Help me not fear heaven/hell

[tackattack]

If it is impossible for you to sin how can you have free will?

What a BS question. "Sin" is a mere theological fantasy. A method of control over the masses invented by those cross-dressing perverts.

It was a BS question and as wyzas pointed out it has to do with the definition. I could just as easily say "Math" is a mere mathematical fantasy. A method of control over the masses invented by those cross dressing perverts. Like it or not Abaddon, words have meanings,

[Cecelia]

If Hell is a physical place, there are plenty of scientists there who will have invented Air Conditioning, the internet, and lightbulbs by now. They probably have casinos, brothels, bookstores, video games, movies, and probably a lot of cool stuff we don't have yet.

If hell is not a physical place, you cannot feel pain.

[tackattack]

It actually can be good to have your own personal hell. Fear is a motivator. Decide where you want to be in the next 3 years and write that story. Decide what's the worst place you could be in 3 years and write that story. Viola, your own personal hell and heaven to aim for and motivate you. Hell is a physical place, and if you've never met anyone living in hell you haven't lived very much or helped many other people.

[The Grand Nudger]

Perhaps the theological narrative of heaven and hell, then, is a melodrama meant to express this basic and mundane fact of earthly existence, and not a story about two divine kingdoms in the otherland?

Are there any other narratives of faith that you think might be representative of this kind of storytelling?

[Simon Moon]

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What a BS question. "Sin" is a mere theological fantasy. A method of control over the masses invented by those cross-dressing perverts.

It was a BS question and as wyzas pointed out it has to do with the definition. I could just as easily say "Math" is a mere mathematical fantasy. A method of control over the masses invented by those cross dressing perverts. Like it or not Abaddon, words have meanings,

But math can be proved to exist. 2+2=4. Done.

Sin, not so much.

The theological definition of Sin is "an offense against god".

Please prove that:

1. a god exists
2. that said god can be offended
3. that any religious text describes the ways said god can be offended

Unless you can prove the above, I have no reason to believe sin exists.

Now, please note that I am not saying that people do not do bad things. They absolutely do, but those things are not sin.

[The Grand Nudger]

Denotation vs connotation.  It's far more important for the faithful to insist that the stories in magic books are an example of denotation.  

You and I are luckily unafflicted, however, and can understand that the notion of an "offense against god" is a way of expressing some particularly egregious and consequential action.  Stealing a candy bar is illegal.  Skull fucking a child is "a sin against god".  This connotation holds even in the absence of a literal god, of it's denotation. Secular realists make heavy and valid use of the connotative content of expressions like this. When we ask ourselves why, for example..if we are good people who know right from wrong, we still do the bad thing™ so often? Well, we have compelling reasons to do so, a consequence of our human nature, a consequence of our culture, a consequence of our circumstance.

Sin. There are egregious and consequential things that we do which are very difficult, even bordering on impossible, for us to avoid. They constrain and manipulate our will.

[tackattack]

[The Grand Nudger]

[fredd bear]

[snowtracks]

If it is impossible for you to sin how can you have free will?

God can’t violate his nature. Spoken to Moses in the 5 epic words in which He described himself: Moses asked who should I say has sent me?  God answered, “Moses: I AM WHO I AM”. In other words, God is defined by his nature. God can’t do sin, accept sin, overlook sin.
The sin nature is universal in humanity.  All of us have a sinful nature affects every part of us. This is the doctrine of total depravity, and it is biblical. The remedy is to partake in the divine nature offered to everyone. This new nature coexists with the old nature until physical death when the old nature becomes totally non-existent for those who accept the remedy*, those who don't will continue to have their one and only sinful nature eternally which is the referred to as the second death. 

By partaking in the divine nature, one can have free will without the possibility of sin; the new creation will be sin-free.

*Everyone or 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 (new nature, partake in the divine nature).