Introduction

This is the beginning of a special series of posts, just for my friend Rob.  Rob and I lived and worked together for 3 years at Bread & Roses, and have shared enough drinks to blind a sailor.  It is, therefore, important to me that he get his very concerning questions answered about what I think is going to happen to him after he kicks the bucket.

This is also a good opportunity for general discussion on religion, as there is a tremendous amount of misinformation and misunderstanding around the issue.  So I am going to take the opportunity to post on a range of issues that seem to go to the root of the misunderstanding, including: afterlife, scriptural exegesis and interpretation, the meaning of faith, and the purpose of religion.  Some of what I will write in this series will be based on my understanding of current biblical scholarship, which is highly technical and actually quite scientific in its [the scholarship, not so much my understanding of it] approach.  And some of what I write will be my own opinions, which are relatively well educated but nonetheless quite subjective.  I am by no means in any way an expert.  Just a lively layperson.

Please feel free to jump in on the discussion, but let's try to avoid making assumptions and jumping to conclusions about the beliefs of others.  Let's try to keep it polite and civil as well (okay Mike, here you go: Let's try to be gentle with each other here.)

Afterlife 

"So, do you indeed believe in an eternal "punishment" for not believing in God and Jesus and following Christian dogma?"