Do you still fear hell?

[Lucifer]

I don't think you have to be mentally ill to have faith, just stupid will do it.

I think the biggest factor is indoctrination, not lack of intelligence or mental illness.

[Expired]

I don't think you have to be mentally ill to have faith, just stupid will do it.

I think the biggest factor is indoctrination, not lack of intelligence or mental illness.

Yeah, the biggest factor is get them while they are young, but holding on to faith in the face of all evidence is stupid IMO.

[RozKek]

I fear it as much as I ever have, which is not at all.

I remember having one very strange moment, maybe about 6 months ago, where hell suddenly seemed real. I felt I was going there, and I was frightened.

The moment passed and I returned to normal. How weird. It did give me a rare insight into what brains can be conditioned to feel.

It was god's wrath, he zapped your brain.

[Lucifer]

I think the biggest factor is indoctrination, not lack of intelligence or mental illness.

Yeah, the biggest factor is get them while they are young, but holding on to faith in the face of all evidence is stupid IMO.

I would not call it stupid. My experience is that it takes a lot of hard work to break many years of indoctrination, and many people just don't have the time to do that, because they have many other responsibilities in their lives and little time to research the basis of their beliefs. Or they don't have the environment that allows that. If people shame you for even questioning your beliefs, implying that you are weak, if they make you afraid to question, saying that you risk your eternal salvation, or saying that the devil is tempting you with his lies, or if any people who leave their religion our ridiculed, excluded and mocked and if you are living in a christian bubble, surrounded only by other christians... well, then it is hard to get out of religion. Unfortunately, this is all too common. Therefore, I empathize with christians. I feel lucky for having had the opportunity to get out, but I don't look down on those who are still religious.

[chimp3]

I fear the protestant heaven more than hell. Singing "A closer walk with Thee" in a Presbyterian choir forever and ever and ever. Ahhhhhh! It burns!

I also fear the Christian practice of burning people alive to show them a little taste of the hellfire to come.

[Expired]

Yeah, the biggest factor is get them while they are young, but holding on to faith in the face of all evidence is stupid IMO.

I would not call it stupid. My experience is that it takes a lot of hard work to break many years of indoctrination, and many people just don't have the time to do that, because they have many other responsibilities in their lives and little time to research the basis of their beliefs. Or they don't have the environment that allows that. If people shame you for even questioning your beliefs, implying that you are weak, if they make you afraid to question, saying that you risk your eternal salvation, or saying that the devil is tempting you with his lies, or if any people who leave their religion our ridiculed, excluded and mocked and if you are living in a christian bubble, surrounded only by other christians... well, then it is hard to get out of religion. Unfortunately, this is all too common. Therefore, I empathize with christians. I feel lucky for having had the opportunity to get out, but I don't look down on those who are still religious.

Nor do I look down upon them, but that does not stop me from having the opinion that faith is stupid. I fully understand the situation that some people find themselves in through no fault of their own, but I can not and will not empathize with people who hide behind faith. And yes it's a pity that this nonsense is still allowed to be ruining the lives of many people worldwide, but it will continue to do so until religion is treated with the contempt that it deserves.

[robvalue]

I fear it as much as I ever have, which is not at all.

I remember having one very strange moment, maybe about 6 months ago, where hell suddenly seemed real. I felt I was going there, and I was frightened.

The moment passed and I returned to normal. How weird. It did give me a rare insight into what brains can be conditioned to feel.

It was god's wrath, he zapped your brain.

How sweet of him! Like whipping a slave to keep them in line.

[RozKek]

It was god's wrath, he zapped your brain.

How sweet of him! Like whipping a slave to keep them in line.

Just be careful, he's not the most confident man.

[Mister Agenda]

Not a bit. It generally goes away after awhile. Saying 'God!' while having sex is harder to kick.

[Lek]

I don't understand why an atheist would fear hell.  If you're comfortable with no God then it would logically follow that there is no hell.