video. He just rambled on from good and bad and moral decisions without any real confirmation on what he actually believes.
Absolutely nothing meaningful came from this discussion.
I love Joe Schmid’s imitation of him
Anyone notice how far Robert progressively leaned back during this segment? LOL
Falling asleep 😆
@@mobiustrip1400 LOL
Couldn't believe he's having this conversation
I'm interested in hearing out ideas I don't agree with. Maybe I'm just not smug and insufferable enough.
@@deathrattle216 your comment of itself is surely smug and insufferable?
I believe that heaven and hell are both just states of mind. I've been in heaven & I've been in hell. It all comes down to how well you can surf the wave. If you fall off just get back on your board, ready yourself & meet the next wave with a smile & your best foot forward.
It's hard to comprehend that if our souls are eternal, that a judgement of eternal heaven or hell is meted out based, basically, on a snap decision by that soul. I say "snap decision" because a single human lifetime is very short compared to eternity. While days and years in these bodies can seem long, what about those souls who inhabit bodies that die at very young ages before they are able to determine the shape of their lives? I don't see a god of compassion reflected in this model.
The babyes go to limbo. Just ask Dante.
Just joking. 😁
@@GlossRabban 😁
On the same lines, think of the concept of Karma and a continuous stream of lifetimes, kind of how you get in and out of buses or trains on the way to a destination.
the concept of eternal hell doesn't fit the idea of a God of love, Tomas Aquino said that we will be able to see people in punishment or burning from heaven, but think about that for a minute, will heaven be a place of peace where you can see people screaming for rest? don't think so. As a christians we have to rethink the idea of heaven and hell because (from medieval catholicism to modern Christianity) Gods form of justice has been twisted.
@@hugolinaresimages in heaven itll Just be puré peace and no tears Just puré joy
Heaven and hell are portrayed as states of reality, but to have any kind of reality you have to have consciousness to be aware of that reality, therefore heaven and hell are states of being.
Thus the dogs or "lesser animals " beings. Within being ( equal to non conscience if you want to stay ontological) would they express being( in a way that separated from in interrelationships between what a " conscience" labels a state of reality? By way of yes you are held to conclude reality is not related to conscience awareness about it( the stae of hell or heaven) if they're observed in sense and can be, that doesn't mean anything new. We experience this in the world
Yeah. The reality was already hell. Wars, those superpowered countries and government who controls and keeps on hiding the truth from us, problems the corrupted system. So it doesn't make sense if where now living in hell then when we die we still go to hell. It's like was there no freedom are we bound to become like this.
It never ceases to amaze me how intelligent people will go to any length to justify Eternal Hell. Even if it were true that humans could be placed into such simplistic categories of "good" and "evil", the very fallible nature of the human condition diminishes culpability to some extent at the very least. It certainly could never justify an eternity of suffering.
IDK
There is no hell. Christ saved every human.
A punishment will be in this life, on the Earth.
In heaven who lived rightous life will be in honorable place and who didn't - in not honorable.
@@Disciple1963Hitler, Stalin and Mao can be in your neighborhood of heaven!😅 I'll be in the gated community!😉
I don't think this stuffed-up British so-called intellectual is so full of his own bullshit that it isn't exactly lying, but is completely delusional thinking to believe that a totally imaginary being knows the difference between good and evil and has the means of punishment as a way of enforcing what "he" judges to be the difference. Christians live in an illusionary world of magic (resurrection?) that any realistic assessment of human existence would judge as juvenile.
Yeah. Everyman was two sides of a coin like yin and yang. It's the very nature of the human being it's natural. The good thing is we are thought by our religion the good things as guidelines. Like first foremost don't kill. Even souls was two sides of a coin that's why there's these mischievous spirit, entities, ghost or demons lurking around. Theres no hell because if there is these entities will not lurk around hell was imprisonment as the bible said.
I don't even understand why the existence of heaven and hell is a debate topic, it's so obvious that we're already living in hell, you don't need to wait for post-death to confirm that.
You can't see the sporadic beauty? Sure this universe & it's inhabitants can be shitty & evil at times, but this is just a lack of understanding. Many of us are lost & can't enjoy the moment. We all need to put our fears aside & stoke our inner flames so we can become beacons for each other & the future.
There's no such thing as hell, if there were, that would mean God's psychotic... People have a hard time with critical thinking and so if God, is the creator of everything you see, hear, taste touch-and-feel, then he has to create the hell and all the sins that go with it....People always say, well he gave us free will and so the choices we make and the consequences they have, are on us.... Again, you got to think it all the way through, so you're saying Gods an idiot and he doesn't know what's coming next, is he surprised by what we do with our free will? I mean, he has to create the free will and he has to create everything, that one could ever do, with his or her free will....
The Bible is just filled and I mean filled, with one nonsensical contradiction after another.... Why in the hell, LOL, can't people just take what all the religions have in common and leave it at that, which would be, there's Something Responsible and what they look like, what they're made of, where they come from and how many there are, nobody knows and that's 100% fact.
