Help me not fear heaven/hell

[tackattack]

Yes people use fear to control other people and have been doing it for centuries, across all areas of life, seem very human. I don't think anyone was really surprised by that at all.

In any way people should be able to use their freedom to do good.

I agree and I'd like to add as often and as honestly as possible.

[Catharsis]

Do you reckon that might have something to do with being taught to regard magic as superstition and magical creators as truth?

For better or for worse, the faithful have a choice to lean into magic or descend into intellectual dishonesty.

All I know is you would have a serious issue when you consider anything scientifically unexplained or unknown to be magic.

[Abaddon_ire]

Do you reckon that might have something to do with being taught to regard magic as superstition and magical creators as truth?

For better or for worse, the faithful have a choice to lean into magic or descend into intellectual dishonesty.

All I know is you would have a serious issue when you consider anything scientifically unexplained or unknown to be magic.

Theists of various stripes have been doing that since forever. It is such a common gambit that it even has a name. It's called "the god of the gaps" argument.

[snowtracks]

Appears that the physical place is not in existence yet, but will be in the future; no one resides there yet. The first two are the Anti-Christ, and False Prophet*. The 3′rd is the Devil, 1000 years later (during most of this period will be held captive). Humans who accept God’s redemption plan will never go there; those who choose separation from God by rejecting the offer will reside there after the Great White Throne Judgement.
The New Creation which replaces this Creation will come into existence after the 1000 year reign of Christ on Earth, so would seem that is when Hell also comes into existence. The New Creation is a sin-free zone so physical death is needed to take the old sinful nature out of existence only to those who choose an eternal connection** with God rather than separation or independence from God (those who choose this course continue to possess their old sinful nature eternally).
The experience there has been defined by scripture: 2 Thess 1:9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Fire and brimstone is symbolic language that describes what that is like.

*But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs, he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

**Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord by embracing the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus with confident trust and firm persuasion will receive salvation.

[Catharsis]

All I know is you would have a serious issue when you consider anything scientifically unexplained or unknown to be magic.

Theists of various stripes have been doing that since forever. It is such a common gambit that it even has a name. It's called "the god of the gaps" argument.

There's a lot still to understand for science and for example not all species are known to mankind. There are plenty of unexplored species in the sea, and those aren't magic either.

[Mister Agenda]

If it's any comfort, the version of God that supposedly has hell and heaven in store for the goats and sheep is a version we can be sure isn't real. Some of the things he is said to have done didn't actually happen, and his proposed attributes contradict each other and reality. The God of Deism doesn't fall apart under scrutiny, merely lacking evidence, and if it's real, there's no reason to think it would have a torture chamber waiting for you after your dead.

Frankly, although I was raised Pentecostal, I got over such fears in a fairly short time after I realized that I no longer believed in God. Now I can no more imagine being afraid of the 'flames of hell' than of being terrified vampires might get me.

[The Grand Nudger]

Do you reckon that might have something to do with being taught to regard magic as superstition and magical creators as truth?

For better or for worse, the faithful have a choice to lean into magic or descend into intellectual dishonesty.

All I know is you would have a serious issue when you consider anything scientifically unexplained or unknown to be magic.

I wouldn't know.  Things scientifically unexplained and things unknown are things scientifically unexplained and things unknown.  Magic is it's own category, lol. Notice, above, how you distance your set by suggesting that it's some other thing? Is it possible that this is a product of your specific place and place in time? The magical abilities and wonders of the divine used to be conceptualized positively (even taken as proof of a creator). Now, it's a dirty word.

[Abaddon_ire]

Theists of various stripes have been doing that since forever. It is such a common gambit that it even has a name. It's called "the god of the gaps" argument.

There's a lot still to understand for science and for example not all species are known to mankind. There are plenty of unexplored species in the sea, and those aren't magic either.

Sure. But there are no "god" shaped gaps.

[Rahn127]

Heaven & Hell both have a Yelp rating of 0.

No one has ever been there.

[EgoDeath]

Hey, everyone. I thought I’d ask for some help here.

I was raised Christian but don’t believe in god anymore. I think it’s all nonsense. We’re on this pale blue dot alone. I believe in science and reason.

The problem is my atheism is only at 99%. There’s 1% of me that still thinks I could be wrong and that I’m going to hell for being a bad person. I’m also afraid of the idea of endless life, mostly because I struggle with anxiety and the idea of eternal anxiety in heaven is my idea of hell.

Can anyone help me unhinge the last 1% so that I’m not afraid of heaven and hell anymore? It would mean the world to me. I’d like to not have this hang over me for the rest of my life.

- Fleeing Jesus

So, is the idea of life simply ending when you die less scary than the idea of an afterlife? This would be the opposite of how many people feel, which is interesting. I don't really know if anyone can help you stop fearing hell or an afterlife; I think you just sort of have to think this through. You don't remember anything before you were born, right? And why would you? You did not have a conscious brain to experience anything... so... same thing for when you die. When your brain dies, you get turned off. And there's nothing. 

And while we don't "know" this, we really have no reason to think otherwise. So far as we understand it, consciousness is the result of electrical activity in the brain. Once that activity goes dead, so does our conscious mind. Death, so far as we know, is just like before you were born... there is simply nothing. The computer gets shut down. You get powered off and you're gone forever. A little unsettling, actually. But it's all the more reason to enjoy things while you're here!