I had hope for something more than that though.

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The logic train ran off the tracks when Elvish Crack Piper said:
How do you keep a class like that from turning into a pulpit? What kind of text are you going to use to teach it? What are the goals from the class? All religions are basically the same? All religions are similiar and here are some massive glaring differences? Are we just going to gloss over the nasty stuff?

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A proper religious studies class with look at various religions, though obviously concentrating on the popular ones. There's a lot to learn about history and culture from studying religions; you can't ignore the good or bad effect of religions on either really. If the teacher/professor is half decent, they'll keep the class objective. You can't cover every religion, but you shouldn't brush off a religious studies class just because you think it'll inevitably turn into a pulpit.

At least this is from my person experiences of taking various religious classes from grammar school (CCD) through college (where I had to take one part of the honor's college at Rutgers). Probably the best religious education I got was in high school, where we studied multiple religions and looked at the Bible objectively. And this was in a Catholic high school, though admittedly the priests were Jesuits, AKA the heathen priests of Christianity.

I dont actively believe in a god. I also dont actively disbelieve in a god. Religion simply has no place in my life, so it is something I just dont think about. I dont acknowledge a higher power because I have no reason why I should.

I have opinions on what happens after death, of course, as does everyone. Technically, I guess you could say I believe in reincarnation. It goes like this:

You die.

You decompose, returning nutrients and matter to the soil.

Grubs/worms/larvae refine that matter in the soil.

The matter is then used by various plants to grow.

Plants are eaten by herbivorous animals.

The animals are killed and eaten by carnivorous animals.

Said carnivorous animals might, in fact, be humans.

In the end, you become part of another creature, completing the cycle of rebirth, albeit through the multiple deaths of several organisms.

As for a 'soul' or a surviving consciousness, I have my doubts. I find it hard to believe that there is a place that all souls go to upon termination. Can you imagine the scope of a place like that? We have six billion people on earth at this moment. We have several places where overcrowding is an issue. If you think about the sheer number of people that have ever lived on earth, and will ever live on earth, and then try to put them all somewhere?

I would take oblivion over that, thank you.

Let us say, for the sake of argument, that there is an afterlife. Why do you expect it to be a physical place? Under the assumption that there is a god, for the sake of this particular argument, could this god not possibly create things that we as humans cannot grasp?

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Check out the big brain on Gadani!
Azakias, you're still thinking in terrestrial terms.

Let us say, for the sake of argument, that there is an afterlife. Why do you expect it to be a physical place? Under the assumption that there is a god, for the sake of this particular argument, could this god not possibly create things that we as humans cannot grasp?

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Thats possible, if you are of the mind to believe it. The problem I have with that arguement is that the very basis of it is asking a person to accept something that is beyond their present scope of comprehension.

But this would also be a touchy area for an arguement. For me to accept that a god can do something like create an incorporeal world where volume and mass have little significance, it would also require me to believe that a diety somewhere has powers to do something that cannot be explained by any means we have before us. But to me, because our understanding of the world is constantly evolving, I find little proof of something like that.

For example: a thousand years ago, an eclipse was the work of god. Now, we know it is a chance alignment of heavenly bodies.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I have a hard time taking an arguement seriously when all it entails is the idea that something I beyond my ability to experience and intellectually grasp MIGHT happen after I die.

By the way, I'm not trying to be inflammitory. Its hard not to sound rude when argueing beliefs.