|
Post by wackadoodle on Apr 14, 2009 11:35:43 GMT -5
Every single person who doesn't follow your religion deserves to be brutally tortured for eternity. Thats the postition these people defend and I'm sick of having to pretend its worthy of respect. Seriously, the only way anyone could support this is A. they get stiffy thinking about everyone they hate burning, which would be most of the people quoted on this site or B. they're so brainwashed they refuse to accept that their could be anything wrong with their religion, "Its okay to torture people because the torturer makes the rules" and "He made you so its perfectly justified to cram you into an oven" are so fucking stupid I can't believe these arguments are meant to convince anyone but themself.
Sorry about the little rant but I'm so sick of being called an angsthiest because I dont take "god says so" as a justification for genocide. I could do a whole other rant on the absolute bullshit these people spout when asked if they were the ones burning for following the wrong religion.
|
|
|
Post by peanutfan on Apr 14, 2009 11:47:22 GMT -5
You are exalted, sir.
The problem is that back when these "my way or the highway" religions developed, tyrannical rulers were the norm. So naturally, the gods of those religions were tyrannical and uncompromising. I personally have much more respect for the pagan and Eastern religions that were extent at the time...even if the followers believed their system applied to everyone, you only got tortured in the afterlife if you actually deserved it, and even then it usually wasn't for eternity.
|
|
|
Post by Aqualung on Apr 14, 2009 12:06:59 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't think I believe in hell anymore, or heaven either, at least not in the Biblical sense. I just don't believe in eternal torture without any rest for something like being gay or choosing the "wrong" religion. I just want to believe in an afterlife.
|
|
|
Post by wackadoodle on Apr 14, 2009 12:44:26 GMT -5
Ugh, I just ran into another justification that screams 'my brain will shatter if I ever even consider that preacher to be full of shit', that we aren't sent to hell, we choose to go their by not being christian! How this is any different from soviets 'choosing' to go to the gulag by not following Stalin has never been explained to me beyond "OMG they're completely different! You just hate christians!"
|
|
|
Post by Star Cluster on Apr 14, 2009 13:34:30 GMT -5
You just have to realize it goes with the territory. Most Christians need that belief that everyone else is going to hell just to validate themselves and to justify their own "sacrifice" in following Jesus. It is ingrained in them that nobody is worthy of being in the presence of their god and therefore deserves punishment for all eternity just for the simple and uncontrollable action of being born. They don't realize just how petty and insignificant this makes their deity to appear. After all, if you follow what their holy book says, he's the one that made us the way we are.
It occurs to me that most Christians are banking on Pascal's Wager, and if push came to shove, don't really believe what they espouse, anyway.
|
|
|
Post by Old Viking on Apr 14, 2009 14:36:04 GMT -5
I was once a member of a religion with the belief that in an after life your sins would punished by eternal residence in Secaucus, New Jersey.
|
|
|
Post by skyfire on Apr 14, 2009 15:03:44 GMT -5
The interpretation of Hell varies from denomination to denomination.
While some groups do hold that anyone who disagrees with them is going to hell, others hold that you've really got to screw up to go down there (with a few basically saying that you'd have to actually try to go down that hard).
|
|
|
Post by devilschaplain2 on Apr 14, 2009 15:22:25 GMT -5
The interpretation of Hell varies from denomination to denomination. While some groups do hold that anyone who disagrees with them is going to hell, others hold that you've really got to screw up to go down there (with a few basically saying that you'd have to actually try to go down that hard). Well, let's examine this: -Christianity has a Hell which is reserved for all those who do not accept Christ. This means anyone who breaks the Commandments unrepentantly, anyone who is of a different faith, and any nonbelievers. -Islam has a Hell, which is reserved for anyone who disobeys the teachings of the Qu'ran and the Hadith. This includes people of different faiths and nonbelievers, whom good Muslims are supposed to convert or slay. -I believe Judaism has a version of Hell that was adopted by Maimonides in which a figure named "Yeshua" is being boiled in excrement for all eternity for spreading heresy and practicing "black magic." People believe Yeshua to be Jesus. -Some versions of Paganism such as Asatru have a version of Hell, which is actually spelled "Hel", though I'm not sure of the requirements to actually be sent there.
|
|
|
Post by devilschaplain2 on Apr 14, 2009 15:24:21 GMT -5
I was once a member of a religion with the belief that in an after life your sins would punished by eternal residence in Secaucus, New Jersey. Come to think of it, the New Jersey Turnpike does smell like fresh brimstone....
|
|
|
Post by antichrist on Apr 14, 2009 15:25:31 GMT -5
I was once a member of a religion with the belief that in an after life your sins would punished by eternal residence in Secaucus, New Jersey. You were a member of Robotology?
|
|
|
Post by devilschaplain2 on Apr 14, 2009 15:26:08 GMT -5
I was once a member of a religion with the belief that in an after life your sins would punished by eternal residence in Secaucus, New Jersey. You were a member of Robotology? Exalted for the Futurama reference that I somehow missed.
|
|
|
Post by SimSim on Apr 14, 2009 16:16:05 GMT -5
I was once a member of a religion with the belief that in an after life your sins would punished by eternal residence in Secaucus, New Jersey. Come to think of it, the New Jersey Turnpike does smell like fresh brimstone.... Yeah well, that's New Jersey drivers for ya.
|
|
|
Post by tygerarmy on Apr 14, 2009 21:22:00 GMT -5
Come to think of it, the New Jersey Turnpike does smell like fresh brimstone.... Yeah well, that's New Jersey drivers for ya. Hell's in Jersey I need to break out the religious material. Jersey home of the Devils.
|
|
|
Post by Rat Of Steel on Apr 15, 2009 1:28:35 GMT -5
Yeah well, that's New Jersey drivers for ya. Hell's in Jersey I need to break out the religious material. Jersey home of the Devils. ...and, of course, New York City is quite close by, wherein one can find Hell's Kitchen.
|
|
|
Post by Oriet on Apr 15, 2009 6:13:29 GMT -5
-Some versions of Paganism such as Asatru have a version of Hell, which is actually spelled "Hel", though I'm not sure of the requirements to actually be sent there. Asatru is actually a religion I was looking at after ditching Christianity, but before I was sure in my atheism. From what I remember (so I don't vouch for complete accuracy or anything), Hel was the "generic" afterlife, and there was a special place there for traitors and oath-breakers. Valhalla was for believers who died in battle, or at least at the end of a spear, and so some warriors would run themselves through when they were getting too old or sick to battle so that they could join the army in Valhalla and fight alongside the gods in the Ragnarök.
About the concept of Hell - I actually ditched belief in it 1-2 years before I finally ditched the rest of the religion. Here is a good site about how Hell, at least as the modern concept of flames and eternal torture, isn't actually biblical. That site, along with my own looking through a digital bible that provides the Hebrew and Greek words along with definitions for them, aided greatly in that.
As for those who cling to the idea of Hell, I also feel their either sociopaths, or it's used to scare them into continuing to believe, as they're also taught that even just questioning is enough to risk hellfire, so they're locked into it through fear, whether they would believe or not if that threat wasn't there. Personally I think the instruction of hell like that is incredibly psychologically damaging, even when it's a "casual" outlook of Hell.
|
|