IF God tell a lie to human that hell will be easy & temporary or figurative, they will blame God. IF God let the hell/evil become so easy, no human will take God/Truth seriously & it will make God to be best supporter of evil/crime. you see, even when Bible told them how scary the hell will be, people still laugh on it & dare to mock GODJESUS without any fear! human don't afraid of the worst possibility of hell! the problem, human/sinner has join/agree/serve SATAN= MasterMind/Creator/Absolute of EVIL who deserve all punishment=accumulation of all sufferings on earth from every evil/sinful actions & desire/ego, so hell should be the worst/evil place that ever exist, where all evil combined/unite & punished forever! 🔥😱
THE REAL & FINAL EVOLUTION :
Heaven: heart changed/reborn into PERFECT union with Lord Jesus, & become innocent/children of God, Not Able to sin/evil anymore, so heaven can be exist forever. 👼🙏
Hell: heart changed/reborn into TOTAL HATE by satan, become devil/children of hell/satan, so hell must be locked up forever, separated from heaven by dimension of space-time! it's impossible to escape, there is no connection anymore with God or anyone else. because every person trapped in his own soul to pay the taste/cost of his own sin/evil that cause GodJesus & other people have suffered/hurt! so there is a new being & duty/burden they take as children of hell/darkness, for they have already rejected GODJESUS Existance when they're still alive happily here on Earth which look like paradise & blessed by God.🌻
BLACK HELL= SOUL FALL FROM PARADISE & can't be fixed/changed anymore, great regret! see, GOD WARNING become so important, but human mock/spit on it & kill GODJESUS to shut Him up! now God shut them down forever, God don't wanna hear again no matter how they screaming like a hell! JESUS cannot become their God/Leader/Saviour again, because they have fired Him & they choose SATAN/Father of Sin/Rebellion. so now their leader is SATAN in eternal fire of damnation, but satan cannot help them, he has been fired from heaven! SCARY, it's all FAIR/JUSTICE by God, & you simply speechless, cannot deny/argue with God! you will admit as sinner/devil in your sin/rebellion & commit suicide in hell! you will avoid God's Holiness, you cannot see God Light, because you will hurt by that, you are dirty of sin/evil like satan! 💀👹🔥😱
..
IF God tell a lie to human that hell will be easy & temporary or figurative, they will blame God. IF God let the hell/evil become so easy, no human will take God/Truth seriously & it will make God to be best supporter of evil/crime. you see, even when Bible told them how scary the hell will be, people still laugh on it & dare to mock GODJESUS without any fear! human don't afraid of the worst possibility of hell! the problem, human/sinner has join/agree/serve SATAN= MasterMind/Creator/Absolute EVIL who deserve all punishment=accumulation of all sufferings on earth from every evil/sinful actions & desire/ego, so hell should be the worst/evil place that ever exist, where all evil combined/unite & punished forever! 🔥😱
@@viaini748 does God know, that he's going to punish people, before he punishes them?
This guy would be perfect for playing a snobby evil aristocrat in any film.
😆 LOL
Which one?
He'd FOR SURE be petting a cat lmao.
cos American propaganda always frames English librarian types as archevil villains? ridiculous, like trying to make enemies of ewoks. oh no someone thoughtful, reflective, compassionate and decent, must be an arch villain, communist, threat to America, ... the oligarchy.more like, if people copy might encourage people to see that oyr govs are tyrranous oligarchies for the superrich, not democracies carrying out will of tge people, quick send Arnold to shoot him uo!
😂
Can you do sth regarding sin + original sin? I'd find it interesting, for example, whether God forgives sins we don't regret
Do you think either are viable concepts? Broadly speaking, it would be absurd not to know or care about what "sin" by itself means and entails; the seven deadly sins make total sense even if one does not believe in sin the way theists do. But "original sin" is plain goofy to me.
Can a human comment a sin that is so heinous that he deserves to be tortured for eternity? The punishment should fit the crime, shouldn’t it? Terrible things have been done for sure, but ...eternity?
Hitler and Stalin? Perhaps they don't deserve to suffer for eternity, but how about 100 years for every life they destroyed? That doesn't strike me as unjust.
I asked myself the same question when I was a college student. Many of is over beers saw this question as an impediment to belief.
Then, I saw what the world is really like. Repeatedic violence, rape and accessories to rape like the communities and law enforcement that turn their heads to avoid adverse effects on home values.
Narcissistic persons and their enablers run our society, even here in exceptional America. It's a joke.
.They are evil by commission or omission.
We have one life. We have opportunities to do good and see the world as it is. People like Steven Pinker, though a brilliant mind, have lived in academia too long.
When you see this world for what it is, you realize how fucked up most people are.
@@acdude5266 I know how f*ked the world is for sure theres a huge problem in the culture. But not everybody is totally evil. I would say most people are not very good but not very bad either. Then some people are highly moral going out of their way to do good things. Thats a smaller % . The average person is not evil but they usually not that good either.
@@Yameen200 So do you believe that mankind is "fallen?"
@@johnbrzykcy3076 fallen as in original sin & the fall ? No i dont believe in that
There is no heaven. There is no hell. There is no god. There is no jesus. There is no holy spirit. There is no satan . There are no demons. Human race is completely alone.
I agree u is right
Imagine for a billionth of a second there is God there is paradise and hell and you didn't do the right deeds in order to go to paradise.
How do you know?
I feel like there could be aliens tho lowkey
Religion is simple but such philosophers make it complex
Religion is not simple, that's why there's so many denominations and different Religions.
I like swinburn's perspective....
Then you haven't thought about it.
Character is not a criteria for salvation under Christian dogma.
@@cygnusustus Then you've clearly not read the Bible. Jesus clearly lays out good and bad actions we can take as humans. Faith is required for forgiveness of bad actions, but ultimately our character (as developed by the actions we choose to take) is what enables us to either accept that free love or reject it.
@@darkknightsds
"Jesus clearly lays out good and bad actions we can take as humans."
That has nothing to do with whether character is a criteria for salvation, child.
Clearly you can't read.
The existence of Hell is a concept that is present in many religious beliefs, but there is no scientific evidence for its existence. It is typically described as a place of eternal punishment for souls that have been judged to be wicked or immoral. The concept of Hell varies among different religions and belief systems, but in all cases, it is considered to be a supernatural realm that exists outside of our physical world.
What if it real though that is the scary part
So, once the character has been developed it is cemented? Perhaps the behavioral sciences are better suited to answer such questions over the make-belief disciplines philosophy/theology?
Will be really nice to ask the same question and make the video with somebody else....
Do you have any evidence for the claim of heaven or hell?
It's my understanding that Hitler could be in Heaven right now had he accepted Jesus into his heart prior to the moment of death. That's weird and also a little disturbing to me.
