I just realized that there is no eternal Hell

[Challu]

I'm a Christian, but it never made sense to me that God would create people knowing that they would eventually be eternally tortured in agony by his own will.

I am now a Christian Universalist. There is no such thing as eternal Hell. Every soul however, must be judged and given correction.

Also, everyone is saved. Not just Christians. EVERYONE. By virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, all men and women have been saved.

Yes, the only way to the Father is through Jesus, but why does God limit this as something we must understand while alive on Earth?

So, in my beliefs, when we die we will be given correction depending what we believed and the things we did. ALSO, the things that we do on Earth, must be "reaped" when we die.

Murders, Rapists, Theives... they will be given a punishment that fits an equal measure to the suffering they have caused..

BUT.. they will be saved. EVERYONE is SAVED. MUSLIM, BUDDIST, ATHEIST... YOU ARE SAVED. NO ONE NEEDS TO WORRY ANYMORE ABOUT DEATH.

AMEN.

(I have recognized how great God is, but I continually suffer on this Earth. The realization of this truth about the life hereafter desperately makes me long for death. My CTB is motivated now from my desire to be finished with this Earthly life so that I can live eternally with God)

 

[👁️👃👁️]

12 Disciples/12 Zodiacs

 

[Wannabehappy]

I don't know if I want to live forever with someone who lets me suffer, lets us all be here and live with the idea of shooting ourselves in the head

I always say - you want to go with God, okay, no problem. but he is not with us now.

 

[Mofreeko]

I always found it creepy when religious people would cling to the concept of hell gleefully reveling in the idea that unbelievers would be tortured forever. Who are the real evil people?

 

[Pluto]

The concept of eternal hell was not originally a part of Christian belief systems. Until the 4th century, Christianity was an underground movement persecuted by the Romans. Only when Constantine the Great himself converted was the early Catholic Church was born as both a religion and a tool for aggressively controlling the world's population.

It was around this time that Christianity became associated with the threat of eternal hell, not to mention the violent destruction of native religions around the world, Crusades, witch-burning and other acts of love thy neighbour. The corrupt idea of eternal hell has certainly brought plenty of hell upon this planet. It is sad that much of humanity still has not moved on from this global scam.

Yes, universal salvation is the law. Natural laws of cause and effect deal with brutalisers as part of an evolutionary process. God is not a 'guy in the sky', nor a judge, nor separate from the physical universe, nor anything verbally describable at all. Everyone came here by choice and will be gone soon enough.

Humanity would never have gotten into this much trouble in the first place if we had listened to the most insightful (including Jesus, the Buddha and others) rather than the most violent of men. Unfortunately, people tend to be motivated more by fear than by love.

 

[Someone123]

So one question ius- what happened to people who lived and died thousands of years before Jesus was here? Where were they after they died but before Jesus was here?

 

[Smart No More]

It's just illogical too. Like heaven up up, hell down. It's an antiquated theory predating the discovery that we live on a sphere. There is no down. Not in the way that there's an up at least.

 

[Someone123]

Some near death experiences showing a sort of tour of hell seem pretty convincing, and other near death experiences not showing hell seem pretty convincing- it's not clear at all what actually happens.

 

[actual_fox]

I don't know if I want to live forever with someone who lets me suffer, lets us all be here and live with the idea of shooting ourselves in the head

I always say - you want to go with God, okay, no problem. but he is not with us now.

I am with Wannabehappy (my last account was fox_wannabe, lool) on this.

Best is to trust yourself because the "order of the universe" failed us

 

[artpopbestalbum]

hell and heaven were concepts made up to slave people so they would work for free and didnt commit suicide. i'm sorry, but it has never existed.

 

[Someone123]

hell and heaven were concepts made up to slave people so they would work for free and didnt commit suicide. i'm sorry, but it has never existed.

Do yu believe in an afterlife- near death experience videos often seem pretty convincing to me.

 

[Wannagonow]

I always found it creepy when religious people would cling to the concept of hell gleefully reveling in the idea that unbelievers would be tortured forever. Who are the real evil people?

