Why do some people condone hell?

[SuicideCommando01]

I just don't get how anyone could be at peace of mind knowing someone they hate or don't like will be burning and being tortured forever and with no ending. I mean, some people people wish upon kids to go to hell (Like infamous kids like that 11 year old school shooter from Mexico that happened 4 months ago). Concepts like hell are exactly why im losing more faith in religion and turning more atheist. Some people claim it's justice, really? How is being in a lake of fire "justice" that's not justice, thats just plain sickening revenge, twisted revenge. I mean seriously, think about it, what if YOU were in that position? Wouldn't you hate the god for sending you there? I don't wish for people like Hitler, Stalin, Zedong, Dahmer, Bundy, Lanza, Harris and Klebold, or even my own mother even though we haven't always had a good relationship with each other, to be burned alive for eternity, because hell is like an eye for an eye, but more fucked up. How is it that this god created hell on for Satan and his angels, but then all a sudden just makes humans go there. Couldn't he had just make a heaven for sinners? Hell is UNETHICAL. Heck, even Jesus seems to condone it, even though he claimed he loved all: 

"Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me." 

So why must they go there with him exactly if it was only meant for Satan and his angels? I honestly don't know, only read the first 60 something pages of the bibble before I stopped reading it entirely. It's sad how so many people still believe in these kinds of afterlives, just a disappointing display of immorality.

[no one]

If you can amass all the bonus points, you are fast tracked into the bliss of eternal paradise.

[Belacqua]

I honestly don't know

This is an atheist web site, and nearly every one here thinks that the idea of hell is nonsense. So clearly, whatever arguments there are for the justice of hell haven't convinced anyone here.

only read the first 60 something pages of the bibble before I stopped reading it entirely

Do the first 60 pages mention anything about hell? The Old Testament talks about Sheol a little bit, but I don't think that's in the first bit. 

Anyway, the Bible isn't the only thing that Christians have written. Their ideas about hell conform more or less to some things in the New Testament, but these passages are surprisingly ambiguous. Even the part you quote, about eternal fires, has been interpreted by some Christians to mean that the fires last forever, but that no one stays in the fires all that time. 

The image of hell that you describe, as fiery eternal punishment, may be the popular view, but that doesn't mean it is the only one. Nor is it necessarily believed in by all Christians. They also have noticed that eternal punishment may be unreasonably harsh, and have debated it more or less from the beginning. 

A modern view is that since people have free will, they have the ability to reject every good thing in the world. Actively turning against everything good means that they have chosen everything bad. In this view, God doesn't send people there as punishment -- people have chosen it. Other modern Christians agree with earlier Christians, who thought that hell would be like Sheol -- temporary purgation. Or they just don't believe in it at all, because most ideas about it actually come from the Middle Ages, and have only tenuous support from the Bible itself. 

Protestant mystics, like Blake and Boehme, say that hell is a state one can be in. An improvement in perception gets one out. This has roots in Neoplatonism, both Christian and non.

I think that this site is not the best place to learn about these things. There is a long and complicated literature on the subject.

[brewer]

Then these are beliefs based on emotion and have nothing to do with reality. Except that they are real human emotions, a motivation to make and justify a fantasy god.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I honestly don't know

This is an atheist web site, and nearly every one here thinks that the idea of hell is nonsense. So clearly, whatever arguments there are for the justice of hell haven't convinced anyone here.

only read the first 60 something pages of the bibble before I stopped reading it entirely

Do the first 60 pages mention anything about hell? The Old Testament talks about Sheol a little bit, but I don't think that's in the first bit. 

Anyway, the Bible isn't the only thing that Christians have written. Their ideas about hell conform more or less to some things in the New Testament, but these passages are surprisingly ambiguous. Even the part you quote, about eternal fires, has been interpreted by some Christians to mean that the fires last forever, but that no one stays in the fires all that time. 

The image of hell that you describe, as fiery eternal punishment, may be the popular view, but that doesn't mean it is the only one. Nor is it necessarily believed in by all Christians. They also have noticed that eternal punishment may be unreasonably harsh, and have debated it more or less from the beginning. 