Not as simple nor is it that easy
The problem is to plug in inputs from this world into another world equation
Not that simple ha
This is one of the many reasons Christianity cannot/does not provide a clear moral guide to life.
I think there is more to Christianity and the teaching of Jesus. I struggle also to understand the way "modern Christianity" defines Jesus' teaching. I just hope I keep learning and increase in wisdom. But as one comment said, it's "not as simple nor is it that easy."
@@noecontreras7068 according to the Bible, yes it would be that easy. To be accepted into the kingdom of God, all you have to do is call on the name of Jesus and ask him to be your savior, and repent your sins. It's just as easy as that. That is assuming of course that the Bible is factual, and not something written by a bunch of superstitious people who used a God to explain natural phenomenon that they didn't understand.
“Each time we do a good act it is easier to do a good act next time.”
I very much do not agree. Each time you are honest you see someone dishonest get an advantage. The hundredths time it is easy to think “Sod it, why should I be noble when it only hurts me, I’ll be like everyone else.”
“Each time we do a courageous act it is easier to do a courageous act next time.”
I very much do not agree.
If you are truly frightened, which is a requirement for courage, you might overcome your fears but it wears you down. Finally you can’t take it anymore.
@@eduar2971 I love this response
@@eduar2971 I really like your statement " God knows the data that is inside our mind."
@@eduar2971 , it did not sound like “we are creatures of habit” to me.
@@nomanemo Hey there... thanks for sharing. I don't quite follow your statement about "Perfect love and goodness.." Can you explain it better to me? I do agree with you that we live in a "terribly fallen world."
Also, your statement "suffering is essential to doing honest, true, consistent good in a bad world" is interesting. I've never heard it expressed in such a way. Are you saying the "cross" was necessary for Jesus to bear in order to bring good into our world ? I appreciate your comments. John in Florida
Even though God is behind creation, that doesn't mean that God is behind everything that happens within creation.
Since certain creations, such as ourselves, have been given free will and are capable of being creators in our own right; including creating suffering for ourselves and others.
This particular misunderstanding, that God is causing our suffering and perhaps punishing us, is one of the most dangerous misunderstanding promoted by religious teachers; for how can we become free from suffering if we don't understand what's causing it?
As long as we believe that lie, we will blame God or others, or our circumstances for our suffering and not see that we are the ones responsible for our suffering.
Our mistaken thinking, and the negative emotions and negative actions that flow from our thoughts causes our suffering.
Depending on what we choose to believe, and how we choose to respond to life; we create more Love in the world or the opposite.
When we choose to express the opposite of Love or cause harm, it is not God that is at fault. God gifted us with the freedom to choose and to create, and we eventually learn from our choices to be better creators; to create happiness instead of suffering, and it is suffering that teaches us this; suffering points us away from what is anti-life, anti-Love.
Our own personal suffering is the so-called "punishment" we receive for making choices that are not aligned with Love; that is the only "punishment", if we will, meted out by God.
We are designed to suffer whenever we miss the mark, which is the meaning of sin; the mark, the target or goal, is Love. We suffer whenever we fall out of alignment with Love.
Suffering and joy are part of the guidance system we've been given; the homing device, which when followed, will bring us back home to Love.
Suffering tells us that we are believing a lie or taking a wrong direction; while joy tells us the opposite.
If we don't want to suffer, then we must stop believing or doing what causes us and others suffering; and start believing and doing what brings peace, Love and joy.
The only misunderstanding is that God(s) excist.
Can God make a burrito so hot that even He can't eat it?
Quite a fundamentalist perspective, but you can't tell abused persons they are responsible for their suffering no more can you say prisoners of war or genocides are given that suffering for character build.
People use their minds recklessly, ruining their lives and the lives of other people with their thoughts and words arising from the Ego (the guardian of individuality). For it is only your thought life and emotional upheavals which end in quarrels and mayhem - not your face, body, hands and legs unless the quarrels end in physical abuse. But even bodily conflict has its origins in the frustration of the Ego (the guardian of individuality) within mind and emotions, and conveyed to the limbs to vent the uncontrollable wrath.
In this way, marriages - and friendships - begin in mutual joy and eventually end in misery and mutual rejection - because people find it impossible to channel the Ego (the guardian of individuality) into life and love-preserving modes of self-expression.
Parents and children express mutual love until the teen years, then hatred enters the scene and sours the relationship when children rebel against authority and parents react with self-righteous abuse. Again! There is no need for such conflict. Parents must surely realize that every generation fights to find its feet in the adult world and do things more innovatively than did their elders? How can young people thrive if restricted or prevented from free action or expression?
When children become young adults, this is "growing time" for parents, who must now prepare for the next stage of their life - the more inspired use of their latent talents, then old age, acceptance of their past follies and mistakes, and, at last, a peaceful transition into eternal Light.
Why quarrel? Why fight? People wholly controlled by the Ego (the guardian of individuality) let fly and hammer away for their "rights." Spiritually mature people solve problems by discussing them empathetically.
What does this mean in human terms? It means - listening to the other person with the spoken or silent acknowledgement that the way the other person felt/feels in a certain situation is as valid and worthy of respect as were/are your feelings.
When overtaken by a serious confrontation in which neither of you are prepared to yield an iota of ground, go away on your own and take time to realize that what you are engaged in is a "battle of consciousness." The battle is not enjoined only as a result of what was actually done and said in a moment of extreme heat - what really took place was the upshot of what you both are - in consciousness.
This involves your backgrounds. The conflict springs from the personality itself, the type of Programming a person possesses, the basic perceptions of right and wrong, the normal attitudes each have towards other people and life generally. Therefore, when you have conflict or confrontation, tell your opponent you are taking time off to stand still and quieten your mind to be able to listen more helpfully.
Then - be very wise. Call on God for an intervention of Loving Consciousness into the situation.
Try to realize - and visualize - that both of you stand in the Light of God, equal in soul origins, equal in destiny - equally real, equally human, equally unique.
