Fear Of Hell

[kane]

I'm not a traditionally religious person. I find most arguments for atheism to be convincing. But I do have an extremely guilty conscience. And when I search myself to try and figure out why I haven't exited yet, one thing that repeatedly comes up is a terror at the possibility of there being something beyond this life. The thought of being judged, punished, tormented - it seems to keep me clinging on no matter how much pain I'm in here. It's not even a specific vision of hell that grips me - it's the unknown. It could be physical torture, or simply being left alone for an eternity to torment myself with regret. But I fear that I have it coming - that the other shoe will finally drop. I feel I may be one of the few people who genuinely deserve hell. Even though the thought of eternal punishment for any crime doesn't seem rationally justified to me - I feel I deserve it. Not going into what I've done here, but it is seriously bad.

This fear doesn't seem to be strong enough to prompt me to confess my sins, and submit to justice in this life, Crime and Punishment style. Or even to prompt me to truly reform myself, in hopes of ameliorating it. But it does seem to be a block to preparing for a peaceful exit. Although I know I'll have to face it eventually, I can't imagine intentionally jumping into that unknown unless facing something equally terrifying in this life.

I think Hamlet captures something of this instinct:
'Who would bear to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from where no traveler returns
Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?'

Of course, it could all be the elaborate rationalization of a primate brain that would very much like to continue it's own survival and the possibility of it's replication. But I can't seem to shake it, no matter how many times I remind myself of the absurdity of traditional religious logic.

 

[esse_est_percipi]

I don't think anything anyone will say will help you get rid of that fear, since it is probably very deep rooted in the irrational, emotion driven part of the primal brain.

I do think that the existence of hell as a 'place' of eternal torment for souls (whatever they are) after death, in whatever variation can be thought of, has a likelihood of about .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000...1, so pretty much zero chance of being true.

And if it somehow is true, then what kind of a sadistic, absurd, messed up reality is this.
Thrown into an apparently meaningless world full of suffering, without our consent, just so we can worship and obey the orders of some dictator self-obsessed God in some other-dimensional reality, and if we don't then it will consign us to eternal suffering?

This appears to me to be a sadomasochistically refined conceptual concoction, the invention of a very devious, scheming and perverted species of primate.

With that being said, why don't you confess your sins, just in case? If God is evil enough to create hell, then it might also be amoral enough to validate any half-hearted, self-interested attempts to avoid it.

 

[sadbadpsychogirl]

yeah i can understand. i really don't believe in hell at all but it does kind of bother me that people are constantly telling me i'm going there. i suppose it could exist and thats the only reason i give it a second thought.

 

[rt1989526]

I'm already in hell so I don't give a fuck what comes next.

 

[esse_est_percipi]

people are constantly telling me i'm going there

Really?
Why do they keep telling you that?

 

[sadbadpsychogirl]

Really?
Why do they keep telling you that?

they think i have done some unforgivable things that i haven't also i have done some really shitty things to people. i just hope my death will bring the world some comfort. actually i really don't care

 

[kane]

I don't think anything anyone will say will help you get rid of that fear, since it is probably very deep rooted in the irrational, emotion driven part of the primal brain.

I do think that the existence of hell as a 'place' of eternal torment for souls (whatever they are) after death, in whatever variation can be thought of, has a likelihood of about .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000...1, so pretty much zero chance of being true.

And if it somehow is true, then what kind of a sadistic, absurd, messed up reality is this.
Thrown into an apparently meaningless world full of suffering, without our consent, just so we can worship and obey the orders of some dictator self-obsessed God in some other-dimensional reality, and if we don't then it will consign us to eternal suffering?

This appears to me to be a sadomasochistically refined conceptual concoction, the invention of a very devious, scheming and perverted species of primate.

With that being said, why don't you confess your sins, just in case? If God is evil enough to create hell, then it might also be amoral enough to validate any half-hearted, self-interested attempts to avoid it.

I agree the traditional concept of hell seems improbable. I think it's more about the unknown - and the feeling that I 'have it coming'. Frankly, the thought of having to exist eternally with my own shame and regret seems fairly hellish. Hell might be something people do to themselves, rather than something done to them.

I certainly don't believe in a God who could be conned by false confessions. If God is really that capricious, then we're all completely fucked.

I'm already in hell so I don't give a fuck what comes next.

I can imagine things being far worse than they are now. I don't think hell is a state you'd have any hope of a release from.

 

[GreenTree]

Think it natural too think of hell when thinking of suicide. It might be true who knows. I used too laugh at south park film when sadam Hussein was satans boyfriend in hell. They also celebrated Christmas as well.

