I was never bothered by hell as a christian. I didn't grow up thinking that we're all sentenced to hell by default, and we have to work towards getting out of it. I was under the impression that bad people went to hell, and good people went to heaven. I was a good kid, so I wasn't worried about hell. Also nobody really went over what's supposed to happen down there, though the mainstream view is a lake of fire. My learning was about the nice fluffy parts.

(July 18, 2015 at 6:21 pm)Iroscato Wrote:

(July 18, 2015 at 6:14 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: You made some good points but why did the Romans use a silly Jewish fairy tale as their vehicle instead of some Roman fairy tale?

At the time, the empire was so massive that it had required more than one emperor.  A significant portion of the Roman army was Christian.  Whoever had the allegiance of the army stood to control everything. 

When I was religious, I saw Hell as a temporary place where everyone goes after they die, spend some time being punished and then go to onto Heaven a better person. I'm sure there are numerous flaws in this logic but eh, I was a naive teenager

It's not too bad an idea to send everyone to a place to kind of have the sins burned off. Your time spent there could be proportional to your deeds on earth, so a really good person wouldn't suffer long. Unfortunately this relies on a system that prioritized deeds over belief, which christianity obviously doesn't. Even in places where it says deeds are important, allegiance to Yahweh/Jesus is top priority.

Yooloo, you're a nice person, you're going to heaven while "Rihanna" goes to hell!
Are you sure that's where you want to be!

(July 18, 2015 at 7:07 pm)Yeauxleaux Wrote:

Also Angelina Jolie is an atheist? Since when? Omg I love her so much

Captain Kirk is an atheist? Makes sense. He gets a lot of ass--and doesn't feel guilty later.

(July 18, 2015 at 7:07 pm)Yeauxleaux Wrote:

Also Angelina Jolie is an atheist? Since when? Omg I love her so much

I thought Natalie Portman was Jewish.  Not just culturally, but religiously.

there's at least 10 jews.

(July 18, 2015 at 7:14 pm)Thena323 Wrote:

(July 18, 2015 at 6:21 pm)Iroscato Wrote: At the time, the empire was so massive that it had required more than one emperor.  A significant portion of the Roman army was Christian.  Whoever had the allegiance of the army stood to control everything. 

The focus was on why the the Romans created Christianity based upon the ethnocentric Jewish religious fairy tale instead of creating an universal  Roman religion.

(July 18, 2015 at 7:22 pm)Yeauxleaux Wrote: When I was religious, I saw Hell as a temporary place where everyone goes after they die, spend some time being punished and then go to onto Heaven a better person. I'm sure there are numerous flaws in this logic but eh, I was a naive teenager

That's actually the biblical pov.  Being in hell is just temporary; everyone gets out on Judgment Day.  Even Jesus went to hell.  According to the fairy tale you can go to hell and end up in the golden cube, but only if you're a member of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.