Do you still fear hell?

[Lucifer]

I have feared hell a lot, not just for myself, but (perhaps more) for friends (some of whom weren't christian), family and just for humans in general (because I did not want anyone to go there). It motivated a lot of my behavior. 

When I was doubting a lot, I was more afraid for my own salvation. When I lost my faith, there was still a bit of a lingering fear, because it was ingrained so deep in my from my childhood.

Now, 3 years after my deconversion, I have zero fear of hell left. None at all, I have no reason to take the possibility of it's existence seriously.

I sympathize with those with even stronger religious indoctrination, who have been threatened with hell throughout their lives and who still have vivid fears of hell decades after their deconversion. It is a terrible thing to do to your child.

So, do you still fear hell? How long did it take to get rid of it, or for those who didn't, how long ago was your deconversion?

[vorlon13]

How could 'hell' work ??

Seriously.


Demons? Torture machines? Lake of fire?

How does the infrastructure, energy, management, logistics and everything else work ??

Hell, what about sewers, sulfur emissions, replenishing supplies, noise abatement ??


Lava doesn't heat itself, how do they keep it molten ??

Supposedly, more people go there every day, so they will always need more personnel, more space, more equipment, how does all this happen ??


Isn't it just easier to realize the endless infinite eternal nonexistence you experienced before you were born will resume when you die ??

Religions are trying and failing at answering a stoooopid question we already know the answer to.

[purplepurpose]

I would say that state of non existance or death, which is best described as eternal dream without dreams that we often experience in our sleep is very horrible as well, because for our mind to stop experiencing world would be like a soft hell, if we to try to imagine such ending.

I was in faith, which spinned around karma - temporary torture in hell, which is much more just thing to say according to magical Gods justice.

[vorlon13]

how much broken glass could a demon realistically pound into your anus with a mallet anyhow ??

[purplepurpose]

how much broken glass could a demon realistically pound into your anus with a mallet anyhow ??

Hell is powered by magic. Demon grinds the body in to pieces, body regens with magic, then you repeat the process. Permanent death is mercy compared to this shit.

[abaris]

Short answer, no. Longer answer, I never did, since it didn't compute with the image of a benevolent god. Now cue the entrance of Drich and Godchild with their abyssmal version of christianity.

[Losty]

I don't, I did for a long time. Now...nope. Hell doesn't even make sense within religion, when you remove religion...it doesn't even exist.

[purplepurpose]

This is the proof of Gods existence.

[Faith No More]

To fear hell I would have to believe in the soul, and I find that notion absurd.

[Excited Penguin]

I have no fear of hell for the simple fact that it doesn't make any sense that we go "somewhere else" after we die. You can't process information without a brain and so when the brain dies, that's it. There's no reason to believe the exact configuration of every one of our minds teleports itself after death in some far away corner of the universe, or in another dimension, where the supposed creator of everything made hell so he could punish the non-believers and all the rest. That's just not how it works. We have worlds of information to put this "theory" to shame. The world has some structure to it, it doesn't always make sense or is intuitive, but it's a big leap to go from the strangeness of quantum physics(for example) to alternate dimensions where hells and heavens abound. It just doesn't fit, no matter how you try to think about it.

Well, there are more esoteric ideas, like the one that our world has a good chance of being a simulated one if you grant the possibility that we might one day simulate one ourselves(that would make it that much more probable that we are simulated as well), in which case a programmer might make up his own rules and even grant all that religious craziness existence, but hell would be the least of our problems in that scenario, so just don't worry about it. Just hope(pray) his boss doesn't catch him play our simulation on his computer and shuts the whole thing down.