Yes. It is creepy and not very "christian"

 

[👁️👃👁️]

It's just illogical too. Like heaven up up, hell down. It's an antiquated theory predating the discovery that we live on a sphere. There is no down. Not in the way that there's an up at least.

Its probably not a direction. It's a state of being.

 

[Blue_mist]

Your recognition is not a fact and people are not required to believe in whatever you believe in

 

[SamTam33]

Unless we're going to be assigned totally different personalities, the person I am now doesn't want to live forever with God. I don't like him.

I'd rather just die and be done with it. I have no interest in floating eternally with all the souls that have ever lived.

Honest question: what is the appeal in existing forever?

How is it better than not existing at all? What are you supposed to do with all that time?

Exist for infinity? Why.

 

[Darkover]

There is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate
The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator, God, almost certainly does not exist, and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Isn't it Christian belief that we are all god's (small g on purpose) children? I can tell you that if parents did to their children (allowed them to suffer, afflicted them with horrendous disease, etc) what has been allowed to happen on this planet yo "his children, possibly even on purpose, built-in to the design of this place, they'd be put in jail within a blink of an eye.

 

[TydalWave]

Why should I believe in your God and not any of the other Gods/Religions/Options that exist on the planet.

 

[Smart No More]

Its probably not a direction. It's a state of being.

My point is that the theory is old as indicated by it's lore. Therefore pointing out it's origin in human imagination. Much like your "probably" it has no basis in science or fact. Only fiction. You can't keep adding updates to it to suit your current sensibilities or those of the times you live in. Particularly as you have literally no connection with the source of the original theory.

 

[Jessica5]

It's just illogical too. Like heaven up up, hell down. It's an antiquated theory predating the discovery that we live on a sphere. There is no down. Not in the way that there's an up at least.

Hell is supposed to be underground, but somehow we've dug underground and never found hell.

 

[Smart No More]

Hell is supposed to be underground, but somehow we've dug underground and never found hell.

That's my point. "Heaven up, hell down" but we have nowhere to go "down" to. The theory came from a time before humans understood this. It is antiquated!

 

[Unending]

I grew up in a very christian family and the threat of hell has left it's marks on my psyche. I obviously have used logic to understand that it isn't real but it lingers as this irrational fear that torments me. This is just fucking cruel that people are threatened with such a horrible thing for not believing in Christianity.

 

[Resinn66]

Why this so "benevolent" god want to put us into this world and make us suffer in the first place?
Religion is the most ancient Propaganda

 

[makethepainstop]

I'm a Christian, but it never made sense to me that God would create people knowing that they would eventually be eternally tortured in agony by his own will.

I am now a Christian Universalist. There is no such thing as eternal Hell. Every soul however, must be judged and given correction.

Also, everyone is saved. Not just Christians. EVERYONE. By virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, all men and women have been saved.

Yes, the only way to the Father is through Jesus, but why does God limit this as something we must understand while alive on Earth?

So, in my beliefs, when we die we will be given correction depending what we believed and the things we did. ALSO, the things that we do on Earth, must be "reaped" when we die.

Murders, Rapists, Theives... they will be given a punishment that fits an equal measure to the suffering they have caused..

BUT.. they will be saved. EVERYONE is SAVED. MUSLIM, BUDDIST, ATHEIST... YOU ARE SAVED. NO ONE NEEDS TO WORRY ANYMORE ABOUT DEATH.

AMEN.

(I have recognized how great God is, but I continually suffer on this Earth. The realization of this truth about the life hereafter desperately makes me long for death. My CTB is motivated now from my desire to be finished with this Earthly life so that I can live eternally with God)

Oh, there is a hell! We live there, look around. People in need of food, medical care, homeless, loneliness, frightened....I have come to the conclusion that hell is very real as we are in it.

 

[Venus13]

This is similar to the dismantling of my christian faith. I personally went from catholic to born again to a gnostic christian, whatever that means I could never define.

