"Remember thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return..."

[sandyRoe]

Do these dreadful words not at least send a frisson of foreboding through the stoutest of sceptics here in R&S on this, Ash Wednesday?

[rowanwitch]

No some pagans tend to believe we are part of the cycle born of the earth to return to it in due time to decay and be re used

[4candles]

Er, no. Isn't it precisely what sceptics do believe?

[sandyRoe]

I took it to mean that the corporeal part of us returns to dust. The important part goes on to face the judgement.

[NOX]

No I'm a happy Heathen, we are born , live die and then we physically rot away whilst perhaps something of us that is left is reborn-I don't buy into the Christian idea of birth, death, heaven and hell at all I'm afraid.

[ludwig]

Nope. I'm quite happy to return to dust. I just don't want to be there when it happens (to coin a phrase).

[Stevee]

Whats Ash Wednesday got to do with death? So is it a wind up or ignorance?

[tenrec]

Dust is fine with me. I enjoy life.

[jackthehat]

"Excuse my dust" - D. Parker (& me)

[tonyav]

Well i liked Dusty Springfield.

[rowanwitch]

When I was younger I stopped an old lady in the street and said excuse me I hope you don't mind me saying but you've got a mark of something on your forehead...

[woofgang]

We are quite literally stardust. I for one am happy to thinkmthat the corporeal part of me came from the stars and will enrich this planet.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Dying has the potential to be bad, being dead doesn't matter one jot.

[woofgang]

True Waldorf, very true.

[jomifl]

Sandy, you will have to explain what relevance ash wednesday has to a 'sceptic'. The words are not 'dreadful', they a statement of fact, albeit somewhat poetic. You seem to have more fear of death than the non-believers and you have a place booked in heaven (allegedly), don't you find that rather strange?

[mibn2cweus]

The beauty in being dead is that the means by which one might be conscious of it are no longer functional. On a conscious level we are immortal in that upon death the capacity for knowing no longer exists. Being alive is the scary part in that therein lies an alternative.

[jomifl]

Exactly Mibs, what are all these disembodied souls going to do for eternity, glorify god?

[sandyRoe]

Jomifl, you question deserves a considered answer. I'll get back to it, if I may.

[cupid04]

Ash wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent.
There is loads more information on google but I know how much you lot
hate cutting and pasting. Good job I don't know how to do links, still!

[jomifl]

Take your time Sandy, you have an eternity to think about your reply.

[jomifl]

I should repent? for what? I think remorsefulness might fit the bill a bit better