Before I weighed the pros and cons of religion and decided that religions were, in fact, cons; I was a Christian with a big problem with a particular concept of Christianity--hell. I just don’t get it. If the dying find comfort in religion because it offers an afterlife, they must either overlook hell or be extremely optimistic of their own virtue. How spiritually confident must you be to go towards the light without at least some fear that said light isn’t an eternal flame about to be shoved up your ass?
We are talking ever-lasting torment. An infinite holocaust. I just read the “divine comedy” Dante’s Inferno and it wasn’t all that funny. Whenever I hear that there are “no atheists in foxholes” I think, I’m surprised there are Christians in foxholes. Non-existence seems like a walk in the park compared to being immortally wounded. Actually non-existence wouldn’t be a walk in the park, it would be nothing at all.
I’m not going into a rant about how a god who most everyone says is merciful and loving would allow a place like hell to exist. Or how counter-intuitive it is to accept that whatever we believe and however we repent in this insanely short life matters while the rest of eternity is locked into a designated realm of joy or suffering. Or how Satan was disobedient to God yet is granted many liberties and is permitted to rule the modern day Hades with God’s all-powerful hands inexplicably tied. Or how heaven could possibly be a perfectly happy place when it is populated with supposedly good souls who know that others are forever burning. I’m not going to rant about these things, but these are the issues that first made me uneasy with Christianity. It wasn’t evolution or failing morality or violent video games that made me an atheist; it was the Bible.
Hell, I'm convinced, is a tool for religions to inspire obedience in followers through fear. When I used to be a Catholic, hell was a source of great anxiety for me. When I lost my faith (and with it, my belief in heaven and hell), I far much more at peace.
ReplyDeleteOne must wonder what kind of sadist the Christian God must be to create such a place.
Doesn't matter if you believe in the horizontal, you're still gonna croak; then, while your body's eaten by grubsNworms, your indelible soul rises to be judged on what YOU alone have done with your finite existence. Y'better think summore on where you wanna spend eternity. Time’s running out on U.S. Here's what I did. I was involved in an severe accident at 15 with my sweetheart, 17 (you can read my profile). Nevertheless, I found what few other human mortals on this swiftly, decaying planet have yet to discover: a Way Home, past this violence and materialism that has so engulfed our populace on this journey to our demise; because you’re ignorant on how to rise above the horizontal and one-outta-one shall croak sometime, somewhere soon, God has set-up this magnificent feature on the Way either Upstairs or downtown: the Warning. Everyone (me, too) living on this planet will see and feel the Warning lasting about 20ish minutes, showing U.S. a gorgeous picture of Heaven, Purgatory, and dagnasty Hell. Remember, God doesn’t condemn; we condemn ourselves by our sinful lifestyles of unbelief. The Warning’s just a wake-up call. Don’t believe me? You will soon. God bless you with discernment: atheism is cool, isn't it, till you croak...
ReplyDeleteSorry for your loss. I am somewhat interested in near death experiences. I know there is a neurological reason, but if I had a vision of the afterlife first hand, it might convince me. I don't know. I would depend on the experience.
DeleteUntil God makes himself known to me, I will have to be at peace with my actions on earth. And I am.
Kold_Kadaver there has a pretty good demonstration of the answer I usually see from evangelists, including my own in-laws. When any good reason to believe in a religion is lacking, they switch to threats. Because somehow they think that threatening us with their fictional punishment is somehow going to work better thant their promises of a fictional reward.
ReplyDeleteIf an actual hell existed, and people really wound up there, then I think it would not be possible for an actual heaven to exist. See, if I went to heaven but someone I loved were being punished eternally for not believing the right set of myths, I'd be miserable. So it wouldn't really be heaven. For me to be perfectly happy, I'd have to not care, and if my capacity to care were taken away, then I would not be me anymore. So that's not actually me going to heaven either. The whole construct just fails.
The Catholic idea of purgatory actually makes more sense, with most people being punished only as much as they deserve before being sent to heaven. I can see why they would be motivated to invent something like that, it makes their nonsense easier to sell.
Thanks for the comment. I feel the same way about if hell existed it would negate the perfect happiness of heaven.
DeletePurgatory is a little better. I think the most fair afterlife system is reincarnation guided by karma. I kinda wish that was true...but I really doubt it.