Boo!
Halloween is the time when you find out that a whole lot of reasonably intelligent people believe in ghosts.
Neither my understanding of science or my theology has any room for misty spirits of the dead wandering around this mortal plane.
Scientists have come a cropper at finding evidence for life of any sort hanging around after death. And let's face it, those ghostbuster types who shop on basic cable documentaries aren't real scientists.
Christian theology is based on the resurrection of the body, not a disincarnate spirit floating around either here or in the hereafter. The Hebrew scriptures saw humans as a psycho-somatic unity -- body and soul inextricably linked, and early Christian theologians like Paul followed suit. It was St. Augustine, who welded Greek philosophy to Christian thinking, that gave us the idea of spirits. It was Plato who saw the body as the "prison house of the soul" and that the death of the body "freed" the soul.
But that's not how the Gospels depicted the resurrection of Christ. The Risen Lord had some meat on his bones.
And I know that the Scriptures now and then throw a monkey wrench into my neat interpretation. The witch of Endor scared the bejabbers out of King Saul by raising up the ghost of Samuel, after all.
But on the whole, the ghost thing just doesn't make it for me. And those idiots who claim they can talk to the dead -- John Edwards springs to mind -- are outright frauds. Come on, if the dead were right next to him, don't you think they'd stop mumbling and giving messages to loved ones that sound like the dearly departed playing charades?
Neither my understanding of science or my theology has any room for misty spirits of the dead wandering around this mortal plane.
Scientists have come a cropper at finding evidence for life of any sort hanging around after death. And let's face it, those ghostbuster types who shop on basic cable documentaries aren't real scientists.
Christian theology is based on the resurrection of the body, not a disincarnate spirit floating around either here or in the hereafter. The Hebrew scriptures saw humans as a psycho-somatic unity -- body and soul inextricably linked, and early Christian theologians like Paul followed suit. It was St. Augustine, who welded Greek philosophy to Christian thinking, that gave us the idea of spirits. It was Plato who saw the body as the "prison house of the soul" and that the death of the body "freed" the soul.
But that's not how the Gospels depicted the resurrection of Christ. The Risen Lord had some meat on his bones.
And I know that the Scriptures now and then throw a monkey wrench into my neat interpretation. The witch of Endor scared the bejabbers out of King Saul by raising up the ghost of Samuel, after all.
But on the whole, the ghost thing just doesn't make it for me. And those idiots who claim they can talk to the dead -- John Edwards springs to mind -- are outright frauds. Come on, if the dead were right next to him, don't you think they'd stop mumbling and giving messages to loved ones that sound like the dearly departed playing charades?
posted by Michael Riley at 10:40 AM
8 Comments:
John Edward and now an English woman on television really make sad people missing their deceased loved ones think they're getting what they pay for - communication with Mom, Dad, a brother, a friend.
The smoke and mirrors are pretty realistic these days, if you go by these said people's popularity and pocket books.
That woman on Montel Williams show is the most annoying of all.Her dead mother spoke to me last night and says to her: "Honey if you don't stop smoking you're going to be where I am soon."
MR:
"Christian theology is based on the resurrection of the body, not a disincarnate spirit floating around either here or in the hereafter."
So what happened in Night of the Living Dead is possible from a Christian perspective?
::grin::
Her name is Lisa Williams and her grandmum was a royal psychic. If Sylvia Brown (Montel's show psychic) were so intuitive, why didn't a dead relative give her the head's up about trying to spruce up a bit for TV. How does cremation fit into the resurrection of a body if isn't one. Just wondering.
The ashes just get up and start walking.
I believe it's that whole 'raise the dead' thing that makes cremation a no-no in Judaism...
So, if you are Catholic, get cremated, your soul goes to purgatory? Margaret, help us here!
Think about it..whether the body is cremated, or decays and turns to dust, the body still turns to dust. Cremated remains need to be interred in a cemetery, a niche, and have the proper blessings.
One goes to purgatory because of the actions during a lifetime, not because one is cremated. The church does accept cremation now, as long as the remains are interred properly.
Post a Comment
<< Home