 

[Metalhead]

I'm already in hell so I don't give a fuck what comes next.

Couldn't have said it any better

 

[Alec]

I'm not a traditionally religious person. I find most arguments for atheism to be convincing. But I do have an extremely guilty conscience. And when I search myself to try and figure out why I haven't exited yet, one thing that repeatedly comes up is a terror at the possibility of there being something beyond this life. The thought of being judged, punished, tormented - it seems to keep me clinging on no matter how much pain I'm in here. It's not even a specific vision of hell that grips me - it's the unknown. It could be physical torture, or simply being left alone for an eternity to torment myself with regret. But I fear that I have it coming - that the other shoe will finally drop. I feel I may be one of the few people who genuinely deserve hell. Even though the thought of eternal punishment for any crime doesn't seem rationally justified to me - I feel I deserve it. Not going into what I've done here, but it is seriously bad.

This fear doesn't seem to be strong enough to prompt me to confess my sins, and submit to justice in this life, Crime and Punishment style. Or even to prompt me to truly reform myself, in hopes of ameliorating it. But it does seem to be a block to preparing for a peaceful exit. Although I know I'll have to face it eventually, I can't imagine intentionally jumping into that unknown unless facing something equally terrifying in this life.

I think Hamlet captures something of this instinct:
'Who would bear to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from where no traveler returns
Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?'

Of course, it could all be the elaborate rationalization of a primate brain that would very much like to continue it's own survival and the possibility of it's replication. But I can't seem to shake it, no matter how many times I remind myself of the absurdity of traditional religious logic.

I don't believe in hell. It makes no sense for it to exist, and even if it does I don't think people that kill themselves would be sent there. If there is a god that sends people to hell for suicide, then I want nothing to do with that kind of god, I would despise him and try to rebel against him in every way I can, fuck that kind of god and I wouldn't want to spend eternity with him in heaven(though admittedly a termite in heaven especially if I didn't have to talk to that kind of god but just enjoy heaven sounds better than eternity in hell). Still I think if god is real he is smarter than all those prolifers and people that tell us that suicide is sin. If god exists he must be smart enough to know suicide is not evil and not a sin and he wouldn't be dumb enough to punish people for suicide, I if god exists he's smart enough to realize suicide isn't something that deserves to bu punished, and he would have compassion, and maybe try to hug us instead of punish us with even more suffering because he would also be smart enough to know that more suffering is not going to solve anything or do any good or change anything really.
Hugs to you, love you

 

[GreenTree]

Perhaps hell is scaremongering.

 

[marcusuk63]

SPOILER ALERT



There is no such place , it`s all made up .

 

[esse_est_percipi]

I don't believe in hell. It makes no sense for it to exist, and even if it does I don't think people that kill themselves would be sent there. If there is a god that sends people to hell for suicide, then I want nothing to do with that kind of god, I would despise him and try to rebel against him in every way I can, fuck that kind of god and I wouldn't want to spend eternity with him in heaven(though admittedly a termite in heaven especially if I didn't have to talk to that kind of god but just enjoy heaven sounds better than eternity in hell). Still I think if god is real he is smarter than all those prolifers and people that tell us that suicide is sin. If god exists he must be smart enough to know suicide is not evil and not a sin and he wouldn't be dumb enough to punish people for suicide, I if god exists he's smart enough to realize suicide isn't something that deserves to bu punished, and he would have compassion, and maybe try to hug us instead of punish us with even more suffering because he would also be smart enough to know that more suffering is not going to solve anything or do any good or change anything really.
Hugs to you, love you❤❤❤

Those are some good points.
If God exists, then it is also responsible for the fine tuning of the physical constants, the weak/strong nuclear forces, special and general relativity, quantum mechanics, all the mathematical theorems and proofs, possibly string theory and whatever the grand unified theory looks like.

Yet we are also supposed to believe that such a being is emotionally very much like a human: petty, vindictive, simplistic and wasteful enough (creating an eternal place of torment is poor management of resources, as well as being illogical given that it knows everything in advance -- in which case, why go to the trouble of creating souls which it knows it will just end up casting into hell anyway?) to punish those who don't believe in it and those who take their own lives?

So basically God has an infinite IQ yet also acts like a demon-child throwing a tantrum if people don't do as it says?
Riiiight.

