scared in going to hell

[lonerclown666]

im not religious but what if the old tales are true and heaven and hell exist? i dont want go to hell but hell is better than forever darkness, darkness is hell for me there is not a win for me i just want to end the pain

 

[deadverysoon]

im not religious but what if the old tales are true and heaven and hell exist? i dont want go to hell but hell is better than forever darkness, darkness is hell for me there is not a win for me i just want to end the pain

my life already was hell.
so it couldnt be worse.

i think there is peace for everyone.

 

[FuneralCry]

There is no evidence of their being anything after death. I believe there is nothing and that thought comforts me. The only thing that scares me is this life. This life is hell.

 

[Snake of Eden]

It is possible that there is an afterlife. I am afraid of hell too. It is what keeps me from ctb

 

[Jumping_realms]

I think darkness/nothingness sounds pretty inviting.

 

[just_wanna_die]

im not religious but what if the old tales are true and heaven and hell exist? i dont want go to hell but hell is better than forever darkness, darkness is hell for me there is not a win for me i just want to end the pain

@lonerclown666

I find it helpful to discover where and how fairy stories like hell come from. The truth about hell is that it began as Egyptian propaganda! It's true. From Egypt, "hell" made its way to Greece, where it was embellished. Finally, and later, much later than people think, it made its way into Christianity, where it has remained to this day. So when did Hell begin? The earliest Near Eastern religions had NO concept of hell. Instead, they had a dreary underworld, almost like a purgatory where dead people "lived" as ghosts or shades/shadows. That is an awfully rough description. People who are alive are in the "above world" and when they die, we bury them, so then they go to "the underworld", so to speak. "Hell" was an innovation of Egypt's Middle Kingdom, after the Old Kingdom (the bosses who built the pyramids) broke down in 2181 BC. The priests needed a better set of mythologies to keep people in line paying their taxes and obeying the Pharaoh, and this totally made-up story worked like a charm! It was for the purpose of controlling people (I know, what a shock, right?!). It's one thing to control you during your life by sending you to jail, but if they can convince you that they can effectively control you after you've died in some punishing afterlife for eternity, well, that's real power! A group of texts from this period (the Coffin Texts) describes an underworld as containing fiery rivers and lakes, as well as fire demons who threatened the wicked. Anyway, the Greeks added a place called "Tartarus," a pit of punishment that existed inside the larger underworld, which was called "hades." Stop me if any of this starts to sound familiar. Neither the Sumerian religion nor the ancient Hebrew religion had any concept of hell, and later-day Judaism seldom ventures farther than an underworld. The modern version of hell doesn't appear in Christianity until long after Jesus. The earliest explicit mention is from Hippolytus in about 230 AD, some 8 or 10 generations, or 200 years, after Jesus. In fact, the Bible nowhere teaches that heaven is the reward of the saved or that an ever-burning hell is the destiny of the condemned.

For a more in-depth deep dive on hell, look for Dr. Bart D. Erhman's recently published book "Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife".

Or search on YouTube for "Smith-Pettit Lecture - The History of Heaven and Hell" and/or "Life after Death in the Bible and Beyond with OUP". In both Dr. Erhman (a long time Biblical scholar who has studied the ancient texts in the original Greek & Hebrew) gives an interesting lecture on many points in his book explaining where these ideas came from and when, placing them in the proper historical context.


Hope that helps you and anyone else who happens to read this.

 

[OnlyTheWind]

@lonerclown666

I find it helpful to discover where and how fairy stories like hell come from. The truth about hell is that it began as Egyptian propaganda! It's true. From Egypt, "hell" made its way to Greece, where it was embellished. Finally, and later, much later than people think, it made its way into Christianity, where it has remained to this day. So when did Hell begin? The earliest Near Eastern religions had NO concept of hell. Instead, they had a dreary underworld, almost like a purgatory where dead people "lived" as ghosts or shades/shadows. That is an awfully rough description. People who are alive are in the "above world" and when they die, we bury them, so then they go to "the underworld", so to speak. "Hell" was an innovation of Egypt's Middle Kingdom, after the Old Kingdom (the bosses who built the pyramids) broke down in 2181 BC. The priests needed a better set of mythologies to keep people in line paying their taxes and obeying the Pharaoh, and this totally made-up story worked like a charm! It was for the purpose of controlling people (I know, what a shock, right?!). It's one thing to control you during your life by sending you to jail, but if they can convince you that they can effectively control you after you've died in some punishing afterlife for eternity, well, that's real power! A group of texts from this period (the Coffin Texts) describes an underworld as containing fiery rivers and lakes, as well as fire demons who threatened the wicked. Anyway, the Greeks added a place called "Tartarus," a pit of punishment that existed inside the larger underworld, which was called "hades." Stop me if any of this starts to sound familiar. Neither the Sumerian religion nor the ancient Hebrew religion had any concept of hell, and later-day Judaism seldom ventures farther than an underworld. The modern version of hell doesn't appear in Christianity until long after Jesus. The earliest explicit mention is from Hippolytus in about 230 AD, some 8 or 10 generations, or 200 years, after Jesus. In fact, the Bible nowhere teaches that heaven is the reward of the saved or that an ever-burning hell is the destiny of the condemned.

