Oh really? I believed wikipedia (or some other summary site that I googled out?) and found it weird, but then, who knows. Classical Chinese heritage or whatever, there may be may ways for some cultural memory like that to emerge...

Importantly tho, a parallel to Ayn Rand is not Buddhism or Christianity but rather a particular sect, church, pastor, conviction, or a type of piety. To say that you hate Islam, for example, is about as meaningful as hating German books, BOTH translated to and from German. Not a defendable position.

It means that it's OK to intensely dislike some types of religion, while liking others. You don't have to like darts just coz you love basketball. You don't have to pay respect to Ayn Rand just coz you like "The Hobbit", or books in general. That's OK.

And then on top of that, it makes you oddly irresponsible towards your environment. Eschatology is not necessarily better then rapture, it puts so many things outside of the frame of interest. For Paul it was all sex. For modern ppl, it's often climate, environment. Not sure I like that.

"eh, at some point we'll get good bodies, but these here are bad! See, they have cancer and all sorts of warts. Sex is just like that. And your thoughts as well. And dishes cooked in the style of non-believers". The idea of future theofication of flesh doesn't make you life-positive.

I am not sure tbh. I used to try to force myself to think so, because of the the idea that it accepts physicality as something good, as something not necessarily evil. Shifts the distinction between good and evil from dualistic to behavioral plane. But. Firstly, it doesn't prevent ppl from saying:

These are so awesome!!

Gosh, it's obviously the smallest of all the world's problems, but how abominably distasteful this is!..

Wait, do you find the problem in that it is lost from "pop christianity" these days, or do you find the problem in the original eschatological vision itself?

This belief (that is still canonical) always co-existed with some idea of a "temporary heaven" for saints though, as well as a hell and a purgatory (in Catholicism). Saints are _somewhere_ when you pray to them.

So it's not like the "temp heaven" didn't exist in middle ages. It was totally there!

I don't know neither of these women! But wow what a TIL! "British fascist aristocrat"! And they were like Kardashians of the 1930s?? Except smarter and weirder! Wow!