Did your religion train you to think that this world is horrible?

Question

What about the thought that this could be Hell? Or a test?

Thoughts?

Answer 1

No.

Catholics believe the physical world is good. God said so in Genesis.

How humans treat each other and the physical world is frequently not good.

This world is neither heaven nor hell. They are both completely different places.

This world is not a test but an opportunity to discern and then do the will of God.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

I'm not sure if my training that the world is horrible (and unsafe) came from religion exactly, or my parents' usage of religion.

The religious teaching is that the world is in a fallen state. So life isn't perfect, there is temptation, there are trials, and I shouldn't expect to be treated as fairly as I should be prepared to treat others. Yet there is hope, because God is greater than any dysfunction in the world.

I was raised to believe that there is no hope, no forgiveness, that love is highly conditional and I was fatally flawed. The world was a cruel place I couldn't survive. So I faced life, growing up, with a sense of dread. I used to have migraines weekly, and the tension in my neck was so bad, some mornings I couldn't look down. This is as a kid.

While I was never taught that this is hell (and I don't believe that. There is too much good in life.) I was taught that this is a test. I don't know if that's a good way of looking at it, because we think of testing as someone waiting for us to fail. I do believe that there are hardships in life and that the way we come through them is an indication of where we are in our spiritual development - and they can point us to where we need to concentrate our efforts. I believe God is for us, and that He wants us to succeed. So the purpose of the test should be the purpose of testing in school - not to condemn, but to show what we still need to learn.

Answer 3

It's weird, I spent ten years being forced into going to Church, Sunday School , youth group etc, and not once did we talk about hell or the "rapture" or being saved/born again. I haven't been to Church in almost 15 years, but I heard my old congregation does gay marriages. I didn't know it then, but I guess my Church has a fairly progressive, accepting theology.

Not being in the bible belt, until a couple of years ago, I had no idea that there were adults walking around who believe Earth is 6,000 years old, evolution is made up, and Dinosaurs lived in harmony with humans - let alone a significant fraction of the country!

Between, the ID debate, Jesus Camp, the documentary "The Root of All Evil", and being here, it's been a real eye opener. I used to think Religious Fundamentalism just meant you were against swearing on TV and pre-marital sex.

Answer 4

My religon didn't have to tell me the world is and can be a horrible place. Anyone can see with their eyes and hear with their ears that this world we live in is awful and getting worse and worse as each day goes by. When you become a christian and see in the spiritual eye what is really going on, it is very scary to see the enemy which is satan is working overtime in this world. I am a christian also. I thank my God even in this turmoil on earth we are facing God gets me through and shows up every second of the day in my life letting me know that I am being protected by his holliness. I don't believe we are in hell. I will be going to heaven when God comes back, hell is much worse then this world.

Answer 5

I am a Hindu and my religion divides the world into different aeons or yugas, and we currently live in kaliyuga, which according to the religious texts, is full of hatred, decadence and apathy. Acc. to the texts, Vishnu is to emerge in his tenth incarnation and cleanse the world of evil... Well, I'm waiting.

Like most educated people of my religion, i have learnt to comparmentalise religion, and I don't take all this too seriously, but every now and then, when some thing bad, say a murder takes place, I hear people attribute it to kaliyuga and that's scary. People control what they do, not Lord Vishnu.

Answer 6

Yes! According to the church, life is to be viewed as a place to learn and be tested....so that we can be "rewarded" after life. Although Mormons aren't big on the apocolyptic ideas...they did tell me about some signs we might see indicating the second coming. For years, every time I saw a harvest moon, I thought that meant the world was about to end. Messed me up big time for a while.

*Ah, and the whole "sin" thing. I lived with grief for much of my life about every little mistake I made...

Answer 7

Yes it does! Thus the reason im not religious anymore. I believe in God, but as for religion here on earth, it is for fools. Mans Religion aka The Church breeds hatred, intollerance, racism, descrimination. It is a place of blasphemy and hypocracy. The Church is the single most EVIL organization on the face of this earth, followed by the Government, isnt it lovely how America likes to mix the two of them together? I say if you want to believe in a higher power, do so, and keep it to yourself, but do not spread your hatred and intollerance to people who dont want to believe in your Cultish ways and sheepish lifestyle.

Answer 8

Are you talking about our lives spent here? The earth itself? If so, my answers are no, no, and no. Christians who study their Bible know that this life is a blessing. The earth is a gift for us. How else can you explain the rainbows, the birds singing, the sound of the ocean, gentle breezes, etc.? It is mankind that has become horrible. Look at the state we are in. I don't think elaboration is necessary.

Answer 9

Yeah, i grew up a Jevoah's wittness, and every week, they had a magazine telling me how the earth and the people in it are doomed. It told me the signs to look for, like, look at all the earth quakes, look at all the famine and hunger, look at all the wars... blah, blah...

Then they say,,, see it's in the bible the end of the earth is near!!!!

Well, needless to say, I figured that all that was BS when I was about 16 and relized that the people who follow this stuff, did it cause it kept them in thier own comfortable little club/world...

Answer 10

My religion sees life and the world as full of wonder, beauty, and pain. As Voltaire said when some said that life is hard, "compared to what?"

This is the only life I know. Even if there is an afterlife, I will not be me when I experience it.