Saved from what exactly? Why would a god create people under "his" terms and in such brutal conditions so we could be saved from his own choices?

It seems like even simple questions get it all mixed up. If the place was supposedly made by him and we were too, why did he create this place for us to be placed here by him under his conditions, to be saved by him? Does he get off watching this silly, malicious journey we all supposedly go through? Corrects us to what? Some baseline he knows we're not going to meet when he sets us out into this cold realm? l know my pets aren't going to meet some high behavior their bodies and minds don't allow, is that beyond god's understanding?

I own rats for pets, very joyful and loving little beings much like us when we're first born. Why would I get a rat that I chose to get, place it under brutal conditions by my choice, and then expect him to be loving and in gratitude when I pick him up and save him from the conditions I chose to put him in? I'm better to my rats than this all powerful being is to his greatest creations. And I don't want to hear growth or anything like that. Internal growth from what to what? What are we doing here? Why put us into faulty minds and bodies and then correct us when it operates the way it does?

I'm a spiritual person and believe in something. I stayed a christian for a long time. Everyone has their stories about how they were 7 to 14 years old when the christian logical failings made itself apparent. Not me, my ignorant ass stayed praying to christ in faith until my mid-twenties. I wasn't a hateful conservative christian though, i thought I knew the real christ that was loving to all just like this claim.

That obviously crumbled. I think simulation theory is my placement now. Whatever is viewing us loves the drama. It loves the different characters and the different highs and lows. You want a good hero's tale? It taps into some athlete's story of strife and overcoming playing out. Wants a good romance? Taps into some couple lost in their ways. Wants a horror story? Oh yea, the viewer's favorite genre, plenty to see there.

And I don't believe in true escape from it. We'll always return to this just like the unfortunate event that landed us here. I don't believe in metaphysical justice being served. It needs good guys and bad guys for the game to be fun. Even the christ figure couldn't exist and matter without the opposing adversary. It's just a game. Whatever this is loves a good story.

Or the atheists are right and it's just garbage from nothing, and I make all this up because the chaos is so beyond me I need something to feel okay about it.

Honest and childlike faith is a dangerous thing to fall from I think.

 

[makethepainstop]

This is similar to the dismantling of my christian faith. I personally went from catholic to born again to a gnostic christian, whatever that means I could never define.

Saved from what exactly? Why would a god create people under "his" terms and in such brutal conditions so we could be saved from his own choices?

It seems like even simple questions get it all mixed up. If the place was supposedly made by him and we were too, why did he create this place for us to be placed here by him under his conditions, to be saved by him? Does he get off watching this silly, malicious journey we all supposedly go through? Corrects us to what? Some baseline he knows we're not going to meet when he sets us out into this cold realm? l know my pets aren't going to meet some high behavior their bodies and minds don't allow, is that beyond god's understanding?

I own rats for pets, very joyful and loving little beings much like us when we're first born. Why would I get a rat that I chose to get, place it under brutal conditions by my choice, and then expect him to be loving and in gratitude when I pick him up and save him from the conditions I chose to put him in? I'm better to my rats than this all powerful being is to his greatest creations. And I don't want to hear growth or anything like that. Internal growth from what to what? What are we doing here? Why put us into faulty minds and bodies and then correct us when it operates the way it does?

I'm a spiritual person and believe in something. I stayed a christian for a long time. Everyone has their stories about how they were 7 to 14 years old when the christian logical failings made itself apparent. Not me, my ignorant ass stayed praying to christ in faith until my mid-twenties. I wasn't a hateful conservative christian though, i thought I knew the real christ that was loving to all just like this claim.

That obviously crumbled. I think simulation theory is my placement now. Whatever is viewing us loves the drama. It loves the different characters and the different highs and lows. You want a good hero's tale? It taps into some athlete's story of strife and overcoming playing out. Wants a good romance? Taps into some couple lost in their ways. Wants a horror story? Oh yea, the viewer's favorite genre, plenty to see there.

