Is a literal reading of the Bible an insult to its authors?

I am one of those people who do not understand this. Why, then, do people need to be "born again" if they already exist forever? Does it double their eternal existences? And what's so bad about dying, anyway? Everybody does it sooner or later. Hey, if you happen to be born twice wouldn't you have to die twice, too?”HM

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If you got some quince, Pussycat, I got a runcible spoon.

Depends on what you mean by "matter." Both a hydrogen atom and a human are material objects, but the human exists for a much shorter time than a hydrogen atom. Many hydrogen atoms exist "forever," but those caught up in stars may be fused into helium atoms (and therefore cease to exist). Humans, on the other hand, are ephemeral”they have only a few short years to live, but their atoms will survive a human's death quite nicely.I think it would be wise for a religious person to avoid invoking the first law of thermodynamics as a way to confirm his or hers faithful notions. I can't speak to this rationally, as you are standing on a true-believer's landscape. I happen to believe that the "kingdom of heaven" is right here on Earth where children starve to death and puppies are abused. Our belief landscapes do not overlap.”HM

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If you got some quince, Pussycat, I got a runcible spoon.

ICANT, so much depends on what you mean by "existence." This is a huge question in philosophy; it even has its own branch called "ontology." Does Babylon still exist? Eden? Adam and Eve? Do the dinosaurs still exist? Does water still exist after it has been electrolyzed into hydrogen and oxygen? Do the twin towers of the World Trade Center still exist, even though much of them lie at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean?If you ate a mouse would that mouse have any existence in you? Could it make you feel mousey?On the other hand, one could say with statistical precision that the probability of you inhaling an oxygen atom that was once inhaled by Jesus is very high, maybe 1.0. In that case, that oxygen atom might have carried some Jesus energy with it and done you some good. Or not. I wouldn't know.If you want to talk about spiritual existence, I don't mind. It's an empty box for me. But when you say: I can only say that this is basically true, in the physical context”that matter and energy will exist forever. But will they exist as ghosts of their former occupations? Will a squirrel obtain oak-ness by eating the matter and energy of an acorn? Does the squirrel have little acorn ghosts inside him? If Jerry Falwell went to heaven then I want go to the other place.”HM

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If you got some quince, Pussycat, I got a runcible spoon.

I'm not so sure. He was invoking the First Law as if it had something to do with spiritual existence.

ICANT, you and I live on different landscapes of reality, and they barely touch each other. But if I happen to run into Jerry Falwell while I'm grocery shopping in the hereafter, I'll give him your best wishes. (And then I'll go on home to my non-air-conditioned apartment on Hitler Street and sweat out another night in Hell.)”HM

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If you got some quince, Pussycat, I got a runcible spoon.