For a more in-depth deep dive on hell, look for Dr. Bart D. Erhman's recently published book "Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife".

Or search on YouTube for "Smith-Pettit Lecture - The History of Heaven and Hell" and/or "Life after Death in the Bible and Beyond with OUP". In both Dr. Erhman (a long time Biblical scholar who has studied the ancient texts in the original Greek & Hebrew) gives an interesting lecture on many points in his book explaining where these ideas came from and when, placing them in the proper historical context.


Hope that helps you and anyone else who happens to read this.

Excellent post. It's always refreshing to see some research being done instead of blindly accepting what's been parroted by the ignorant for centuries.

 

[toforigivelife]

You're not going to hell.

The psychic, spiritual people say that those who die by suicide do not go to hell. One even said that life itself is considered a suicide.

Pope Francis has stated that those who die by suicide do not go to hell.

Those who've had near death experiences have stated that there is no hell. And those who don't believe at all say that there is no Heaven or hell.

Don't worry about hell.









And here we have a man of the cloth, a pastor, a devoted religious guy who after being near death and having a near death experience admits that life is anything but a God-given gift and that coming back was a huge mistake.

 

[Naufrago]

I don't believe in hell. It is a fact that this doctrine was created by man, who wants to have control of taboos.
I don't want to cause polemics or theological argument. But, the Jewish traditions of heaven and hell, and the doctrine of demons, as recorded in the Hebrew scriptures, derived mainly from the Zoroastrians during the times when the Jews were under the political and cultural dominion of the Persians. Zoroaster, like the Egyptians, taught about the "day of judgment", however, he connected this event to the end of the world.
They believed that an unincorporated soul, if properly equipped with magic formulas, could escape the evil spirits that interfered in their path and continue further to the trial room of Osiris, where, if innocent of "murder, theft, falsehood, adultery, theft, and selfishness," she would be admitted to the realms of blessing. If that soul were heavy on the scales and if it were in debt, it would be confined to hell, to the Devoured.
Anyone who has studied the Hebrew and Greek scriptures knows about these doctrines.

 

[NaughtyGirl]

There is no evidence of hell to be found anywhere in the world.

The fact people bring it up tells me they haven't thought it through very thoroughly yet. As a former Catholic who believed that it's either nothing or heaven and hell I can understand where you are coming from and I assure you there is nothing to be afraid of.

There are myriads upon myriads of possibilities and if some sort of godlike figure exists, be it an actual god or an alien running our simulated universe, we have absolutely no way of deciphering its mind. Perhaps the world we're living in right now is just a test? Perhaps the people who kill themselves the fastest are the real mvps. Perhaps there is a deity but it rewards people who are rational (and thus don't believe in gods or any particular form of afterlife) so you're actually safe? Maybe the only people who go to hell are those who wait for the natural death? There is absolutely no reason to think that any option is safer than any other, thus the concern becomes completely irrelevant.

You may as well be afraid to use the internet because there may exist a god who just hates the idea of people connecting with one another this way. If this prospect doesn't discourage you then you know what follows.

 

[TotallyIsolated]

It's all lies there's no heaven or hell

 

[fox_wannabe]

@just_wanna_die It is beautiful answer and I see you have putted great amount of work into It as well as to research. Please could you tell me what do you know about afterlife? Can we trust NDEs as a source of knowledge about afterlife?

 

[toforigivelife]

@just_wanna_die It is beautiful answer and I see you have putted great amount of work into It as well as to research. Please could you tell me what do you know about afterlife? Can we trust NDEs as a source of knowledge about afterlife?

I hope that it's okay if I add my two cents even though just_wanna_die was the one you were speaking to.

I also figured since it I'm the one who keeps posting these NDE videos - lol! - maybe I should throw my thoughts into the mix. (I'm not trying to be nosy, I'm hoping to be helpful.)

To some the idea of an afterlife is very comforting and others truly hope that when life is over it's over.

I have days where I'm comforted by the thought of an afterlife and days where I truly hope that there is nothing after death.

However, according to a great number of people from all over the world - whether they're atheists, agnostics or believers - if there is something after death we have nothing to fear and everything to look forward to (and, again, people who die by suicide are not singled out for punishment, from what I can gather).

I took a renewed interest in NDEs over the past 10 months.

While some accounts definitely sound like nothing more than hallucinations produced by the psyche and some people are obviously making things up and some people who have claimed to have had near death experiences have since been exposed as a basically scam artists who have a service they're trying to sell or want to take advantage of vulnerable people in a different way - a lot of these accounts are fairly interesting and compelling.

