Do you believe in hell?
- Thread starter SaintJoshy
- Start date
HoserHellspawn
Pixel Manipulator
Here's a scarier thought: What is to say we're not some other planet's heaven?
Hell is an abstract human concept - like all ideas, it exists within our minds and to take it's "existence" literally is the resulting sillyness of a religious society.
I believe hell exists as a relative description for everyday scenarios (Wall Mart parking lots, et al), but not as some kind of afterlife for the sinful.
(Oh, and you're right Trapped, if God does exist he's the cruelest dictator ever - a vengeful, petty, egocentric child-deity schizophrenic jackass. Run a search on posts by member name "Satori" for more input on this)
Lutz
Member
RETIREDTrapped
New Metal Member
- Sep 12, 2001
- 8,312
- 4
- 0
MetalManCPA
Papa Opeth
I've never felt I am the sandwich meat of those 2 pieces of bread everyone calls heaven and hell. And if there wages such a great battle between good and evil (God and Satan), where do they conduct their personal battles? - (unless someone tells me every war in mankind has been part of this battle)
We make our own personal little heaven and hells - that's about as far as it goes with me.
We make our own personal little heaven and hells - that's about as far as it goes with me.
Originally posted by Blackspirit
If there is heaven, there is hell.
Since I don't belieave in God and his heaven,
I don't believe in Satan's hell either. But of
course I wonder if there's something there....
If we have a soul I think it might go to a
heaven or a hell. Heaven being what you love
the most, hell being the eternal suffering.
Just picture everything you hate and you have
hell. But hell can also be right here on earth.
It's just how you lead your life...)
Couldn't have said it better, hell must be full of boybands
Sullen Jester
Corporate Executive
God/good and satan/bad?
They're opposites of the spectrum.
Without Satan, God wouldnt be "good" because they'res nothign to compare him to.
And how do we know that we haven't gotten "good and "evil" around the wrong way?
We cant. It's what you make of it.
They're opposites of the spectrum.
Without Satan, God wouldnt be "good" because they'res nothign to compare him to.
And how do we know that we haven't gotten "good and "evil" around the wrong way?
We cant. It's what you make of it.
YaYo
whendaydescends.com
- May 6, 2001
- 4,458
- 23
- 38
hell... its possible
but the way i see it, its impossible to talk about the validity of something you can know nothing about. If there is hell then there is hell and i wouldnt know about it. Since i dont know about it then there could be hell.
I do not know.
but the way i see it, its impossible to talk about the validity of something you can know nothing about. If there is hell then there is hell and i wouldnt know about it. Since i dont know about it then there could be hell.
I do not know.
Sadistik
Let me die in solitude...
No I don't believe in Hell. To deny Christianity is to deny all it's trappings as well. Those who claim that Christianity has no hold on them, and then proceed to base their moral judgements on the ideas of afterlife punishments have no clue...hell (and heaven) are used as instruments of fear to ensure the majority's compliance with the order of the few.
JesusChristPose
Logic Dictates
"Enter through the narrow gate. The gate is wide and the road is wide that leads to hell, and many people enter through that gate. But the gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to true life. Only a few people find that road."
Your above quote is a mixture of your beliefs with actual scripture. Not only that, the biblical quote that talks about the narrow gate and wide path has always been taken out of context by mainstream Christianity.
An argument from a biblical standpoint...
Do you even know what greek/hebrew/chaldean words are translated into the english term "hell?"
Probably not, in fact, most christians don't. They are sheep led to believe nonsensical misinterprated lies by a flawed shepard. So, let me give you a little schooling, from your own bible...
Hell is translated from these biblical words
Sheol
Hades
Gehenna
Tartaros
Each have different meanings, except Sheol/Hades which are practically the same.
Sheol/Hades - a grave, place of the dead.
Gehenna - In the Valley of Hinnom, a place where garbage, including dead bodies were burned during the time of Christ.
Tartaros - A greek word that means a place of darkness, reserved for the devil and his demon servants.
If I was to believe the bible, without any persuasion or brain-washing from the so-called the Founding Fathers and today's so-called spiritual giants...then here is what the bible teaches...
1. Only a very few of all the people whom have ever lived will suffer in a lake of fire.
2. That LoF is not eternal and those cast into it will be of human flesh and blood (Read Ezekial and his vision of the Valley of Bones).