A modern view is that since people have free will, they have the ability to reject every good thing in the world. Actively turning against everything good means that they have chosen everything bad. In this view, God doesn't send people there as punishment -- people have chosen it. Other modern Christians agree with earlier Christians, who thought that hell would be like Sheol -- temporary purgation. Or they just don't believe in it at all, because most ideas about it actually come from the Middle Ages, and have only tenuous support from the Bible itself. 

Protestant mystics, like Blake and Boehme, say that hell is a state one can be in. An improvement in perception gets one out. This has roots in Neoplatonism, both Christian and non.

I think that this site is not the best place to learn about these things. There is a long and complicated literature on the subject.

Most - if not all - of the ‘long and complicated’ literature regarding Hell seems to consist of theologians and philosophers trying to convince each other that it’s really not that bad.

This is a perfectly understandable tack for them to take. Otherwise, they’d have to accept that they’re worshiping a Being of such petty vindictiveness that it thinks the eternal torture of sentient corpses for finite transgressions somehow amounts to ‘justice’.

Boru

[purplepurpose]

Suicide. Suicide through alcohol and other drugs, crime. Religion is toxic, but there are worst things out there.

[brewer]

Do the christians/religious that believe in hell also believe in heaven? The answer appears to be yes.

Do the christians/religious that don't believe in hell then not believe in heaven? I don't hear that at all.

Or do they pick and choose what to believe, deviating from what was actually written.

[Brian37]

The idea of punishment/reward in an afterlife isn't unique to the god/s of the Abrahamic traditions.


Even with Hinduism/Buddhism, they also have afterlife mythologies, their version  is reincarnation, and or spirit worship of ancestors.

It is all nonsense in any case once you accept our 4 billion year old planet has had 5 mass extinction events in it's history, and will have a few more before the sun dies and kills all life. When, NOT IF, but when our species goes extinct, and hopefully not by our own hand, but when we go extinct, all our human invented religions and gods and mythologies will die with us.

But in specific the concept of the Abrahamic hell  is especially insidious. This version of "hell" is not a corrective measure, like say in prisons, where you are not getting life, and have a chance to get out, many prisons offer you training and education and an opportunity to come out and become a productive person and a second chance.

Hell is basically a concept of revenge. To understand this you have to recognize the context for the times  those mythologies were written. Most humans lived under local ruling king states, even in polytheism. Back then loyalty to that ruling family was far more a demand and if you didn't do what that ruling family said, or if you questioned them or betrayed them you'd only be arrested if you were lucky. So it wasn't about just punishing thieves or murderers, it was about loyalty to the state.

It is an authoritarian dictatorial concept having no corrective value at all. "Obey" only means "obey" in this context.

In the modern western world, for example, you don't "obey" traffic laws because someone simply demanded it, we obey traffic laws for safety reasons that are socially agreed on through mutual legislation via consent of the voter. And if we don't like our leaders we can vote them out of office and or change our laws. 

"Hell" back then was a literary device to threaten society into blind loyalty to this God. This God is not an elected official, you cannot vote it out of office.  It is all powerful and can throw you into eternal torture, and that is orwellian, authoritarian, and hardly humaine  as a concept. And it can be a threat merely for not believing. In the real world, in the west there is no demand to be blindly loyal to any religion or andy god.

The thought that  my mind is not mine, and is the property of a cosmic security guard watching every waking and sleeping moment is a vile concept to me.

[AFTT47]

Hell is especially bad when you combine it with God's omniscience. His foreknowledge means he knows if you're bound for Hell before he even creates you. So not only do you have a place that is absolutely immoral, God created all the people suffering there even though he knew this would be their fate.

[Brian37]

Hell is especially bad when you combine it with God's omniscience. His foreknowledge means he knows if you're bound for Hell before he even creates you. So not only do you have a place that is absolutely immoral, God created all the people suffering there even though he knew this would be their fate.

100% agree.

If any theist, Christian or Muslim or Jew rightfully condemns states like North Korea, and that absolute power, why is it ok for someone to expect me to value a being that watches me every second of my life, even when I pee or shit or have sex? "God" as a concept is right out of George Orwell's 1984, except far worse. At least with Kim Jong Un, if he murders you he cant torture you after you die.