This has crossed my mind as well. If they are true believers they should be thrilled to die and go live with their god. Strange....

Furthermore, isn't it incredibly cruel to keep someone with a severe disability (perhaps paralysed from the neck down) alive in this world, when they could go onto the next and be fully functional again?

I've always felt this was proof that most religious people are really just playing Pascal's Wager. They don't truly believe. They're just hoping the promise of paradise is true, and hedging their bets in case it is.

If you want consistancy never look towards the religious for it.

In my experience some of the most frightened people I know r these God fearing Christians that r scared to death of everything

They panic due to the overriding, overruling and ultimately predominant FEAR OF DEATH, which is awarded to us all - by (gasp!) EVOLUTION!!!

One would think so, chalk it to another inconsistency of religion and their brainwashed followers.

This is a silly conversation
I deal with death everyday
Regardless of any belief system nearly everyone “scrambles” when they are presented with their mortality.

I agree with your words totally. In defense of these Christians they believe that you cannot do yourself in or hurry up the process. Killing yourself is forbidden, and many today imagine they will end up as the small sparks surrounding god's big spark. That does not sound exciting. As for being in heaven with loved ones and reunited, this used to be preached as a big heavenly reunion. It all makes you think that deep down they do not believe this at all. It's just a big club that they belong to and not anything that is real.

Excellent observation

bradnyijuan pretty much hit it on the head. They're just as ignorant as the rest of us. Playing at religious convictions is all well and good when you're healthy. But when the chips go down and time gets short, we revert to what we know has at least some chance -- even if that chance is slim.

They have ample experience that prayer and faith almost never deliver.
They know that when it counts they have to stick with the real world.

It's extremely rare to find one who really believes all that stuff. Any more than they really believe all that "sell all you have and follow me" stuff.

In my previous letter to all 3 of our local papers I mentioned that some people say they can't wait to meet Jesus, just not yet. This is the typical fear factor.

Many iof them really are not sure that they have "earned their way into heaven."

I think there is always some doubt. I think what they say and what they think are to different things! Faith really means you don’t know but you only hope.

everybody wants to go to heaven..but nobody wants to go now.

Good point, most people go to church for decades and don't really believe in life after death. I will say this, the unknown is bigger than the known.

There was a popular song about that very phenomenon, "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die." Maybe part of the reason is captured in the polka "In Heaven There is No Beer, That's Why We Drink it Here." But it's probably more complex than that.

What a great insite!! They can't see beyond their noses. Ugh...

"The art of dying is the art of living." Sherwin Nuland, "How We Die." I intend to meet my end with few regrets, grateful for the life I have had. Maybe that's why I feel so little need for faith.

Exactly ! If dying is gonna get them to heaven, where their supposedly loving god, and all their lost loved ones are, why are they not eager to go ? Leave already !

It suggests a lack of faith.Many denominations consider less than full faith a direct, one way, and permanent ticket to hell. If there were hypothetically a heaven it might be full of zealots like mass shooters, terrorists, suicide bombers, pedophiles, and cruel dictators, oligarchs, and slave owners who really believe that all sins are forgiven by faith alone and fearlessly live without empathy and die proud and ready for the ultimate reward.

I don't pretend to say I know if they think there is a heaven or not. However, as some have pointed out, they know it isn't supposed to be easy to get there. They have to make up for their sinful nature and other such b.s.

They also believe in hell and there is no absolute certainty where on will end up.

Reminds me of people being shocked when I say "I can't wait to go home." which could be in any form. They say, "no I want to stay here. How could you say that. It's just wrong." I say, "but you love Jesus. Don't you want to go see him."

The thought of pain, may come into play with what you suggest. After death, I hear people say he/she is now with ‘so-in-so!’ ‘They are all together!’ Once I moved out of that way of thinking, about a ‘heaven with streets paved with gold,’ it seems so strange to hear someone say that people are ‘in heaven together!’ However, I do not remember ever believing that I would be in heaven with people that I knew. It was all about the ‘pearly gates and streets paved of gold!’