3. When flesh and blood are consumed by the fire they will die a second death.
4. Death translated from the word thanatos = Non-existence. They will be no more, not suffering forever in a "hellfire."
Today's christian concept of "hell" was derived from 3 concepts.
1. The immortal soul as proclaimed by both Socrates and Plato - where upon the early church fathers accepted that belief held by non-christian greek philosophers.
2. The Divine Comedy, written by Dantes Aligieri...during the middle ages, when the majority of people were ignorant and uneducated, his wriiting of hell in The Inferno, was taken to be factual religious dogma.
3. The way the church can control the masses - by scaring you people into believing this false concept.
btw...remember, I am arguing from a biblical standpoint, that doesnt' mean that I still believe in the bible.
Dude all I did was post that to see what everyone believes. You dont have ot tell me what you think I believe . besides I already knew all those terms meant hell.
Sullen Jester
Corporate Executive
Isn't Hades the god of the underworld?
Hmm.
I don't really believe anything anymore. Most "beliefs" are spawned of one persons ideas. That one just occured to me yesterday. I never believed in anything before that, though, since I was Seven.
We have no evidence, no documented proof of a lot of things, and a lot of people believe in Christianity, hell, David Hasselhof, ghosts, etcetera.
I think.
Hmm.
I don't really believe anything anymore. Most "beliefs" are spawned of one persons ideas. That one just occured to me yesterday. I never believed in anything before that, though, since I was Seven.
We have no evidence, no documented proof of a lot of things, and a lot of people believe in Christianity, hell, David Hasselhof, ghosts, etcetera.
I think.
tenebrose
Ceramic Goddess
As I had to experience this weekend, hell is being trapped in a tiny car with synth-pop playing loudly on the stereo.... 
Satori
Destructosaur
The concept of "Hell" is perhaps the most ridiculous one that religion's have devised (except perhaps the premise that there is a sentient creator with a human-like mind who created the universe for the single purpose of giving us lowly humans a location from which to kiss and glorify its almighty ass). So if you disclude the idea that "god" (whatever that is) is a cruel, unethical, egocentric, and humanistic being, then "Hell" is the most innane concept to be literally spouted by those political masterminds who are responsible for the creation of such myths.
While this is all fine, humourous, and painfully obvious, there is something incredibly sad about this as well, which is: there are people on this earth right now who honestly and seriously live in dire FEAR of going to "hell". I feel so incredibly sorry for these people that it makes me sick to my stomach. Life is hard enough already without having this enourmous fear/burden to make it that much harder, something the fabricators of religion were too unethical to realize in their crazed drive for political/social dominance over their fellow human beings.
How, very, very sad. Life is too short, too sweet, and too difficult already without such idiocy weighing on the minds of the gullable. For those of you who can't imagine being trapped inside such a ridiculous and entirely psychologically damaging myth, try to think way back to when you were a child when you had fears of the boogey man living in your closet. If you can remember this, you remember how terrified, hopeless, and alone you felt. This is how our religiously-blinded comrades feel all the time, and that's not very pleasant.
Just like a child who fears the boogey man each night, the religious have their minds spinning with fears that chill them to their spine and they cannot escape these fears no matter how hard they try. What a horrible way to go through life, enslaved to a myth, terrified of your own thoughts, forever fearing "hell". My heart really goes out to them. You can sit down and explain to a child that the boogey man is a fabrication made by some bad parents and older siblings to scare them into submission, but unfortunately the religious are too blinded by their own irrationality and fear to listen to such reason, so in that sense, religious people are far less equipped than most children are to deal with their psychosis. Very sad. The only thing religious people can do to help them with their psychosis is to further negate their own logic and common sense and grasp even harder to the ridiculous myth which is causing them so much unnecessary anguish (which just deepens the problem and increases the extent of the psychosis).
Religion is a psychological trap from which escape is almost impossible, unlike children and the boogey man, no amount of common sense and reasoning will help them out of it, most are doomed to live out their entire lives in this consuming paranoia that will continually disrupt the quality of their lives until they die.
Freedom and happiness are so easily attained in our modern world and yet for most people irrational fear of an ancient and idiotic myth prevents them from ever really experiencing it. How truly, truly sad.