 

[kane]

I don't believe in hell. It makes no sense for it to exist, and even if it does I don't think people that kill themselves would be sent there. If there is a god that sends people to hell for suicide, then I want nothing to do with that kind of god, I would despise him and try to rebel against him in every way I can, fuck that kind of god and I wouldn't want to spend eternity with him in heaven(though admittedly a termite in heaven especially if I didn't have to talk to that kind of god but just enjoy heaven sounds better than eternity in hell). Still I think if god is real he is smarter than all those prolifers and people that tell us that suicide is sin. If god exists he must be smart enough to know suicide is not evil and not a sin and he wouldn't be dumb enough to punish people for suicide, I if god exists he's smart enough to realize suicide isn't something that deserves to bu punished, and he would have compassion, and maybe try to hug us instead of punish us with even more suffering because he would also be smart enough to know that more suffering is not going to solve anything or do any good or change anything really.
Hugs to you, love you❤❤❤

Thanks, to be clear: I don't believe suicide would make one deserving of hell. I have more than enough actual sins to be worrying about that.

SPOILER ALERT



There is no such place , it`s all made up .

Certainly religious conceptions of hell seem constructed. But the possibility of someone beyond observing, judging, and the possibility of consequences...I can't seem to put that out of my mind. But like I said, guilty conscience.

Those are some good points.
If God exists, then it is also responsible for the fine tuning of the physical constants, the weak/strong nuclear forces, special and general relativity, quantum mechanics, all the mathematical theorems and proofs, possibly string theory and whatever the grand unified theory looks like.

Yet we are also supposed to believe that such a being is emotionally very much like a human: petty, vindictive, simplistic and wasteful enough (creating an eternal place of torment is poor management of resources, as well as being illogical given that it knows everything in advance -- in which case, why go to the trouble of creating souls which it knows it will just end up casting into hell anyway?) to punish those who don't believe in it and those who take their own lives?

So basically God has an infinite IQ yet also acts like a demon-child throwing a tantrum if people don't do as it says?
Riiiight.

Yes, I never really understood how predestination could be justified. I think for punishment to be 'deserved', there would have to be some kind of libertarian free will. Creating beings you knew you would end up punishing would be inexcusable. Either our actions were genuinely free (god is not omniscient), or god did not create hell and is powerless to prevent us from going there (god is not omnipotent), or god knew he would be creating beings only to torture them (god is not omnibenevolent.)

 

[rt1989526]

I can imagine things being far worse than they are now.

Speak for yourself

 

[kane]

Speak for yourself

Without wishing to in any way doubt your suffering...really? I find in my own life that no matter how terrible things seem, they can (and do) get much worse. This suggests to me that there are whole realms of suffering that I haven't even approached yet.

 

[rt1989526]

Without wishing to in any way doubt your suffering...really? I find in my own life that no matter how terrible things seem, they can (and do) get much worse. This suggests to me that there are whole realms of suffering that I haven't even approached yet.

If you don't have both mental and physical health you have already lost everything.

 

[kane]

If you don't have both mental and physical health you have already lost everything.

I suppose...but even when everything has been taken from you, there's still far worse that can be done to you. A terminally ill person being purposefully tortured is worse off than a terminally ill person receiving pain relief. It's the difference between losing everything positive and how negative things can get.

 

[rt1989526]

I suppose...but even when everything has been taken from you, there's still far worse that can be done to you. A terminally ill person being purposefully tortured is worse off than a terminally ill person receiving pain relief. It's the difference between losing everything positive and how negative things can get.

Remaining alive in this state is being purposefully tortured.

 

[kane]

Remaining alive in this state is being purposefully tortured.

If you find yourself in the worst of all imaginable worlds then you are most unfortunate. Possibly it's only that level of suffering that overcomes the fear of death.

 

[rt1989526]

If you find yourself in the worst of all imaginable worlds then you are most unfortunate. Possibly it's only that level of suffering that overcomes the fear of death.

My only fear is remaining alive. I have zero fear of death.

 

[kane]

My only fear is remaining alive. I have zero fear of death.

Well, I suppose that one fear will inevitably be put to rest.

 

[sadbadpsychogirl]

i honestly think hell is a fictional place created by vindictive minds who want to think their enemies will be punished for whatever they have allegedly done. like they think they have not been punished enough on earth and thats their personal sense of justice.

 

[TheSomebody]

If even humans do not agree with something as brutal as hell in their legal legislation, then why would a god who claims to have infinite empathy and benevolence would agree with something like that? Does not make sense.

Hell does not exist. Its Just a form of manipulation through fear, which is the humans most primitive feeling.

 

[Spitfire]

Hell is also known as a way of storing potatoes, by helling potatoes.

... 'helan' is to conceal, Webster's 3rd Intl

I think there is an interesting history behind hell and the different meanings.