Re: OT: Prayer, ritual and magic // was conlang website

> > > I've never understood purgatory.
> >
> > The doctrine of Purgatory is founded on the notion that although
> > everyone is irrevocably damned or saved at the moment of death,
> > some -- indeed most -- saved souls are not yet free of what may
> > be called the *habit* of sinfulness, and need to undergo a purgative
> > (cleansing) process before being admitted to Heaven.  This being
> > so, it is as rational to pray for those in Purgatory as for the
> > living.
>
> The notion of damnation saddens me terribly.  Forever--unforgiven?  No
> more second chances?
>
> Arguably God has given us enough chances, and yet...the sheer
> irrevocability of the afterlife-notion boggles me sometimes.
May I suggest C.S. Lewis's book _The Problem of Pain_ ?  There's a chapter
in that book entitled "Hell" that is the only thing that's made sense of
the issue to me.  Essentially Lewis's position is that hell isn't
something God sends people to as much as something people choose because
they would rather have hell than ask for forgiveness.  Or as Lewis put it,
"The doors of hell are locked from the inside."  He gives a fuller
explanation in his book, and the following chapter, "Heaven," is
unbelievably beautiful.

>
> Religion is so confusing...and if you take it seriously, it's
> heartwrenchingly difficult because being mistaken or wrong could have
> such terrible consequences.  Perhaps for others it is simpler than I make
> it for myself.
No, I don't think so.  Even for unserious people like myself, some things
*must* be taken seriously and inevitably are difficult.  Without that they
would be too easy.

> ObConLang: afterlife and its representations in your conlang?  Words for
> it?  The afterlife in Chevraqis is referred to as "Beyond."  A common
> Qenaren phrase for death is "the soldier's salute."  Then again, this is
> a military culture that thinks the death-god brought death as a gift, and
> that an accepting death is your gift in return.
Wow, that's interesting!  For the Yivríndi, death was an act of mercy from
Elori.  After the earth was corrupted by Agam, Elori allowed the souls to
leave their body after a time rather than live forever on the
corrupted earth.  The evil goddess of death (name?) captured the souls and
took them into the underworld, though, so Elori caused all of the dead to
go into a deep sleep.  Thus, death is a long sleep that lasts until the
end of the world, when the underworld will be broken open and the dead
awaken.

>
> YHL
>
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_