How do I not fear hell?

[Rev. Rye]

I would weigh the eivdence put forth for hell.

Once you see that it is nil, there's notithing to fear.

But my parents and over half the world think there's some eternal torture after death, even after all the scientific knowledge has become readily available to people.

Think about this: Here's a quote from James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man where a priest is giving a description of Hell.

Last and crowning torture of all the tortures of that awful place is the eternity of hell. Eternity! O, dread and dire word. Eternity! What mind of man can understand it? And remember, it is an eternity of pain. Even though the pains of hell were not so terrible as they are, yet they would become infinite, as they are destined to last for ever. But while they are everlasting they are at the same time, as you know, intolerably intense, unbearably extensive. To bear even the sting of an insect for all eternity would be a dreadful torment. What must it be, then, to bear the manifold tortures of hell for ever? For ever! For all eternity! Not for a year or for an age but for ever. Try to imagine the awful meaning of this. You have often seen the sand on the seashore. How fine are its tiny grains! And how many of those tiny little grains go to make up the small handful which a child grasps in its play. Now imagine a mountain of that sand, a million miles high, reaching from the earth to the farthest heavens, and a million miles broad, extending to remotest space, and a million miles in thickness; and imagine such an enormous mass of countless particles of sand multiplied as often as there are leaves in the forest, drops of water in the mighty ocean, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on animals, atoms in the vast expanse of the air: and imagine that at the end of every million years a little bird came to that mountain and carried away in its beak a tiny grain of that sand. How many millions upon millions of centuries would pass before that bird had carried away even a square foot of that mountain, how many eons upon eons of ages before it had carried away all? Yet at the end of that immense stretch of time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun. And if that mountain rose again after it had been all carried away, and if the bird came again and carried it all away again grain by grain, and if it so rose and sank as many times as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, drops of water in the sea, leaves on the trees, feathers upon birds, scales upon fish, hairs upon animals, at the end of all those innumerable risings and sinkings of that immeasurably vast mountain not one single instant of eternity could be said to have ended; even then, at the end of such a period, after that eon of time the mere thought of which makes our very brain reel dizzily, eternity would scarcely have begun.

Now as you read this question, think about this: how do you reconcile the idea of eternal torture with the idea of an all-knowing, all-powerful, benevolent being? The creator of this must have had the idea of making Auschwitz seem like a tropical resort. If God is responsible for this, how good can he be?

[Mr. Moncrieff]

George Carlin in my head...

"But he loves you! "

[TaraJo]

How is hell supposed to hurt you? If you're dead, you have no nerves and nerves are necessary to feel pain. I mean, what would really be left of a person with no nervous system altogether?

Anyway, I fear Christian hell about as much as I fear Muslim hell or being reincarnated as a hungry ghost. Which is to say, none of them really scare me that much. If you're still scared, take comfort that a just, loving god would never send someone to eteral torture simply for seeking answers and truth. If any god would do that, we're dealing with a pretty warped diety and if you're that messed up, perhaps his idea of hell would be pretty damn cool and their idea of heaven would be horrible.

[Mr. Moncrieff]

How is hell supposed to hurt you? If you're dead, you have no nerves and nerves are necessary to feel pain. I mean, what would really be left of a person with no nervous system altogether?

Anyway, I fear Christian hell about as much as I fear Muslim hell or being reincarnated as a hungry ghost. Which is to say, none of them really scare me that much. If you're still scared, take comfort that a just, loving god would never send someone to eteral torture simply for seeking answers and truth. If any god would do that, we're dealing with a pretty warped diety and if you're that messed up, perhaps his idea of hell would be pretty damn cool and their idea of heaven would be horrible.

Amazing post!

[Cyberman]

As one who has posted some pretty depressing threads myself, I have to say that if the OP is genuine, then this thread has to be in the running for the saddest I've ever read.

If your parents said the moon is made out of cheese and Barack Obama is a secret vampire, would you believe that?

If that's what they based their life around and still acted as normal as they do now, I would consider it.

This says it all.

---

I still don't get how some can apparently delute themselves that much. I mean, my grandparents weren't this hardcore as far as I know (I KNOW my mother's parents weren't)

I trust you accept that the world is spherical? You could set off in one direction and eventually get back to where you started, right? I mean, the evidence is quite literally beyond question - explorers have circumnavigated the globe thousands of times over the centuries, astronauts have taken photographs and video footage and so on. I think it's fairly safe to say at this point that anyone in this day and age who denies the reality of a spherical Earth is either delusional, gullible or has an ulterior motive (or some combination of the three), yes?

Meet the Flat Earth Society.

[SteelCurtain]

Meet the Flat Earth Society.

My goodness. My fucking goodness.

[TaraJo]

How is hell supposed to hurt you? If you're dead, you have no nerves and nerves are necessary to feel pain. I mean, what would really be left of a person with no nervous system altogether?

Anyway, I fear Christian hell about as much as I fear Muslim hell or being reincarnated as a hungry ghost. Which is to say, none of them really scare me that much. If you're still scared, take comfort that a just, loving god would never send someone to eteral torture simply for seeking answers and truth. If any god would do that, we're dealing with a pretty warped diety and if you're that messed up, perhaps his idea of hell would be pretty damn cool and their idea of heaven would be horrible.

Amazing post!

Well, I'm glad I can post well enough while drunk that I can still get applause from you. Thank you.

[Assimilate]

my thoughts on hell...

[Clueless Morgan]

How can someone decieve themselves into believing God speaks to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

How can someone deceive themselves into believing Allah speaks to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

How can someone deceive themselves into believing Vishnu speaks to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

How can someone deceive themselves into believing Apollo speaks to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

How can someone deceive themselves into believing Quetzalcoatl speaks to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

How can someone deceive themselves into believing Loki speaks to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

How can someone deceive themselves into believing The Dagda speaks to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

How can someone deceive themselves into believing Peklenc speaks to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

How can someone deceive themselves into believing their ancestors speak to them? It seems far-fetched for a sane person to believe this is true unless there's something more to it.

Do you see a trend?

---

If your parents said the moon is made out of cheese and Barack Obama is a secret vampire, would you believe that?

Why not? Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter.

[horrido]

Wow, lots of flippant answers to a very serious question. I was raised a christian, gave it up when I was a teenager, was a 'must be some kind of god' type for years, and became a 'strong atheist' 10 years latter. Here I am 30 years latter, and still occasionally (although very rarely) think about it.

Now, I struggle with a more realistic problem. My ex-wife is a Christian who has insisted on taking our 10yo son to Church. 6 years ago, right after our divorce, I discovered she planned to indoctrinate him, despite my objections. When I voiced my objections, informed her that I had 50% custody (both legal and physical), her response was that 'no judge is going to side with you' on this issue.

And boy, was she right - no need to waist any time finding out, so I rolled over.

Now I'm trying to figure out a way to prevent my son from having to go through years of self doubt and fear ala the 'will I go to hell?' question.

We live in a society where my son is being indoctrinated into a cult that worships a symbol of execution, practices symbolic cannibalism, tells children they are worthless and sinners, teaches children that people who don't think the same deserve to be tortured forever, says we should kill gay people, says slavery is okay, ect ect ect. Here we are, and a judge would side with my wife, despite our divorce contract saying otherwise. I have no recourse except to teach my son critical thinking. I'm confident I can win this battle, but fear that my son will have to deal with the years of self doubt and fear I struggled with. Is there a way to prevent that?