Satori
While this is all fine, humourous, and painfully obvious, there is something incredibly sad about this as well, which is: there are people on this earth right now who honestly and seriously live in dire FEAR of going to "hell". I feel so incredibly sorry for these people that it makes me sick to my stomach. Life is hard enough already without having this enourmous fear/burden to make it that much harder, something the fabricators of religion were too unethical to realize in their crazed drive for political/social dominance over their fellow human beings.
How, very, very sad. Life is too short, too sweet, and too difficult already without such idiocy weighing on the minds of the gullable. For those of you who can't imagine being trapped inside such a ridiculous and entirely psychologically damaging myth, try to think way back to when you were a child when you had fears of the boogey man living in your closet. If you can remember this, you remember how terrified, hopeless, and alone you felt. This is how our religiously-blinded comrades feel all the time, and that's not very pleasant.
Just like a child who fears the boogey man each night, the religious have their minds spinning with fears that chill them to their spine and they cannot escape these fears no matter how hard they try. What a horrible way to go through life, enslaved to a myth, terrified of your own thoughts, forever fearing "hell". My heart really goes out to them. You can sit down and explain to a child that the boogey man is a fabrication made by some bad parents and older siblings to scare them into submission, but unfortunately the religious are too blinded by their own irrationality and fear to listen to such reason, so in that sense, religious people are far less equipped than most children are to deal with their psychosis. Very sad. The only thing religious people can do to help them with their psychosis is to further negate their own logic and common sense and grasp even harder to the ridiculous myth which is causing them so much unnecessary anguish (which just deepens the problem and increases the extent of the psychosis).
Religion is a psychological trap from which escape is almost impossible, unlike children and the boogey man, no amount of common sense and reasoning will help them out of it, most are doomed to live out their entire lives in this consuming paranoia that will continually disrupt the quality of their lives until they die.
Freedom and happiness are so easily attained in our modern world and yet for most people irrational fear of an ancient and idiotic myth prevents them from ever really experiencing it. How truly, truly sad.
Satori
Belial
Rainbow Demon
No religion thread is complete without one of Satori's novel long essays.
This is now officially a legitimate religion thread.
This is now officially a legitimate religion thread.
Belial
Rainbow Demon
@Satori
This fear of hell also seems to be a drive for the religious activists to change the world to fit their view of Godliness. Notice how whenever there is a religious protest on something, the phrase "the whole world will go to hell for this" or something similar is repeated ad nauseum?
These people are so frightened of going to Hell that they wish to mold the whole world to fit their religion for fear that if others are going to Hell, they may be dragged down with them, thus they feel the need to force their "savior" down everyone elses throats and turn (American, at least) government into a Christian morality government.
This is the power of fear, my friend. It can consume you, eat you alive, and even act as feul for hatred and intolerence. I half-pity religious fanatics who take it upon themselves to "save" the world, and I have-despise them. It really is a shame that my daily life is affected by these people's fear of Hell.
This fear of hell also seems to be a drive for the religious activists to change the world to fit their view of Godliness. Notice how whenever there is a religious protest on something, the phrase "the whole world will go to hell for this" or something similar is repeated ad nauseum?
These people are so frightened of going to Hell that they wish to mold the whole world to fit their religion for fear that if others are going to Hell, they may be dragged down with them, thus they feel the need to force their "savior" down everyone elses throats and turn (American, at least) government into a Christian morality government.
This is the power of fear, my friend. It can consume you, eat you alive, and even act as feul for hatred and intolerence. I half-pity religious fanatics who take it upon themselves to "save" the world, and I have-despise them. It really is a shame that my daily life is affected by these people's fear of Hell.
Ethereal Sage
Mind Of Out Sight Of Out
As quite a few responses have put forward, I agree that belief in Heaven/Hell comes down to perception.
Some people see this physical existance as a utopia, they are happy with how they are treated here, and how they can get away with (mis)treating others. They are happy because this is all they know, trapped in their short-lived illusion with seemingly satisfying occurances.
As mentioned by Satori and others, religion is a tool used to control the masses. Unfortunately there are some genuine people who are trapped by the pressure and rhetoric splurged out by the religions, who use half-truths to form complete lies. Our minds have been bombarded and closed off so much, that most of us only perceive this physical illusion, where we supposedly 'work' most of our lives to grow, only to have it mean nothing in the end.
Also, the extremes of Heaven/Hell help the churches to commit you either way, you fully believe in the church, or you don't...which leads to: you have access toheaven if you believe what we say, or you are condemned to Hell if you don't. They can't allow you to believe in them a bit, because then they don't have total control over you, you become an enemy to them, a free-willed thinker.