Until you can fully immerse yourself in this realization - this state of mind - you are not yet ready to stand in the Universal Light to lovingly sort out your conflicts and hurt feelings.
@@edgarmorales4476 If you think this is how all things work, you don't understand the mind-body-brain relationship. You can grow and develop to have that approach and thought on life, but that does not develop until you are grown and learn to think critically and silence the ego and emotions. That does not happen to everyone either. Some people never shed their troubles and live in a state of perpetual projections because they have not healed or grown from that mindset and many are unaware because most people are a product of their environment.
Your previous writing - -------
No one is designed for suffering, that is why some people go off the rails when hurt, abused, or experience trauma because the body and mind was not designed for it. Especially if it happens in formative years when a child or preteen has not developed the mechanisms, coping skills, or understanding to process what occurred. It is not normal to have those things happen which is why most people in institutions/facilities have a history of abuse or some other traumatic event that altered them. Not in all cases, but many. Some people are actually born psychopaths and nothing can change the way they operate or they choose not to because they are satisfied with how they are.
The above writing -
I hope that you do not believe that every parent expresses mutual love because that is false, sadly. Also, not all children rebel or rebel against authority. Some parents beat and abuse their children because that is what is inside of them, they don't know how to parent, or they are using the child to take out their own turmoil brewing inside of them.
Try telling a kid after their parent has acted like a child and abused them, then see how that conversation works out when expecting the child to be and think like the adult.
Your concept does not apply to children.
Soo many things incoherent about his reasoning I don't even know where to start...
Why are moral choices predicated on the kind of beings we're interacting with? It's "evil" to continually decide to deceive other *people* but not evil to continually decide to torment animals in such hellish human creations as slaughterhouses? The problem with the assumption of good and evil is that it seems all to come down to perspective. I cannot conceive of a god so small-minded that its scope of good/evil is limited to the very tiny perspectives of one species.
Heaven and hell are not places but rather states of mind.
Looking for Truth States of being!
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil
Nevertheless.... The doors of hell are locked from the inside!
The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. However, the poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits. Hell is not an enforced place as such but a state of choice where everyone gets what they want and is perpetually concerned about his own, pride, dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of hubris, intellectualism, envy, self-importance, and resentment. Not to mention cruelty, revenge and self deceit and conceit .
The descent to hell is easy and those who begin by worshipping power, soon worship evil.
The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.
No one is cast into hell as all that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.
To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell is to be banished from humanity. What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is 'remains.
I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell; and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself.” (C.S. Lewis/G.K. Chesterton). Nevertheless..
as long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered. The world seems full of danger and suffering. However, the fact is that courage is almost a contradiction in terms as It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. Nevertheless... Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak. All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork.
It has been often said, very truly, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary. - Charles Dickens: A Critical Study
“The Christian admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as a sane man knows that he is complex. The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen. Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman. But the materialist's world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure he is sane. The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the interesting person before mentioned is quite sure that he is simply and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts.” (G.K. Chesterton).
Reasonable answer
What would God do to people who lived just for 1 day and never got chance to growup ?
We don't only live one life. It makes absolutely no sense to believe God gives us one life to learn human experience. Makes no sense that we have to make a hole in one..one shot to get it right.
*"Traditional views of Hell are odious and repugnant." This will come as a surprise to many viewers here, religious and non-religious alike, that the traditional view of hell is not taught in the Christian Bible. It, sadly, is taught in many churches, yes, but not in the Bible.
Here's the fatal flaw in Swinburne's claim: He thinks that if a person will do good it's worth keeping them in heaven but if they aren't it's not therefore they end up in hell where they can't harm anyone. Well if there was a God who really cared about the harm bad people can do he would stop them doing so while they were alive & capable of doing so because it's so easy for him to do such a thing because he's all powerful.
Plenty of priests & pastors have been _physically_ & _sexually_ abusing children behind closed doors & if you or I could easily stop them doing so we would in a heartbeat as would Swinburne if he's a decent human being. But God never does even though he could! The argument is that God wouldn't take away anyone's free will - but _I_ would if I could prevent a priest or pastor abusing a child & he would too if it was easy. Nothing is difficult for God because God can do anything so why doesn't he stop child abusers instead of silently watching them abuse children & then punishing the perpetrators when it's too late to do any good?
This is the reason I quit my religion and stopped believing in god .this happened when I was 21 .
@@martialarts4095 I like your Name. Try look up Master Ken here on UA-cam.
I think you might enjoy watching it.
God works in very very mysterious ways. 🤭😂🤣
He is saying a LOT of strange things, I feel like we are not the same species.
@@GlossRabban already subbed to him .love his comedy .
When sperm die, do they go to heaven or hell? 🤔
Absolute Abstract VS Total In-principal
But the criteria for getting in heaven n hell is not just our good deeds or inclination to do good deeds but it's our faith in Christ right? How does one address that issue?
I struggle myself to understand the faith/good works perspective. I wonder if Swinburne would address that criteria if he had more time in the interview.
@@johnbrzykcy3076
We are justified by our Faith in Jesus redemptive sacrifice on the cross. If you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you are justified by Faith in believing Jesus died, was buried and rose from the dead. This should lead you to follow Christ and Jesus commands us to live a life of service and self- sacrificial love..that is what you refer to Good deeds. In laymans words..put your money where your mouth is.
Show that your Faith in Jesus is real by following his commandments( Good deeds)
The age old question. What can we know of a place not in the material world. Can't prove it, can't deny it
That which is claimed without evidence *may* be denied without evidence.
@@paulbrocklehurst7253 this isn't the court house. That's only one way of thinking -- materialist.
The physical as a whole cannot be explained -- we do know that we come from the Sun because without that spiritual force, life as we know it would cease. And the Sun is a spiritual force because a rock didn't create it; something greater did.
@@S3RAVA3LM *this isn't the court house.*
> Maybe not but the fact remains that which is claimed without evidence may be denied without evidence.
