Hello. I'm a 23 year old woman who was raised her whole life in a devoutly christian home. My father reads the bible everyday and talks about Jesus Christ all the time. Several of my siblings are christian, while a couple are not.
I have been struggling with religion my whole life. The logical side of me knows it doesn't make any sense. But my heart keeps telling me my parents can't be wrong. I feel so trapped, because Christianity goes against everything I believe in. For instance, I have a gay brother whom I care for very much and I can't fathom him going to hell for just loving another man.

I've studied the bible and I see so much hate and archaic reasoning. I've tried to force myself to believe in it, but I just can't. I'm honestly comfortable not being religious, but that fear of hell is still there. It's always in the back of my mind.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this, but I have no one else to talk to about this fear. How do I overcome this? How can I stop being so scared about hell, when I know it can't possibly be real?

I'm so angry that my parents raised me in this religion. I wish so much that I was born in a agnostic or atheist home so that I wouldn't be crippled with this fear of hell.

(January 2, 2015 at 9:33 pm)TaosFlower Wrote: Hello. I'm a 23 year old woman who was raised her whole life in a devoutly christian home. My father reads the bible everyday and talks about Jesus Christ all the time. Several of my siblings are christian, while a couple are not.
I have been struggling with religion my whole life. The logical side of me knows it doesn't make any sense. But my heart keeps telling me my parents can't be wrong. I feel so trapped, because Christianity goes against everything I believe in. For instance, I have a gay brother whom I care for very much and I can't fathom him going to hell for just loving another man.

I've studied the bible and I see so much hate and archaic reasoning. I've tried to force myself to believe in it, but I just can't. I'm honestly comfortable not being religious, but that fear of hell is still there. It's always in the back of my mind.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this, but I have no one else to talk to about this fear. How do I overcome this? How can I stop being so scared about hell, when I know it can't possibly be real?

I'm so angry that my parents raised me in this religion. I wish so much that I was born in a agnostic or atheist home so that I wouldn't be crippled with this fear of hell.

You remind me of myself when I was going from religious to atheist, I was also terrified by the idea of hell .
Don't worry that fear will eventually go away. The more you read on the topic, the more you'll feel that there is nothing to be afraid of in the first place .

Also, could you introduce yourself to us in the introduction sub ?

I understand. My family is very catholic. It took me a while to come out of it, I wanted to believe. But my morality prevented me. My sense of morality impels me to be honest. If I don't believe, then I don't. If you don't, then you don't.

For me, the fear of hell had to be dealt with first. If there is a god, then he would care most for justice. Would a just god do something so unjust as to send someone forever to torture for a finite crime? Of course not.

Well the bible is something hard to understand and have a whole hearted belief in and trust me.
I've been in your position and well don't worry too much. Trust me when i say this though a lot of the bible
was written by ancient man and through the ages people just added on and on to it. People just wanted to ad their own
lore into the bible and theists will argue that they added those things in because they were divinely inspired. The bible was used
as a tool during many times in history as a weapon and a tool for justification in killing people. Such as the crusades and inquisition etc.
The fear of hell i can understand its something that bothered me as a child and well a place such as that could not truly exist if god is all loving
why create a hell and why has god killed so many people. Truth is all abrahamic religions do not make any sense and if the god was real the bible wouldn't
be inconsistent or have contradictions. many will try to sell you the "truth" that the bible is gods word but in reality its a over glorified lie. Do not be afraid to be
agnostic embrace it also have a nice weekend.

(January 2, 2015 at 9:51 pm)Marsellus Wallace Wrote:

(January 2, 2015 at 9:33 pm)TaosFlower Wrote: Hello. I'm a 23 year old woman who was raised her whole life in a devoutly christian home. My father reads the bible everyday and talks about Jesus Christ all the time. Several of my siblings are christian, while a couple are not.
I have been struggling with religion my whole life. The logical side of me knows it doesn't make any sense. But my heart keeps telling me my parents can't be wrong. I feel so trapped, because Christianity goes against everything I believe in. For instance, I have a gay brother whom I care for very much and I can't fathom him going to hell for just loving another man.

I've studied the bible and I see so much hate and archaic reasoning. I've tried to force myself to believe in it, but I just can't. I'm honestly comfortable not being religious, but that fear of hell is still there. It's always in the back of my mind.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this, but I have no one else to talk to about this fear. How do I overcome this? How can I stop being so scared about hell, when I know it can't possibly be real?

I'm so angry that my parents raised me in this religion. I wish so much that I was born in a agnostic or atheist home so that I wouldn't be crippled with this fear of hell.

You remind me of myself when I was going from religious to atheist, I was also terrified by the idea of hell .
Don't worry that fear will eventually go away. The more you read on the topic, the more you'll feel that there is nothing to be afraid of in the first place .

Also, could you introduce yourself to us in the introduction sub ?

Oh yes, I'll do that now. I guess I got a bit ahead of myself.

And thank you for your reply. I appreciate it.

My wife went through much the same thing following her departure from the faith, but what she found was that non-belief came as a relief. Her life before, the reality she thought she inhabited, was populated by supernatural beings of almost uniform malevolence; demons and ghosts, magic that was derived from the devil, stuff like that. Her childhood came packed with nightmares and such based on that theme, and the world became a much less dangerous place when she realized that all those things the christians want to fill the world with didn't exist.

As to hell and if you're wrong, there's an easy solution to that; if you accept that hell as a concept is not based in evidence, then rationally you have unmoored yourself from reality as a limiting factor in considering things that are possible. In short, if you're afraid of hell while understanding that it's most likely bullshit, then you must also remember the infinity of other beliefs that have the same lack of evidence, but might be true. No matter what position you choose, atheist, theist of any stripe, whatever, you have exactly the same odds: one in infinity. Any manner of afterlife could be real, if you're not using evidence in your determinations, but are you afraid of, say, the hell of islam, because you might be wrong about that?

Or is it just the hell that you were tormented with as a child in order to get you to believe, that you're afraid of? Hell and the boogeyman: not very different, ultimately.

http://www.earlychristianhistory.info/hell.html

Here's a link (the first thing that came up in a google search) that describes the different iterations of hell with some possible origin of it's conception. It helped me to see that hell was just another man-made concept.

I'll be sure to welcome you in your introduction thread

Quote:But my heart keeps telling me my parents can't be wrong.

Yes, they can. Now. Move on with your life.

(January 2, 2015 at 10:28 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:But my heart keeps telling me my parents can't be wrong.

Yes, they can. Now. Move on with your life.

Listen this guy right here. ^ he is right.

(January 2, 2015 at 10:24 pm)Exian Wrote: http://www.earlychristianhistory.info/hell.html

Here's a link (the first thing that came up in a google search) that describes the different iterations of hell with some possible origin of it's conception. It helped me to see that hell was just another man-made concept.

I'll be sure to welcome you in your introduction thread

Thanks so much for the link. I've just started reading it and I hope it helps me like it did you.