As Trapped and HoserHellspawn started to touch on, Existance is more than 3 scenarios, being Earth, Heaven and Hell. There are more dimensions in between, where Satan/Devil/Evil/whatever has control over those that aren't purely divine. Satan is not on the same level as 'God', he is of a lower level, and has cut off levels below him. Which leads to the idea that those he does control are in somewhat of a Hell.
Some ask why 'God', being omniscient and omnipotent, can't just click 'His' fingers and get rid of Evil. If 'He' were to do that, our comparatively feeble minds would not be able to comprehend it, and would be damaged incomprehensibly by the event.
As Satori points out, religions imposing fears on their followers has major influential power. To stop and think for a second, by definition, 'God' is a being greater than humans. For 'Him' to be so insecure, to 'Himself' be so fearful that 'He' has to rule by fear, is just a totally innane concept. Maybe it leads to a socially unusual concept, that the 'God' of the Bible may not be all powerful as described.....maybe it is that the 'God' of the Bible is actually an usuper in diguise....
To sum up this current discourse, I see that this world is degrading faster with each passing hour, while the illusion of progression clouds our minds. Even if there isn't a Biblical 'Hell', we are certainly, as a world community, making one for ourselves.
All the above, In My Humble Perspective.
E.S.
P.S.: My sincere thanks to SaintJoshy for starting this interesting thread.
Some people see this physical existance as a utopia, they are happy with how they are treated here, and how they can get away with (mis)treating others. They are happy because this is all they know, trapped in their short-lived illusion with seemingly satisfying occurances.
As mentioned by Satori and others, religion is a tool used to control the masses. Unfortunately there are some genuine people who are trapped by the pressure and rhetoric splurged out by the religions, who use half-truths to form complete lies. Our minds have been bombarded and closed off so much, that most of us only perceive this physical illusion, where we supposedly 'work' most of our lives to grow, only to have it mean nothing in the end.
Also, the extremes of Heaven/Hell help the churches to commit you either way, you fully believe in the church, or you don't...which leads to: you have access toheaven if you believe what we say, or you are condemned to Hell if you don't. They can't allow you to believe in them a bit, because then they don't have total control over you, you become an enemy to them, a free-willed thinker.
As Trapped and HoserHellspawn started to touch on, Existance is more than 3 scenarios, being Earth, Heaven and Hell. There are more dimensions in between, where Satan/Devil/Evil/whatever has control over those that aren't purely divine. Satan is not on the same level as 'God', he is of a lower level, and has cut off levels below him. Which leads to the idea that those he does control are in somewhat of a Hell.
Some ask why 'God', being omniscient and omnipotent, can't just click 'His' fingers and get rid of Evil. If 'He' were to do that, our comparatively feeble minds would not be able to comprehend it, and would be damaged incomprehensibly by the event.
As Satori points out, religions imposing fears on their followers has major influential power. To stop and think for a second, by definition, 'God' is a being greater than humans. For 'Him' to be so insecure, to 'Himself' be so fearful that 'He' has to rule by fear, is just a totally innane concept. Maybe it leads to a socially unusual concept, that the 'God' of the Bible may not be all powerful as described.....maybe it is that the 'God' of the Bible is actually an usuper in diguise....
To sum up this current discourse, I see that this world is degrading faster with each passing hour, while the illusion of progression clouds our minds. Even if there isn't a Biblical 'Hell', we are certainly, as a world community, making one for ourselves.
All the above, In My Humble Perspective.
E.S.
P.S.: My sincere thanks to SaintJoshy for starting this interesting thread.
blakmetalemp
Armed to the teeeettthhh!
i was not going to post on this subject, except for that little Wal-Mart joke, but after reading everyones thoughts about god, heaven and hell, i agree with some and disagree with some and started to wonder what peoples thoughts are about where we come from. if people are going to hell or where ever or whatever or maybe just die and thats it, then where did we start from. i dont belive we "just happened", someone or something is the reason we are here in the first place. even if evolution is truely the way we as humans came about, where did it start? thin air? i doubt it. just like to know others opinions on the subject.
TheMindzI
Denial serves me
I don't believe in gods, heaven or hell of any kind.. and I don't believe in afterlife.. and I hate listening to ppl telling me that this life is actually a test and the "true" life lies after death..