*That's only one way of thinking -- *
> I agree - there are *irrational* ways available _as well._
materialist.
> But what's a demonstrable alternative?
*The physical as a whole cannot be explained -
> Maybe not but that doesn't mean people like this guy can do so either & seeing as he's the one making baseless claims I can point out that there's no reason to believe him.
* we do know that we come from the Sun because without that spiritual force, life as we know it would cease.*
> There's no good reason to believe that claim.
*And the Sun is a spiritual force because a rock didn't create it; something greater did.*
> There's no good reason to believe that claim _either._
@@S3RAVA3LM *this isn't the court house.*
> I never claimed it was did I?
*That's only one way of thinking -- materialist.
> No I'd call it _'rational'_ but yes there is another: _irrational._
*The physical as a whole cannot be explained -*
> Perhaps not but that doesn't mean unsupportable claims -can_ does it?
*we do know that we come from the Sun because without that spiritual force, life as we know it would cease.*
> There's no gpd reason to believe that there are any so-called _'spiritual forces.'_
*And the Sun is a spiritual force because a rock didn't create it; something greater did.*
> There's no good reason to believe that claim either.
@@paulbrocklehurst7253 yeah. I was just pointing out that it is, at times, quite illogical to deny simply because of lack of evidence. Claims are to be sought after, tested... the greatest men of science were always expoditionists, explorers, seekers, risk takers, nut jobs -- not the new aged materialist.
Good science is in proving something wrong, not in denying because of lack -- for me that something to explore.
What a lot of babbling rhetoric with no evidence of an existence of a heaven or hell. Then again the same can be said for the existence of a god.
Well said, sir. He doesn't explain heaven and hell properly because he knows he'd sound like an absolute idiot if he did, because surely nobody in the year 2020 actually believes there is a heaven and hell other than a brainwashed fool.
@@DavidElstob73 You said: "He doesn't explain heaven and hell properly..." What do you mean by that statement? I think there are various explanations/definitions for "heaven" and "hell" but how do you determine a "proper" explanation? Do you believe in any kind of afterlife? I hope I'm not a "brainwashed fool." John in Florida
@@johnbrzykcy3076 well what is proper is of course debatable, but I meant he didn't explain it via the typical/traditional version of heaven and hell. By that I mean heaven up above and hell down below or something similar.
I don't believe in any form or afterlife or any God, as I'm a full-blown atheist.
Maybe religion is comforting to some folks, but for me it's just so blatantly full of lies that I can see straight through it. Perhaps if I was born 500 years ago then like the majority, I likely would have been a believer.
As for being brainwashed, there are plenty of people who believe in God, some are geniuses, but does that make them even more foolish than the dumb believer because being highly intelligent they should know better?
@@DavidElstob73 Hey David... thanks for your reply. Maybe Swinburne does not believe in the "traditional version of heaven and hell" or maybe he just didn't want to discuss it. I actually kind of liked his views.
I appreciate your honesty about religion. I don't even like the word "religion" myself. But I do believe that a Jesus the Christ came to earth and was indeed the son of God. Regarding intelligence and belief in God, I think we are always seeking to learn more about life and if a highly intelligent person believes in God I don't like to think of them as "foolish" or brainwashed. We all have beliefs that we hold and some beliefs are justified to a person by their experience or knowledge.
I struggle myself to understand a lot about God and that is partly why I like to watch these UA-cam videos by Lawrence Kuhn. Thanks for your sharing. John in Florida
@@DavidElstob73 Being a hardcore atheist is as foolish as being a hardcore believer. Being agnostic and taking into consideration the possibility that such concepts like god, afterlife, heaven, hell, might actually be real, is the smart way to think about these things. They are possible at least in theory (not a scientific theory, but a hypothesis), given that the current science supports concepts like the Multiverse, and given how strange the quantum world is, and also given that we still don't have a clue how our brain produces consciousness.
And let's not forget that these concepts are also backed up by so many well documented cases of NDEs during cardiac arrest.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6173534/
ua-cam.com/video/Msdtv7kmI5w/v-deo.html
Khun was like huh? Say again-never mind.
Richard!!!
RS evaded the direct question handily! Every single human being is a combination of good and ‘evil’. Not one human being is all good or all evil. So, who goes where? Swinburne disingenuously took a very circulative route in fleshing that out.
Interestingly he didn’t directly state that even the exceedingly evil person, accepting Jesus as his personal saviour, will go to heaven. Whereas a non-Christian creation of the same god,who lived his life in an exemplary way, will go straight to eternal hell - according to whomever wrote the gospel of John. A *major* concept- odd that the first three gospels spoke not of it.
Interestingly, Jesus spoke about neither heaven nor hell. I believe because it was just another man- made concept.
Followers had to find a way to explain to themselves why their saviour would he executed like a common criminal. The disappeared body, by whatever means that came about - was much later,figuratively, elevated to heaven as a divine being.
Problem solved.
How can a thinking person dismiss major problems in the story such as this?
One of the best theologians
Are you kidding?
Miracles, apparitions, whether real or not, invented idea, hallucinations, fictions,imaginaries,dreams,foolishness, the importance is the Heavenly effects and the Heavenly Fruits***
I have theory of universe minimizing error would be the conscious state. So there is obvious good state and bad state. Looking at history it explains genocide and at some point gives meaning since if doing bad things gives rise to heightened consciousness is an illusion it is by all means a bad illusion. We encompass the ability to have good and bad illusions equally strong in sense of consciousness experience.
Can God make a burrito so hot that even He can't eat it?
Heaven & Hell aka one of the best Black Sabbath albums ever! RIP Ronnie James Dio!
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Is there a heaven and hell. The short answer is no.
How you know😅
Then where the wolf with sheep skin get their punishments
I think is there
@@bindubindu1627seems to matirealistic to me
The short answer also sounds like the long answer. Minus a labyrinth of nonsense.
