I hate the idea of a "hell"...do you believe in hell?

Question

I think it is just a way to control people and scare them into conforming. Just wondering what you believe hell is like if you believe in it.

Answer 1

In the Jewish faith, they do not believe in the concept of hell in the sense that Christian's do. Seeing as how Christianity sprang from the Jewish faith, it's most probable the concept of hell was invented by men to bring more people into their congregation.

Answer 2

Atheists do not hate some thing or absolutely everyone. We only don't have self assurance. The movements of a few Christians (like the inbred redneck prolonged family individuals lead through Shirley "Leatherface" Roper) are universally despised, and attractiveness an endless provide of jokes about religious human beings, yet that doesn't cause them to hated. i'm completely repelled through spiders, yet i do not hate them. they are only butt-gruesome on the exterior. Christians are really gruesome on the interior. The lie of xian persecution (some thing that not in any respect has, nor ever could ensue to an 80% majority) is only extremely firmly entrenched. those human beings were harping on it for see you later, you'll imagine we were nonetheless living contained in the Roman Empire!

Answer 3

Oh yeah your on it. It is designed for control. The concept of being separate from God is hell though. The fire and brimstone malarkey is a fantasy cooked up by the child molesters fore fathers. Hmm... abuse children that sounds like a living hell right within the church it self. Most of the abuse was on the same sex to. What does one make of this, homo priests hypocrites. I am not saying homosexuality is incorrect because it is not. Love who ever you want . That is the 11th commandment. John13-34.

Answer 4

No I don't, and I think people who believe that others will go to hell for tiny things, like not believing in their brand of God, are completely wrong. And selfish and prejudiced. You're not right about everything, guys, get over it.
Murderers going to hell, maybe. But it also depends on why they murdered someone - self-defence? Protecting their kids? I'd save them, I don't see why a God wouldn't.

Answer 5

Of course God uses the threat of hell as one way to discourage his children from doing wrong. Your first statement "I hate the idea of a hell" is indication that God has placed within us a natural fear of it and a desire to avoid it. There is only one way out and it's through salvation through Jesus Christ. A tremendous price was paid so that we don't have to experience that literal hell. I am not scared into "conforming" but I think I would be really dumb to NOT want to go to Heaven and to RISK going to hell just because I didn't WANT to believe in it. The life that I live is far from conforming. Just the opposite in fact. Obeying God's word is the only way we can live a true life. It is very freeing. We are meant to be His children. We are meant to love and obey Him. It's really no different than the concept of a child obeying his/her parent. If the parent tells the child not to go play in the middle of the road it's not to force the child into "conforming" but to save the child from certain death. Whether or not the child has the capability to understand the very real danger of playing in the road, the parent sees it and acknowledges and guides his child away from that danger and very real threat on his child's life. It would only be out of foolishness that I, as a parent, would ever say "I hate the idea of a car being able to come down the road and run over my child." Yes I hate the idea of that but it's real none-the-less and that's why I have the responsibility to protect my child from it. The same way God provides His word and instruction as a way for us to avoid hell and eventually be with Him in Heaven.

Answer 6

I think the idea of hell is misinterpreted by many, at the end of time satan and all his followers will be trown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where they will be tormented through all eternity, I think hell is the absence of God, the bad will just cease to exsist, because being without God is more punishment than burning in the hell that many have invented. When Jesus died he was tormented, why because he spent that time w/o God.And to me that is hell.

Answer 7

We all hate the idea of a hell... but it doesn't make it any less real. Think about this: would you like to spend eternity with people like mass murderers or serial rapists? If there is a heaven to reward the good, there must be the opposite for the "bad".

That's the standard argument for the most part.

It's not a scare tactic- it's a belief system. There's a difference. A subtle one, I'll grant you, but a difference nontheless.

Answer 8

Webster’s unabridged dictionary says that hell comes from the old English word helan, meaning “to conceal.”
So, the early meaning of the word “hell” carried no thought of any kind of heat. It merely meant “concealed.”
It also tells us that hell corresponds to the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades.
Sheol simply means “a hollow place.”
So the original Hebrew word perfectly corresponds with the original or early meaning of the English word “hell.”
What was (or, is) that hollow place where one can be concealed?
The grave ....6 feet under.
Actually, it is a bit cool that far down ....not hot.

Answer 9

I think you're absolutely right. No just god would create beings with free will then condemn them to eternal suffering as a punishment for exercising that will. No crime, however heinous, merits a punishment of eternal suffering. Hell, as some people conceive of it, is a silly and immoral construct for scaring the credulous into conforming.

Answer 10

Well, from what I have been able to understand from my sunday school and bible study classes at my church (I am a Wesleyan, which probably affects how accurate I may or may not be). There is a "hell", and it is the place that Satan was cast down into after his rebellion, and is a place of "eternal separation" from God's Kingdom, and is pretty much like being sentenced to life with no chance of parole, totally cut off from any and all "blessings" from God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. As for the "eternal lake of fire" and the "red-skinned man with the horns, pointed tail, and pitchfork" and other "cartoonish" depictions of "down there", yes they are just "scare tactics" that were created to make people think of it as the most horrible place to be sent, so no one in their right mind would want to willingly go there. And if you want something to think about (again, I don't profess this to be any sort of truth, just something "interesting" to think about that has come up in various discussions, especially when I was in college), the so called "pointed tail, horned demon" image that was used to create the image of the "devil" was actually "stolen" from a "pagan" image of Rex Monde, who was supposed to be Gaia's (Mother Nature) husband. His name of course comes from latin and means "King of the Earth", but he was supposed to have been chosen as a "demon figure", because what he was 'lord' over was the physical, and "carnal" side of nature, especially procreation and reproduction, and other so called "sinful behaviors", but he was actually supposed to have been as "gentle and benevolent" as his 'wife' was, but the Church (especially the Catholic church, like back in the days of the Inquistion) of course wanted to turn people away from the kind of lifestyle that he was supposed to be a symbol of, so that is why they chose to use a "corrupted" image of him as what they wanted the "devil" to be, and look like, even though he was not supposed to be "evil", only just "physical and carnal in nature".