As I have pointed out, I am a theological "liberal". I think that people can do the best with what they were given, and that a sincere effort will be met with mercy. Therefore, I am not in the conversion business. I do find discussion of the issues interesting, and I do, of course, think that some ideas are better than others, just as we all do. I posted the stuff on the possible disposition of the soul because everyone immediately connected belief in the soul with concern with the afterlife, and so it seemed that was the next thing to examine. Actually, as I tried to make clear much earlier, I primarily believe in the soul because it supports the idea that I and other people exist as real persons, and that there is more to life than survival. This is what I experience introspectively, and I see no reason to regard it as illusory, although I cannot absolutely rule out the possibility that it is, which is why I refer to it as a belief.
I do think that the persistence of the individual after death, and a concern with his or her fate, supports the idea that we matter as individuals, and not just as parts of a community or species, and therefore find it morally satisfactory to think that caring about personal matters, which, after all, occupies much of our time, is not merely futile, but reflects the importance of even the least among us. I think we are morally obliged to contribute to the community, but that conceiving of the community as indefinitely more important than the individual is a recipe for fascism. So, yes, I think there are much broader implications to all of these things....
No one, incidentally, can stand by and see the things he holds sacred held in contempt without some urge to defend them. That is simply a normal response, and no one should have to defend it........
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