Hell is a place for people who want to harm their selves or others
And in that place they are denied to do so, and the act it self is hell wanting something and not getting it
...Of course I mean here wanting to harm and do evil.
Not a Christian, but having read the bible reasonably carefully, it appears to me that there is a beginning and end to what is termed the sin problem. A person dies and ceases to exist immediately until one of two recalls, the first good forever, the second not good but temporary. The bible seems clear especially in Revelation that the conflagration takes place on earth and ends with a new heaven and earth.
Unfortunately, the second recall, although unpleasant, is a short reminder that after all there is a God and perhaps even a sort of judgement. In one of the gospels, some get more 'lashes' (metaphorically speaking) burn longer? The bible is replete with being judged according to your works. My solace then is at least being allowed to cease to exist and be as I have never been. It appears then that atheists and unbelievers are at least half right.
Be born,live and die. That is the sad story of human race, and all the enhabitants who were unfotunatedly born in this evil planet.
You can prove this?
Swinburne's entire reply was a rambling trail of,,,,,, what was that? I appreciate Kuhn giving him his babble time. The more you listen, the less you hear. Actually, hell was listening to his blathering.
I've given up. " Babble" I think you've summed that up rather well!
What dies your character have to do with this? Its literally just about accept Jesus as your savior. Its like these philosophers are inventing a new religion.
We can’t answer this question until we figure out what the missing 96% of the Universe is
We can’t answer the question of whether Voldemort exists until we figure out what the missing 96% of the universe (in the case of the observable universe, it’s not spelled with a capital u) is, right?
Heaven and hell are obvious human constructs, they’re so ingrained with the way we generally think about the world. They’re as real as Odin is.
@@randomblueguy
I love you. Now let the chaos begin from the People you are gonna piss off. 🍿🍿🍺🍺
What's the missing 96%?
We do not need to understand dark energy and dark matter to say that heaven and hell is a ridiculous hypothesis
@@GlossRabban That’s part of the plan 🤫
Death for both the good and the bad in this world just isn't sufficient if you convince yourself there is a God who cares. You also need to fabricate a system of eternal reward and punishment to reinforce and coerce participation. Swinburne provides a wonderful example of how to rationalise such a fantasy.
How do you know ? Have you seen the lord and lucifer tell me
I don’t blame our host for posing the question, but having heard the answer - an unmitigated pile of bullshit - I’m surprised and disappointed that he published it rather than simply erasing the tape. The only value here might be that it demonstrates even smart people can think purely stupid thoughts?
I'm from turkey and turkish translation would be very good
Am from Deepest parts in Aftica😅mob love
It’s not worth a translation
@@mockupguy3577 why
@@eaglemusic1866 , because, in my opinion almost nothing he says is has any merit. He is making strange claims which leads to strange conclusions.
I’m sure other people think he’s wonderful but I thought this was just gibberish.
@@mockupguy3577 🗣👍👍👍
I do not know if heaven exists, but this world is certainly hell.
The answer is no. There is absolutely no evidence that these places exist.
Question: If Christians require the notion of reward for being good and punishment for being bad, are they really moral people?
Most religions do NOT "envision a hell". Basically only two. Christianity and Islam. I looked this up for a rehab group I was leading. Why would Kuhn makes such a false claim?
Becoming numb which is sad to
No.
Prior to heaven
Prior to hell
This world is just holding cell
Well if the multiverse is real with an infinite amount of universes leading to an infinite amount of possibilities then there would be a Universe in which a Heaven and Hell exist
If.
As someone else pointed out, there is a infinite number of natural numbers: doesn't mean any of them is red. So no, even in an infinite universe ( or multiverse) doesn't mean that anything is possible.
It is possible that heaven an heaven do exist; it is also possible that heaven and heaven doesn't exist.
@@Renato404 To use your analogy: I'd say that within an infinite row of randomly colored natural numbers, the chance is infintely small that no number is red. And infinitely small equals zero.
Not if there're not physically possible.
Where is the evidence?
How a person gathers a group of people. Have them under control while working for the person for free. The group of people pays the person money often to be preached to about how bad of a people they are. Interesting indeed. I’m sure I could nitpick this more, but why bother.
👏👏👏
It's amazing just how many people believe the reason Jesus came to earth was to save them from God...that's correct, FROM GOD!
Of course, they don't normally put it that way! Usually, they say, "Jesus came to save us from going to Hell." But any deep dive into their beliefs usually results in their confessing God is almighty and, therefore, is in charge of everything that happens--God, they believe, is the direct cause of all things that occur or, at a minimum, he permits all things to happen that he does not directly cause, all the while he has the power to intervene, but chooses not to!
So, if there is a Hell and, let's say, there is such a thing as people "choosing" to go there (which is, by the way, ludicrous on its face) surely a good God would, at least, turn the flames of Hell off! Or a good God would, at least, make it so the bodies of those who leap into the Lake of Fire of their own free choice (again, ludicrous) are able to die, as they would when a person on earth is burned to death, reducing their time of suffering to only a minute or two at the most, horrific as that would be!
Interestingly, Jesus himself was faced with a situation (in Luke 9:51-56) where his own disciples wanted God to burn an entire village of people to death for some infraction one of their hotel keepers made, and Jesus rebuked them, telling them their idea had been spawned by the devil himself!
So, if Jesus thought the idea of burning people alive for just a few horrific minutes was devil-inspired, imagine what he would say to anyone today who is suggesting God plans to burn people alive for eternity!
