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

 Yoon Ha Lee wrote:

> >
> > > 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?
No second chances. But why couldn't God come to take us from Hell? To say it
with Ockham, if He did it, it'd *have* be a good thing. Some mystics
proposed a theory which holds that God loves us so much that He could never
let us in Hell.

> Arguably God has given us enough chances, and yet...the sheer
> irrevocability of the afterlife-notion boggles me sometimes.
>
> 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.
Well, this is true, but you don't have to be so dramatic. Being sinless is
impossible, thus we have to be mistaken. But this doesn't mean that our
mistakes always take us to Hell.

> This is mainly a Catholic notion, correct?
Yup.

> 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.
>
> YHL
Luca