What do believers believe heaven or hell are like?

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Exodus has absolutely nothing to do with the topic, the population of Judea in the 1st Century, the number of Jews executed because they refused to worship Jupiter or the number of people killed during the Jewish Wars.

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So once again, do you have any support for your assertion or is this going to be just more of your bullshit slinging, goal post changing, tap dancing evasion, pea palming carny tricks?

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LOL! Yes, I do have such support, why else will I say so. How about a Roman archive from the 1st Century, so you cannot dispute it? Here's what Europe calls a 'rebellion'; I call it the greatest defense and mass sacrifice of a belief in all recorded history:

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Deo Cassius again:

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The populace was stationed below in the court and the elders on the steps and the priests

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in the Sanctuary itself. And though they were but a handful fighting against a far superior

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force, they were not conquered until part of the Temple was set on fire. Then they met

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their death willingly, some throwing themselves on the swords of the Romans, some

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slaying one another, others taking their own lives and still others leaping into the flames.

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And it seemed to everybody and especially to them that so far from being destruction, it
was victory and salvation and happiness to them that they perished along with the
Temple.

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DUST.The term dust, used in Genesis, is both scientifically and metaphorically accurate. Humans are made of the dust of the earth - which includes iron, phosperous, zinc, water, magnesium, quarks and what cannot be seen by the naked eye. There is no better way of saying it and rendering it understood by all generations.That Genesis puts it this way at such an early period, encompassing and standing up to real science today, while contrasting the premise of mythical deities like Ra, Zeus and Jupiter - says it all. The Hebrew writings are deceptively simple for the uninitiated.Edited by IamJoseph, : No reason given.Edited by IamJoseph, : No reason given.

...that interpretation describes all matter, everywhere.Especially when you include "quarks." By that interpretation, stars and mice and black holes and oceans and hydrogen clouds and galactic clusters are all made of the "dust of the Earth."Your interpretation is so broad that it's useless. You might as well substitute "dust of the Earth" with "stuff." It doesn't add to any understanding at all, because it would still be just as valid if human beings were made up of antimatter or sea water or stone or air or jello.Amusingly, a normal interpretation of the word "dust" would result in the Bible stating the opposite of truth - most house dust is, in fact, shed skin cells, meaning the dust of the Earth is actually made of people, as opposed to the other way around.Not to mention the fact that the human body is mostly made of water, which is exactly the opposite of what one usually means when talking about dust.Except of course when you're using overly-broad interpretations to widen that round hole until it can fit the square peg. And the triangle peg. And all the other pegs, at once. You know, apologetics.

Again...what does any of that crap have to do with either the topic or supporting your assertion that over one million Jews were executed for not worshiping Jupiter?Do you ever have any evidence to support your assertions?

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Your interpretation is so broad that it's useless. You might as well substitute "dust of the Earth" with "stuff." It doesn't add to any understanding at all, because it would still be just as valid if human beings were made up of antimatter or sea water or stone or air or jello.

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It depends whether the stat is correct or false. While the life forms on earth are made of the components of this earth is valid, we can say similarly that the universe is made of the universe components; the latter only validates the former, as opposed negating it. Thus it is not so broad as to make the statement non-credible or exaggerated. It is a valid statement.

Of course it's valid. The validity of the statement isn't the problem.The problem is that it's meaningless, like saying "People are made from stuff."There's no way people could actually exist, even in imagination fairy-tale land, that would not validate that statement. If people were actually made out of moon dust or random gas from Jupiter or bits from the rings of Saturn or ice cream, absolutely all of those would equally satisfy the interpretation of "dust of the Earth" you're applying.The definition is so broad that it fits everything. Airplanes are made of the "dust of the Earth," as are computers and fish and birds and asteroids and planets and Suns and everything else made from baryonic matter, whether it has any relation to "Earth" or not.If you used that interpretation to explain to a person what people were made of, they wouldn't understand the composition of human beings any more than before you explained it. It;s word salad. it's meaningless. You;ve widened the aperture of the definition until it;s so wide that it fits everything, and so by using it as part of an explanation you actually explain nothing.If an explanation doesn't tell you what a thing is not made of, then it cannot possibly tell you what it is made of either.

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Again...
what does any of that crap have to do with either the topic or supporting your assertion that over one million Jews were executed for not worshiping Jupiter?

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Do you ever have any evidence to support your assertions?

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Yes I do have evidence - how else can I say so. The number of lives destroyed is in the Josephus writings, and the terms 'rebels'; 'revolt'; 'rebellion' here are great immoral and dis-historical lies. Please consider:

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The outcome

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First Jewish—Roman War - Wikipedia

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The defeat of the Jewish revolt altered the Jewish diaspora, as many of the Jewish rebels were scattered or sold into slavery. Josephus claims that 1,100,000 people were killed during the siege. 97,000 were captured and enslaved[11] and many others fled to areas around the Mediterranean.

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This says why this war occured; nothing to do with taxes:

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Sacrifice for Emperor Eliminated.

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Then [in the summer of 66 CE] a very bold young man who was then captain of the temple---Eleazar, son of the high-priest Hananiah---moved that no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner was to be admitted during the worship service. And this set the foundation for the war with Rome. For, on this pretext, even the sacrifice for Caesar [= Nero] was eliminated.

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--- Josephus, Antiquities 20.409

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The definition is so broad that it fits everything

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Does it? The term 'the earth' applies; meaning it is limited to the earth's componenets only, not that of the moon or the universe. How would you better put it, what other words apply, keeping it aligned with correct vocab of the period?

Again...what does any of that crap have to do with the topic.

Responding to a post which is left standing. Its not 'crap' either.Edited by IamJoseph, : No reason given.

Hi Phat, My take on this is that every thing that you are comes to an end when your brain stops working.The best it could be is an experience event horizon.I think we shoud live this life the est way we can, having as much happyness and joy as we can and not to worry about breaking any bronze age bizarre laws.Once you stop worrying about that sort of thing life gets a lot easier.

Shorter and less important, too. Of course, for many, eternal life is achieved through having children. That's all they have to carry on their selves. Of course, protecting the interests of the children is one of the underlying causes of wars.

Why is life "less important" without considering an afterlife?I'd actually consider this life to be more important in the absence of any other. After all, what's a little suffering in this world if it's only temporary and you get an eternity of joy afterwards? Nothing minimizes the importance of this life more than that.If this is the only life we get, it's more important to work to minimize suffering and improve its quality for everyone.

Believers in what? I have never tried to get into heaven. That is religion. I have faith in the One that came to be our righteousness, therefore I will enter His kingdom through grace, through faith. The works we do naturally flow from that faith, as a spring naturally provides water.Describing heaven, we are limited to descriptions from the bible. But I imagine that it's a little bit like the earth in a none-polluted form. What matters most is what the scriptures say, that is is a place of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.Anyone who has experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit, the only way to describe that is that everything you have ever heard, all the best arguments, all the things of men, and all the BS, just does not matter. You absolutely know, through revelation, that you have experienced something far more beautiful, far more precious, than anything the crumby world of man and his sin, could offer.But alas, men preferred darkness, rather than light - and how can the darkness comprehend the light? It can't.

Come on Phat. Think about this. This is the only life I know I have. Why would I waste it? Why would it not be important to me? Yea, memories are for chumps anyways. I've never heard that one before. Got any evidence for that? Last I heard, most wars are because of greed and children actually DIE during war......I doubt dying is a childs best interest.....