Rick Lannoye, author of www.amazon.com/Hell-No-Certain-There-Place/dp/1477401938
Jesus is god. For god so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten son, for whosever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
@@younginluis3485 Even though the divinity of Jesus was a belief that didn't really begin to emerge until the latter part of the 1st Century CE, and is a sort of litmus test today's Neo Evangelical leaders tell their followers to apply to anyone who questions any of their doctrinal positions and to reject all other questions coming from any who may not be 100% sold on the idea that Jesus was God become man...these very same Neo Evangelical leaders insist the nature of God is almost exactly the opposite of everything we know about the way Jesus acted and what he had to say about the nature of God! This is most acutely the case where they define God as "holy and just," which means God cannot stand to be in presence of sin and that he has something in his nature that requires him to cause an eternal degree of revenge of an unlimited amount of suffering to fall upon anyone who has committed even the slightest (or has been imputed with the guild of Adam's) sin! Of course, this stands in complete contradiction to Jesus' behavior toward sinners, with whom he had dinner, drank with and basically hung out as a friend, and never once did anything to anyone in revenge or to punish, especially when he went to the cross without a single curse upon those who tormented him, but only asked God the Father to forgive them all! In other words, many, if not most, of those who insist Jesus was God are only paying lip service to the doctrine because, in reality, they don't believe it! If they did, then their version of the nature of God would align with that of Jesus behavior and teachings. Rick Lannoye, author of www.amazon.com/Rightly-Dividing-Word-Properly-Interpret/dp/B091LSMD9N
WTF? Is this guy serious? This is the craziest video on this channel yet.
When we die we are all "destroyed". It's how chemistry works.
Well put.
Yah, I think it’s just a state of mind. We were thought to do good to go to heaven, and If we do something bad, we go to hell. Thou both doesn’t exist, we still believe that they are real for us to choose to be good than evil.
Kudos -- 444 Gematria -- 🗽
You can't perceive other dimensions.
I am a Muslim person and I believe in God. For example: A child must know about the reward if he\she does something good and the consequences if he does something bad.
"Think of it as points, good action meaning positive and bad action meaning negative." Note: God is Forgiving and nothing can be compared to its Merciful.
so if someone is making many bad things, there are so many ways to do good things so it increases your positive points ( heaven or hell points ). all what i am saying is " be good and do good" and that can not be done without beliving in god. we are going to meet in heaven Inshaa' Alaah
Swinburne argues for the concepts of Heaven and Hell based on the existence of "good people" and " bad people". But under Christian dogma the criteria for acceptance into heaven and banishment to hell is acceptance or rejection of Jesus Christ. Did he even mention that?
He seems to be under the all too common and arrogantly naïve belief that being Christian is synonymous with being good, and not being Christian is synonymous with being evil.
And he never justifies Hell when simple non-existence would suffice. Hell is representative an a purely retributory philosophy of punishment, which any moral person would reject.
I watched this video because I had heard that Swinburne was a great Christian philosopher, but obviously he is no more than a common Christian apologist.
He is not saying that. He is an Oxford professor, a top writer of academia. Read his books so you can understand his perspective, he explains the Christian doctrine pretty well in his books… character is a very important aspect in Christianity. Jesus is exactly that… the perfect model, the character of how a human being should act and be like… it’s not about faking being good, it’s about really desiring to be good and there’s a lot of fake people in the Christian community as in any other community… Jesus rebuked religious people that only rely on traditions/rituals and wasn’t working on their characters and doing good deeds to others without expecting anything in return. The Christian doctrine has a lot to do with the intentions of the heart more than anything, a good person wants to do good because that’s the only thing that makes actual sense if you have some sense of wisdom, heaven is just the cherry on top…and hell is just eternity without God because there’s people that won’t want Him, and if God is everything that is good, hell will be the absence of everything good. We receive a lot of good things in life just for the fact that we are alive but we usually only complain when things don’t go our way and we are ungrateful to all the good things that we receive just for being able to have a life…
At least that’s the possibility Christians claim, the alternative is that God isn’t real and if he is not real then nothing really matters we’ll die and never even realize we were ever alive, life only makes sense if God is real but we’ll only know for sure when we die, but if there’s a bit of chance that God may be real I think trying to use our brain to understand if there’s a possibility of more than just an illusion makes a bit of sense anyways if His not real everything reduces to nothing
@@jey7230
"He is an Oxford professor, a top writer of academia."
He's a fool wearing god glasses that cloud his thinking.
Refute my points or concede you cannot.
"if His not real everything reduces to nothing"
This the warped philosophy of Christianity.
@@cygnusustus if God is not real everything is an illusion, our entire goal is to reproduce for no reason … don’t make assumptions of an individual without even reading his material. It’s ok to disagree with him but he makes valid points in his books, try to read the
without prejudice, the goal is to access questions with intelectual honesty and not biases from one aspect or another if you read his books you’ll see how objective he tries to be specially because he writes academically and he always states it’s just a possibility there’s no one that can either prove that God is real or it’s not
@@jey7230
"if God is not real everything is an illusion"
A truly ridiculous claim.
"our entire goal is to reproduce for no reason"
Under Christianity our entire purpose is to be sycophantic slaves to a narcisistic being. Do you really want to play this game?
"It’s ok to disagree with him but he makes valid points in his books"
I addressed his points. Their foolish and dishonest.
Address mine, or concede you cannot.
@@cygnusustus you’re fighting for no reason. Making assumptions without even reading his claims. This is a video of less than 10 mins, reading books not UA-cam is where real wisdom is at…But ok. You haven’t made a single argument about the brain, free Will, reason, all you do is that everything is nonsense without even respecting others points of view, you’re doing exactly what an ignorant person will do, the basis of all ignorance is prejudgment without actual knowledge. You can disagree with him but his a human being also worthy of respect… and all I can see from your comments is that you’re in your feelings and not actually talking based on reason, but well I don’t know who hurt you in the Christian community but I hope you can manage to be objective and disagree with respect, we are human beings capable of self control, use it!
This one is easy: no.
Hell Yea!
Or.
Heavens No!?
Test the Bible and what Jesus said >
11 Verses 25 to 26. [25] Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: [26] And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
That's all there is to it. It's the exact same process when goes and sees a doctor. The doctor suggests some advice with regards to one's health problem and the person with the health issue can either follow through with the doctor's prescribed advice or not.