And I don't believe in true escape from it. We'll always return to this just like the unfortunate event that landed us here. I don't believe in metaphysical justice being served. It needs good guys and bad guys for the game to be fun. Even the christ figure couldn't exist and matter without the opposing adversary. It's just a game. Whatever this is loves a good story.

Or the atheists are right and it's just garbage from nothing, and I make all this up because the chaos is so beyond me I need something to feel okay about it.

Honest and childlike faith is a dangerous thing to fall from I think.

Reincarnation allows for soul development and growth. If God went to the trouble to make a soul, would not destroying that soul just be counter-productive? In each life we can be punished for our transgressions in a previous life, so that would be more logical.

 

[Venus13]

Reincarnation allows for soul development and growth. If God went to the trouble to make a soul, would not destroying that soul just be counter-productive? In each life we can be punished for our transgressions in a previous life, so that would be more logical.

I hear you because I've spent time thinking this too, but can you define soul growth? The core is what it is, the soul is the essence. It doesn't need development, it just likes to do dumb things like put on painful bodies.

I'm much more comfortable with the idea of implosion. The soul is what it is, nothing needs to grow, be added, or be changed. We implode the idea of separation and go back to the center, but we'll expand back out in my opinion, always.

The most mundane definition of karma is ludicrous to me. It's actually just as damaging as this tyrannical daddy god issue we have in the west. There is no punishment, it's not the right word. An antelope being eaten alive by a lion isn't suffering for their sins as a bad frog in another lifetime. A kid suffering from cancer isn't getting what they deserve for being Stalin last time.

What I think might transfer from one life to the next is perhaps negative emotional bearings that might need to be shed for a more pleasant next life. Even so, you'll eventually stack up some bad shit in the coming lives. That cycle is eternal. I think it's wanted by whatever has a hand here if you believe in something running this.

 

[Forever Sleep]

If the place was supposedly made by him and we were too, why did he create this place for us to be placed here by him under his conditions, to be saved by him?

You're so right... It's like that Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy thing .

Reincarnation allows for soul development and growth. If God went to the trouble to make a soul, would not destroying that soul just be counter-productive? In each life we can be punished for our transgressions in a previous life, so that would be more logical.

But how does the soul learn if it doesn't remember the mistakes its flesh suite made in it's previous incarnation? The majority of us don't remember our past lives. Is the goal then- to get to a point where you are so enlightened that you do remember your past lives and live a 'perfect' life without any mistakes and feel deeply repentant enough for all your previous mistakes in order to be released?

And- released into what? Nothingness? Or, are we angels or something? Just curious really. Plenty of people do believe that life's difficulties are there to teach us valiable lessons or as punishment for some earlier misdemeanor- seems more worthwhile than being trapped in some sadistic experiment. Still- I'm curious- to what end?

Plus- is the soul connected to intelligence/ consciousness/ self awareness (ie. The bits of us that decide to sin?) In which case- are we really the same person being reincarnated over and over? If so- again- why don't more of us remember our past lives? If we are given a new conscience- how does that fit with this idea of continual growth?

Or, do our underlying souls make all the decisions? In which case- can my soul make the decision to sin now but forget all the times it has decided to do so (and been punished for it) in the past?

I can only conclude that if reincarnation is real, our souls/ consciousness are wiped at birth each time round- yet we are still expected to improve... Sounds about as fair as everything else in this world so- why not? I can't say I have an absolute firm belief in anything but I can't get my head around why people find comfort in many religions out there.

Moreover- looking at how the world has been designed- if in fact it was designed by an entity- I don't see how anyone could believe that entity has good or fair intentions.

 

[makethepainstop]

The point of not being able to remember previous lives, is so that the soul starts life fresh.
Can you imagine how bad it would hurt to know you were rich, strong, or healthy, or good-looking in a previous life, only to not be given these things in the present life? We are granted free will, however, if you do some really bad stuff with your free will, then you get bad karma. My personal karma has been so bad I must have been Hitler, or they have confused my records with somebody else!

 

[gimzero]

No point or a hell.