Eternal Hell

[themonkeyman]

Hi Folks,

I have been thinking about the Concept of hell more and more and it appears to me with all my reading that there are only two religions that offer the Concept of an 'ETERNAL' Hell.

1. Christianity
   
2. Islam
   

Can someone please tell me if they have found other religions that teach Eternal Suffering, It seams strange that these two are the only two religions that offer this concept.

The question then arises with Pascals Wager in that providing all other religions have less severe Hell's e.g. 1 Year / Forgiveness in the End then the Gamble is getting it wrong with these two.

The other aspect of this is the fact that Islam teach that you will goto Hell permanently for not believing in God i.e. worshiping Jesus.

And Christianity is the inverse of this so its literally a coin toss.

What are your thoughts?

[Captain Colostomy]

The only 'eternal' hell worth fearing is if your mother-in-law moves in with you. *shudders, spits over right shoulder, hides wife's phone*



Eh, nothing gains converts like fear. Quite the control mechanism, that.

[Zen Badger]

The only 'eternal' hell worth fearing is if your mother-in-law moves in with you. *shudders, spits over right shoulder, hides wife's phone*



Eh, nothing gains converts like fear. Quite the control mechanism, that.

Actually, my mother in law thinks I'm wonderful.

[houseofcantor]

It's like them nerds getting picked on in high school plotting an ever more vindictive revenge for wrongs both real and imagined. It has nothing to do with nothing other than stumbling over a good marketing strategy.

[Drich]

Hi Folks,

I have been thinking about the Concept of hell more and more and it appears to me with all my reading that there are only two religions that offer the Concept of an 'ETERNAL' Hell.

1. Christianity
   
2. Islam
   

Can someone please tell me if they have found other religions that teach Eternal Suffering, It seams strange that these two are the only two religions that offer this concept.

The question then arises with Pascals Wager in that providing all other religions have less severe Hell's e.g. 1 Year / Forgiveness in the End then the Gamble is getting it wrong with these two.

The other aspect of this is the fact that Islam teach that you will goto Hell permanently for not believing in God i.e. worshiping Jesus.

And Christianity is the inverse of this so its literally a coin toss.

What are your thoughts?

If you look beyond the beliefs of pop christianity, and only read what the bible says about Hell you will find that Hell is eternal, but the bible does not say we are. The eternal fires of Hell were prepared for Satan and his brothers. In some of the parables Jesus talks about us in Hell (Wheat/Weeds, Wheat/Chaff) In those parables we were being consumed by the fires of Hell. Then again in Mat 10:28 Christ directly says:
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

If you do a simple word search of Hell in the bible you will note that no where in it will you see that 'we' are meant to spend an eternity there. That said I do believe that out time there will largly be dependant on the tiype of person we are. For example a Hitler will spend more time there than, some smow who just couldn't get right.

http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?sea...rtnumber=1

[Godlesspanther]

Hi Folks,

I have been thinking about the Concept of hell more and more and it appears to me with all my reading that there are only two religions that offer the Concept of an 'ETERNAL' Hell.

1. Christianity
   
2. Islam
   

Can someone please tell me if they have found other religions that teach Eternal Suffering, It seams strange that these two are the only two religions that offer this concept.

The question then arises with Pascals Wager in that providing all other religions have less severe Hell's e.g. 1 Year / Forgiveness in the End then the Gamble is getting it wrong with these two.

The other aspect of this is the fact that Islam teach that you will goto Hell permanently for not believing in God i.e. worshiping Jesus.

And Christianity is the inverse of this so its literally a coin toss.

What are your thoughts?

Wrong. If you look it up there are many many types of hells from different cultures, past and present, from all over the world. It is nothing like a coin toss.

You are going to hell. I don't care who you are, what you do, or what you believe -- according to some people you are definitely going to hell. There is no way around that. Conservative Muslims think that all Christians go to hell. Conservative Catholics think that all Protestants go to hell. According to the Amish you go to hell for driving a car or using a telephone. According to Fred Phelps you go to hell for not being Fred Phelps. You are going to hell.

There is some good news. There is no hell. Hell is a joke. Pascal's Wager is a joke.

Hell is an authoritarian concept derived to maintain control over people. It has been effective in the past -- fortunately today our society is advanced enough that there are just a few weirdos here and there who take that bullshit seriously. Sane and rational people don't ever worry about it ever.

[Chad32]

Nah, Hitler's in heaven because he was a God fearing catholic. Didn't you know that?

The Greeks had Tartarus and the Elysian Fields. I'm not sure if one can move from one to the other. That guy moving the boulder seems to think he can leave if he can just get it to the top.

I have heard that the bible speaks more of destroying the soul, instead of torturing it, but most christians seem to believe it's a place of eternal torture/separation. Of course if you tell an atheist that cessation of existence will happen one way or another, either because he doesn't believe in souls, or because it will be destroyed because of unbelief, it's unlikely that s/he'll be converted.

[Drich]

Nah, Hitler's in heaven because he was a God fearing catholic. Didn't you know that?

Actually He wasn't. (Even if he were that would not mean anything in of itself. As per his actions/condition of his heart.) In the first part of Nazi Rule, the Party used the church as a means to distribute and control the German people, but as the Party gain power through spies and the gestapo worship at any church for party leaders and their families were 'verboden.'(forbiden.)

I have heard that the bible speaks more of destroying the soul, instead of torturing it, but most christians seem to believe it's a place of eternal torture/separation.

Because it was built for the purpose, as a way to imprision Satan and his brothers.

[Chad32]

I've just heard that they had a religious phrase on their belts, and Hitler was catholic. Also the most important thing is belief in God, and that's what get you in, despite anything else that you do. Though I also heard he killed himself.

It's just odd that Hitler, being a christian, had more of a chance of getting into Heaven than Ghandi, being a hindu.

[Godlesspanther]

I've just heard that they had a religious phrase on their belts, and Hitler was catholic. Also the most important thing is belief in God, and that's what get you in, despite anything else that you do. Though I also heard he killed himself.

It's just odd that Hitler, being a christian, had more of a chance of getting into Heaven than Ghandi, being a hindu.

And James Dobson made special effort to convert the serial killer, Ted Bundy to xtianity. So Bundy is, according to the lunatics, is in heaven and Ghandi is in hell.

The whole construct of hell can only be utterly immoral.