This is strange. Explaining stuff to myself.

[Huggy Bear]

Of which God, tho? There are so many, and they have rather different priorities.

Not really, they all are pretty much derived from ancient Babylonian gods, that goes for the Catholic version of "mother Mary" aka "queen of heaven" also.

Jeremiah 7:18

children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

[Alex K]

Of which God, tho? There are so many, and they have rather different priorities.

Main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Muslims offer potential hell in afterlife for selfish life.

It depends how you interpret them and what you mean by selfish. Jesus preaches to leave your family because they are not as worthy of your attention than he, and join him. Sounds pretty selfish to me.

[purplepurpose]

Main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Muslims offer potential hell in afterlife for selfish life.

It depends how you interpret them and what you mean by selfish. Jesus preaches to leave your family because they are not as worthy of your attention than he, and join him. Sounds pretty selfish to me.

According to the idealistic story described in the bible, Jesus, had only a "good fight" in his mind, no selfishness. He wanted only selflessness and even trough lies wanted to provoke as many people as possible to join his path.

Story is pretty, like superman fairy tale is.

[Alex K]

It depends how you interpret them and what you mean by selfish. Jesus preaches to leave your family because they are not as worthy of your attention than he, and join him. Sounds pretty selfish to me.

According to the idealistic story described in the bible, Jesus, had only a "good fight" in his mind, no selfishness. He wanted only selflessness and even trough lies wanted to provoke as many people as possible to join his path.

Story is pretty, like superman fairy tale is.

How do you come to this interpretation?

[Crossless2.0]

It depends how you interpret them and what you mean by selfish. Jesus preaches to leave your family because they are not as worthy of your attention than he, and join him. Sounds pretty selfish to me.

According to the idealistic story described in the bible, Jesus, had only a "good fight" in his mind, no selfishness. He wanted only selflessness and even trough lies wanted to provoke as many people as possible to join his path.

Story is pretty, like superman fairy tale is.

Jesus had a lot more than a selfless "good fight" in mind. He appears to have believed some version of the eschatological ideas that were current in some strands of 1st Century Judaism: about the dawning Kingdom, the separation of the wheat from the chaff, and a hell from which one needed to be saved. And it was all happening -- who knows? -- really soon!

I think it is in that context that one must try to understand his thoughts on family (and perhaps ritual observance, too).

Salvation, being a child of the Kingdom rather than one of the damned . . . such concerns aren't exactly selfless.

[robvalue]

I really wouldn't worry about Jesus. He was just another loony preacher, if he existed at all. The words put into his mouth are not original, neither is his fictional narrative. The good ideas he gave are just common sense morality, and the rest is garbage that Christians ignore on a daily basis. Most of his advice was based on the fact that the world was about to end, and so it was important to shed your possessions and earthly ties. This makes it very bad advice now considering that didn't happen, and isn't about to.

If you want to be a good person, just don't hurt others, and look out for other people. There doesn't need to be any appeasement of external beings involved, whether they exist or not. They can take care of themselves, I'm sure. And any decent "God" would respect us trying to live a good life, without having to spend our time crawling around doing things just to reiterate how much more powerful and kind it is than us.

I've heard it's very common for fear of hell to persist after religious belief has been lost. It's an insidious psychological tool used to scare the brain into obedience, and emotions are bound to linger. In most cases I've heard, it fades over time, at least to some extent.

I consider indoctrinating children with the idea of hell to be disgusting and extremely damaging.

I'm not sure what you mean by "live selfishly". Maybe you could elaborate. As far as I'm concerned, if you're not hurting anyone, then do whatever you want.

I saw documentary about Detroit on youtube, homeless man there told that "gangs are recruiting young children and "initializating" them by demanding them to kill someone. And his neighbors, homeless people, are used for that "initialization".

That's extreme. Almost same shit nazis did to their country out of desperation.

That is indeed absolutely horrific. An even more extreme form of indoctrination into a certain lifestyle.

[Little Rik]

Of which God, tho? There are so many, and they have rather different priorities.

Main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Muslims offer potential hell in afterlife for selfish life.

Hum.
Something new to me that Buddhists and Hindus believe in hell.
Can you please tell me where you got this information from?  

[purplepurpose]

Main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Muslims offer potential hell in afterlife for selfish life.

Hum.
Something new to me that Buddhists and Hindus believe in hell.
Can you please tell me where you got this information from?  

There are many shades of Hinduism and Buddhism. I heard about the ones that believe in hell.

---

According to the idealistic story described in the bible, Jesus, had only a "good fight" in his mind, no selfishness. He wanted only selflessness and even trough lies wanted to provoke as many people as possible to join his path.

Story is pretty, like superman fairy tale is.

How do you come to this interpretation?

Chatted to believers who portray Jesus and other saints as perfect. Their point was that "even if saints like, Jesus, lie to people about armageddon and hell, in order to provoke "good deeds"/sacrifices of wealth for the common good/save soul, then in those believers minds, it was the right thing to do.

Basically, Saints, are like angels, who even lie in order to do more good.

[Little Rik]

Hum.
Something new to me that Buddhists and Hindus believe in hell.
Can you please tell me where you got this information from?  

There are many shades of Hinduism and Buddhism. I heard about the ones that believe in hell.

Do you realize that karma and hell are the two opposite?
Karma is all about rehabilitation and this is what Hindus and Buddhists believe while hell is there for eternal punishment and rehabilitation is off.  
How the HELL can Buddhists and Hindu believe in the two opposite things at the same time?
Get your information correct Mister or you will end up in the ridicule.

[Crossless2.0]

Main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Muslims offer potential hell in afterlife for selfish life.

Hum.
Something new to me that Buddhists and Hindus believe in hell.
Can you please tell me where you got this information from?  

That was news to me, too. But then I found this:

Naraka (Sanskrit: नरक) is the Sanskrit word for the underworld; literally, of man. According to some schools of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism, Naraka is a place of torment, or Hell. The word 'Neraka' (modification of Naraka) in Indonesian and Malaysian has also been used to describe the Islamic concept of Hell.

So . . . yeah. There are so many strands of Hinduism and Buddhism, I suppose some ideas -- such as Naraka being in some sense a place or state of torment in the afterlife -- might have gained currency among some believers. But I certainly don't recall Buddha, for example, being said to have talked about this. And the idea seems to fly in the face of Karma/reincarnation.

Considering the enormous area over which Buddhism, especially, spread, it's not really that surprising, I suppose. It's probably not much different than Western religions spreading over a wide area and absorbing local beliefs/customs along the way. The absorbed ideas might not be accepted as orthodox, but they may become a part of some communities' approach to the "mother faith" into which they are absorbed.