Same goes with the Bible and what Jesus told His followers. 1) Give to the poor and 2) do not hold onto the things of this physical world for the things of the physical world are temporary whereas the things of the spiritual world are eternal.
It's that simple but it take tremendous faith in the Bible and Jesus's word to follow through....
😍🙏
there is no Heaven There is no Hell and there is no Afterlife.
How do you know
U is right heaven and hell is not real
damn i go out seeing those videos about hell, heaven, afterlife, then i go comment something and see a black metal band in my profile picture, just, damn
Yeah right.
Ha when one is selected n good always then snap is far worse than even headed people
Catholic schoolgirls
🤔…..seems me that some individuals do nit seem to have much choice about whether to live out a “good” life or an “evil” life. Political prisoners - many in labor camps - or worse - hopeless. Just study, for example, what we know so far about N. Korean prisoners - some serving life sentences for a “crime” perhaps by a relative two generations back against the government’s “devine” leader or against the “revolution” - now confined to cages so small they cannot even move their head side-to-side….do they love their captors?….or hate them and would kill them if the opportunity presented itself?
What about seriously abused children who grow up and themselves become abusers? Are they exercising free will choices?
There are way too many exceptions to the style of life this man has been privileged to live. I suppose he expects to end up in eternal heaven, while most of the homeless and prostitutes are on the highway to hell.
The only thing today that separates us from hell is the Earth's crust. What we do in this life while we are on the Earth's crust will be recorded in heaven then when God judges the whole world, some will be in heaven with the lord and those who chooses to follow their wicked ways will spend eternal life in hell. Keep watch for no one knows the day or hour that he will return to rapture the flock. Eternal life is your choice either to be in heaven or hell.
Heaven and hell does exist because when you die God isn’t going to allowed nothingness God is going to give you A new body you cannot die and you will be free from pain
Seriously; educate me...:
If a All forgiving God Exists and. Heaven exists; why don’t people just kill themselves.... to go to Heaven...????
No matter how you frame the argument, your still talking about magic men n magic lands
Heaven and Hell smells,... it’s the same old polluted place we call earth.
Very unclear
Imagine playing football in Heaven.
My team would win every game.
"Doing what is right and wrong." According to Swinburne's ethics and morals. Many things happen to people completely beyond their control. What a numbskull argument he proposes. Swinburne doesn't know what life is like outside his ivory tower. He has little knowledge of human behavior and the reasons for human behavior. He uses logic within a distorted worldview. Run from this guy! Amazing what intellectual people will believe. Demonstrates how cult-like belief locks you out of general reality.
7:50 minutes... This is what happens when one is brave anough posing one single question to Richard Swinburne.
What courage is required to challenge this fool?
Christ talked about this in Luke 16: 19-31.
Immediately upon knowing the truth at death no human would not repent, fancy notions of magic lands n fairies.
8 minutes of essentially dodging the question. Lots of words, little said. Also interesting that doing “good works” is precisely opposite of what modern Christianity understands the gospel message to mean.
What do you mean by "doing 'good works' is precisely opposite of what modern Christianity understands the gospel message to mean" ?
@@johnbrzykcy3076 don't know exactly what he means. But I agree with the premise.
A large segment of Trump's base is Evangelicals. And Trump has no belief in God, is 74 but said he has done nothing in his life that he felt he needed to ask forgiveness for. is severely corrupt, has been proven to be a conman (Trump University), ripped thousands of children from their parents at the border, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum. Even though most of them probably teach their children to act the complete opposite of how Trump acts, the Evangelicals still love him, and tried to put him back in office, knowing all of that. So yes I agree. Many modern "Christians" obviously no longer believe in "welcoming the stranger", "helping those less fortunate ", or that everyone is created equal.
@@mrbamfo5000 Thanks for sharing. Although I don't like politics and don't really follow the life or activities of President Trump, I do understand what you are saying. I can only point to the hypocrisy in my own life.
@@johnbrzykcy3076 Swinburne opens his statement by saying those who do good works are likely to continue to do works and somehow are more likely to end up in heaven, contrasted with those who do evil and their devil acts become easier and easier to do until they are permanent reprobates. That’s not the modern interpretation of the gospel message. The modern interpretation of the gospel message is that NO MATTER how many good works an individual does, they fall short of God and thus need a redeeming savior (aka Jesus of Nazareth).
@@mrbamfo5000 I have no idea how you got anything Trump related out of my post. Evangelicals vote for Trump on a strictly utilitarian basis - they don’t care what he does personally as long as he supports/enacts legislation that is consistent with their beliefs. That’s not hard to see.
God gets to eliminate all the bad people? Why should that mute and invisible bastard have all the fun?
I don't think it will be "fun" for God to "eliminate all the bad people" that He originally created as good. I think God will weep as Jesus did over Jerusalem.
wtf..are you even serious-
I really tried to pay attention to this guy...I having trouble figuring out if he actually said anything???
(Dear atheists, I understand your point of view - really, but this is not a comment for your attention thank you, - I have my own profound doubts to deal with, and will not respond to your admirable certainties.)
As a small boy,, I was given an illustrated edition of Pilgrim's Progress, with the image and illustration of the man in the iron cage, whose problem was that, as he knew, he had so hardened his heart that he was no longer capable of repentance. That always seemed to me the most powerful image of what it is to put oneself in Hell. At least it is an image that, like much else in PP, has lasted and influence me ever since.
Thanks for sharing. I've never read Pilgrim's Progress so I should check it out.
@@johnbrzykcy3076 You are most welcome. I was perhaps 7 years old at the time - it was a gift from my Grandmother. I knew nothing about Bunyan and the religious controversies of the time (I still don't know a great deal), but the book impressed itself upon my mind to the extent that it still influences the way I think about the world and religion.
@@clovislyme6195 I think that some books can indeed influence the way we think about things. I see the Gospels of the New Testament as such "books." In a parallel comparison, I also like the story of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by CS Lewis. It can highly influence our perceptions of the world and even our perception of Jesus the Christ.