Dear Kelly, Some modern philosophers deprecate Christians because we believe in (and hope for) eternal life in heaven.\u00a0 They praise those stoic souls who courageously live decent lives here on earth for the sheer decency of it, though they have no thought of everlasting reward.\u00a0 Your bioethics professor strikes me as one of these.\u00a0 Nothing against the man, mind you, but I feel it my duty to immunize you from his noble sounding heresy. First of all, we have many more indications that there is life after death than that there isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Besides the teaching of every religion and the universal \u201cinstinct\u201d of the human spirit (ancestor worship, spiritism, s\u00e9ances, and all that stuff), plus the hundreds of scientifically documented \u201cnear-death experiences,\u201d there is also the testimony of the thousands of Catholic saints who have believed in this doctrine (many of whom were martyred only because of their assurance of its truth) and the teaching and resurrection of Christ.\u00a0 Even if these indications don\u2019t convince<\/u> someone, they still have to be faced up to.\u00a0 And what indications do we have to the contrary?\u00a0 None.\u00a0 No one has come back from the dead to tell us that there is no life after death.\u00a0 No one has even claimed to do so.\u00a0 Conclusion: it takes just as much (if not more) faith to believe in death after death as it does to believe in life after death. Secondly, it is no vice to want to be happy.\u00a0 Happiness is a universal human desire.\u00a0 To try and kill this desire in order to \u201cdo good without any hope for reward, either in this world or the next,\u201d is inhuman.\u00a0 Only God is perfectly happy in himself; the rest of us need God to make us happy, and we come closer to God by living in accordance with his commands. It\u2019s funny, this same Christian doctrine that offends so many people in modern times actually won many to the faith in ancient times.\u00a0 Today\u2019s saint, in fact, was one of the many early Christians who dedicated themselves to the ministry of burying the dead.\u00a0 The Roman \u201ccatacombs,\u201d the underground graveyards excavated by generations of Christians, were closely monitored and cared for by the Pope and the Christians of Rome.\u00a0 It was a high honor and serious responsibility to be one of the gravediggers or custodians, because Christian funerals were a solemn and important manifestation of their belief in heaven.\u00a0 Callistus, after being in and out of prison for years due to false accusations of financial mismanagement, was put in charge of the catacombs on the Appian Way that still bear his name.\u00a0 Later, he became Pope, and staunchly defended true doctrine and prudent discipline against extremists of every stripe. You may be interested in hearing Julian the Apostate\u2019s thoughts on the solemnity of Christian burial practices, and how the faith that they embodied won people over to the Church (Julian was a fourth-century Christian emperor who abjured the faith and tried to reinstate paganism).\u00a0 In a letter to a pagan priest, he identified three things used by the Christian religion to attract new adherents: \u201cTheir kindness and charity to strangers, their care of the burial of their dead, and the dignity of their carriage.\u201d So you see, we need not be ashamed of our belief in heaven (and hell).\u00a0 Both reason and history support it. Yours always, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Kelly, Some modern philosophers deprecate Christians because we believe in (and hope for) eternal life in heaven.\u00a0 They praise those stoic souls who courageously live decent lives here on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n