You’re refering to the seven laws of Noah (which include, among other things, not eating flesh off of a live animal. *Ewwww*) which were actually superceded by the 10 commandments. The 10 contain laws more dealing with interactions in a community than practices of individuals (although they did contain some community-related ones.) Jews have the 613 Mitzvot (which are actually defined as, “commandments” rather than “good deeds” as is often assumed to be the case.)

In fact, to the contrary. For non-Jews to get into heaven, they have to follow the 10 Commandments.

Actually gentiles only have “The seven Noachide laws” to follow, the 10 commandments are specifically for the Jews.

I’d argue there’s a big difference between wishful thinking and your musings on the future you’d be missing out on if you took your own life.

No one ever accomplished anything by sitting around engaging in wishful thinking …

Les, I’ve accomplished ‘staying alive’ by sitting around engaging in wishful thinking and fantasising about a future filled with ‘what ifs’ instead of carrying out any one of the many ways I’ve thought of killing myself.
Up until not too many years ago it was always first choice if I found myself in a position in which I was uncomfortable.
I’ve since been rather pleased with myself that I always managed to find less drastic courses of action.
I just recalled that at no time yesterday did I have it on the table as a choice, before, during or after I had a telephone-hook-up conference about a rather large increase to my Veterans Pension which will enable me more towards living rather than existing. I haven’t thought of giving up, yet.
It’s extremely rare that I waste time in the regret & guilt over past actions game.
I wouldn’t change a thing.
It’s cool. Fuck ‘em. I WILL survive
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2566269671806009973
Cracks me up every time I see it.

In any case, we appreciate you not bugging us!  That is very civilized.  How nice if other religions would pick up that meme.

One of the reasons we may not bug you is that we’re actually forbidden from preaching and actively trying to get conversions. I have a running joke that we’re currently hiring and we offer great benefits

I confess that my knowledge of the Jewish religion is not as in-depth as my knowledge of Christianity or even Islam so I may have made an error or two in my entry. The fact that they tend not to irritate me means I’ve not had much reason to focus my studies on their religion. It’s one of those branches of religious studies I keep meaning to spend more time on.

Les – The “Chosen People” term has nothing to do with no one else getting into heaven. In fact, to the contrary. For non-Jews to get into heaven, they have to follow the 10 Commandments. For Jews, we have 613 Commandments that we have to follow. Some, involving the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, are impossible to follow today.

Geekmom:…most Jews don’t believe in heaven and hell the way Christians do; there’s not a lot of “behave so that you can get rewarded

And the scientologists with their War Of The Worlds’ buried Martians’ cult.