Irational fear of hell still naggs me from time to time

[chimp3]

Just put me in Paradise but put a Carpenters song in my head that won't go away. "We've only just begun...." Make Paradise an eternal hell! Oh, the irony!

[LastPoet]

[Succubus]

I appreciate everyone's answers, but I am still wondering, why do you all think that hellish ndes seem to mention demonic creatures torturing them? I mean, that's not something religion teaches, and it is not something most people with asscociate with hell.

Demonic imagery has been associated with Hell for a long time. Here is the third triptych from Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights":



This is over 500 years old. Priests have been trying to keep their sheep in line with big, bad wolf stories for a long, long time. For all of us born in the 20th century we have all seen scary demon movies too.

"A temple was worth a dozen barracks; a militia man carrying a gun could control a small unarmed crowd only for as long as he was present; however, a single priest could put a policeman inside the head of every one of their flock, for ever."

Matter. Iain M Banks.

[Little lunch]

He's my favourite author.

[Succubus]

The first time I read those few lines they were etched into my mind. A beautiful writer, and like Hitchens, his death is a great loss.

[ignoramus]

And another advantage to hell working this way is a damned individual spends more time in the infinitely punished state.  Die and zip, you're infinitely punished and get to look forward to an infinite duration of already being infinitely tormented, INSTEAD of building up to that infinitely tormented state after an infinite amount of time.

See how much more a given soul will suffer with this plan??  It's infinitely more suffering over the other kind of hell.
And that's the idea, after all, why accept a lesser, less effective and less efficient hell ??


Demand the best !!!

Vorls, in my custom modified Greek Orthodox hell, everyday we all have to eat Greek salad with Spanish olives and Danish Fetta! Fuck That! Just burn me now!

[Sal]

I can't really write anything that will ease any irrational fear.

I have a crippling fear of heights, to the extent that only a 2 meter tall crevice or other drop will make me fearful. I avoid heights to such a large extent, I can't even go up a ladder without being filled with fear. I can't talk my way out of it, only thing I really can do, is act in spite of my fears - same with fear of Hell, I reckon.

[Drich]

Being a young adult, the idea of hell doesn't really make a whole lot of sense- yet I still fear it! I think it makes sense that the concept would have been created to scare people into being law abiding citizens in a era where law didn't exist. There was no police to stop them, so fear was the only surefire method. Today, people still buy into the fear. Although this explanation makes the most sense, I still fear the concept, that if I don't believe and I end up being incorrect, that I may suffer an afterlife of torture. Some of my fear stems from a few videos and books I have read about people who make the claim that they visited hell-- I KNOW! Being a young adult I should know better than to buy into some propaganda online or in a book, but for me, it's easier said than done. I want to let go of this, but I feel the best way to do this is to write down why I fear it, and deduce some logical conclusions with the help of others on a site where religion isn't the primary focus. On the contrary, logic is the primary focus.
I saw a few videos where people either had a Near Death Experience, or had a dream that they visited hell. What I found to be somewhat frightening was the fact that many people described the same concepts in their versions of hell. Commonly, they were:
- fire and brimstone
- demons which look like reptiles that attack them
- the people who say they went to hell often report being put into a cage or a cube
- they hear other people suffering and whaling
- often they get burnt or beaten, and when they lose a piece of skin or a body part, it grows back and they get tortured again.
Now, I know this all sounds like some fairy tale, but I saw at least 10 accounts like this. I don't know what to make of it. I know the concept of fire can be found as early as Augistine in the 300s or 400s, and I know the bible implies torment to those who do badly in their lives. Much of the imagery isn't too much of a shock there, but the idea that people report a multitude of cases seeing demons which they report look similar among accounts, and often torture or laugh at people suffering is what I cannot understand. Being raised Christian, I always had an image of what hell may look like. I could totally imagine how my brain during a Near death experience or a dream could create most of the fire and suffering imagery, but I would never expect hell to be filled with demons who look like reptiles. I asked some of my Christian friends, and they say the same thing. Why then, is this demon thing so consistent across "hellish" experiences? If I could get a logical answer to that, then I would be willing to say that these experiences are nothing more than a brain that is scared and confused trying to fill in the gaps during an episode. Does anyone have a plausible explanation here? It would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks and have a great day,
Arsoo

Been to Hell or at least to the Gates and let me help aliveiate some of your fears... The catholic/dante's inferno version is crap.

1) you don't have to worry about fire as being a flame, and before I went I never understood brimstone but I do know what it is now.. it is like sulfur's version of lava, which gives off a smell that will take the very breath out of your lungs. but before I knew that from a documentry I experienced something like that in my trip through the gates. how ever it was not fire, but hell fire which meant it gave off no light. the reason we compare hell fire to fire is because it gives us the same panic/primal response of being consumed by fire. In truth. Hell fire is much much worse than fire.

So don't fear fire and brimstone. Hell fire is what you need fear

2) there were no demons. as i was falling into the pit I and everything around me was being consumed by this hell fire there was no time for attacking or being attacked everything human and fallen angel alike were in gnashing teeth mode (which is a panicked scream filled with so much agnoy you can not open your mouth.. That was something I experienced first hand before learn the meaning of the word as well. Hell is not the realm of satan according to the bible. that idea is a mixture of Christianity and greek/roman mythology. Hell is the place where God send and punishes man and satan alike. This world is satan's world not Hell.

So don't fear demons they are being punished by the fire as well.

3) I only experienced passage of the gates but that was like being thrown into a pit, and on my way down I did indeed acknoweledge who God was, and once I did I felt me self being consumed by the fire, meaning burnt up/the thin part of me that held on to self identity/my sanity was being burned and melted away. meaning what made me me/my consciousness was being burned up/dying. Whatever left wold have been my animalistic nature which I could not imagine it lasting very much longer either as the level of fear and pain put a heavy toll on it's faculties as well.

So fear no boxes through the gates, just what seems like an endless fall.

4) I did hear other's suffering, but your own was so intense it almost drowns out the wails of the mostrous demon shreaks and ground shaking moans.

So don't be afraid of the pain of others as your own pain will drown out the pain you will hear in others.

5)I did not experience anything growning back. I just felt the hell fire burn through everything, and thr primal desire to swim through the thick brimstone pitch.. But what reall got me was not the pain or the gnashing teeth or anything else.. it was the what if question. What if I simply got the answers I was looking for while I was alive, or rather what if i had know God was real as I do now, would i be here r would I have lived a different life... It was the though of thinking on that question for eternity that brough tremoundous sorrow to my heart and a desire to try again.

So fear not once what make you, you is gone it doesn't matter to what is left.

FF 25 years and that is what I am doing here now. I help those who seek to know God's truth an opportunity to find it on His terms. I am not here to save anyone from Hell, but to keep them from experiencing what I did.. In that I dont want any of you to be in the spot I was asking if I simply known where to go or how to find God's truth, would I be here now? The thought of enduring hell fire forever was bad enough but the thought that the answers to a few simple questions could literally change everything made Hell too much to bear..

[JackRussell]

Drich is insane, lay off the mushrooms and LSD brother.

[The Grand Nudger]

There's no requirement that a common liar be insane.