The ones that I found the most interesting are the ones that were told by healthy, stable, educated, fairly skeptical or agnostic people who have happy lives, solid marriages and relationships, children whom they love and who then have a near death experience and are adamant to stay in this beautiful, loving "other side" rather than return to this life even though they have so much to live for.

The experiences involving what is known as after death communication that can be independently verified by third parties are probably the most interesting to me.

This one blew me away. This really is an incredible story. Randy Schiefer was asked to deliver a message from a deceased stranger and it's just a fascinating story.

The video is about an hour long but, when you have time, it is worth watching. The elements and synchronicities involved in the story are important.

Mr. Schiefer was a non-religious agnostic with a scientific background in criminal forensics.

(Mr. Schiefer also encounters his deceased brother in in law who died of a drug overdose. A self-inflicted death where someone still wound up the good place.)






I also found Paula Lenz's experience after her brother died to be very interesting, another after death communication.






We're still mere mortals at this point so obviously we don't know for certain if there is an afterlife. But, like I said, there are some compelling experiences that seem to confirm survival after death.

Even science and medicine are taking notice of near death experiences.

Sometimes I don't know if the thought of an afterlife comforts me or not. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Be careful when it comes to believing every NDE account you hear for the reasons I already posted.

Listening to some accounts I sit there thinking, "That does not sound heavenly." And after listening for a while or listening for a second time I think, "That sounds more like their psyche at work than a glimpse into the divine or the afterlife.

I hope I've given you two good examples of two credible people sharing their experiences and I hope this information helps you.

On the days where I'm hoping that there is nothing after death I have to sometimes remind myself that those who've come as close as possible to death and lived to tell the tale reassure us that there is nothing to fear.

 

[orangepotato]

There's absolutely no scientific evidence of something like Hell existing.

 

[fox_wannabe]

For those who read this: I fully support and hope for you to achieve whatever state after death you wish for, including total oblivion and disappearance of subjective experience.

@toforigivelife I do not disregard NDEs but I do not believe in them being good thing. If they are hallucinations I surely would love to be spared the experience of meeting Jesus or god, besides I do not believe any NDE would show me the real god or angel. I do believe that If they are real and independent of brain they are something wrong, as in all NDEs people or souls are forced back into the earth.

I heard people remember their past lives, or lives between lives, for those who believe in reincarnation, and they said they were sent back on earth. This truly scares me. Watch "forever conscious research channel" on YT for more info. NDEs exist but they might not be anything good. This world is twisted and cruel and we shouldn't be here in the first place.

 

[Under The Graveyard]

1 year before you were born, you ceased to exist.

1 day after you die, you will cease to exist.

There is no heaven or hell, god, jesus or satan, just as there is no santa claus or easter bunny.

The heavens and god were made up by people who feared death, and making up said fairy tales eased the minds of those heading to the other side.

 

[toforigivelife]

For those who read this: I fully support and hope for you to achieve whatever state after death you wish for, including total oblivion and disappearance of subjective experience.

@toforigivelife I do not disregard NDEs but I do not believe in them being good thing. If they are hallucinations I surely would love to be spared the experience of meeting Jesus or god, besides I do not believe any NDE would show me the real god or angel. I do believe that If they are real and independent of brain they are something wrong, as in all NDEs people or souls are forced back into the earth.

I heard people remember their past lives, or lives between lives, for those who believe in reincarnation, and they said they were sent back on earth. This truly scares me. Watch "forever conscious research channel" on YT for more info. NDEs exist but they might not be anything good. This world is twisted and cruel and we shouldn't be here in the first place.

I absolutely agree with your last sentence.

It is unhealthy to listen to people's tales of NDEs.

I'm glad I realized that a lot of them sound like hallucinations (or that they were just flat out made up by the people telling them), a comfort that your brain gives you in times of trauma or a comfort that your brain gives you as it is dying.

I just wanted to respond to your comment since I'm the one who posts all of these NDE accounts.

However, I do feel that there are some experiences that are hard to explain way.

And, again, from all that I can gather, if there is survival beyond death it is nothing to fear, it's a positive thing.

 

[butterfly]

I think the higher power whatever that is to you knows the pain we are in. Just like someone dying of cancer and who has the choice to die with dignity to end their pain. Nobody knows the pain we are in unless you've been there. I'm in so much pain from severe depression death is the only peace. God knows my pain and therefore heaven is waiting not hell.

 

[just_wanna_die]

@just_wanna_die It is beautiful answer and I see you have putted great amount of work into It as well as to research. Please could you tell me what do you know about afterlife? Can we trust NDEs as a source of knowledge about afterlife?

@fox_wannabe

I responded to a thread, my first post here on SS, "How lethal is Numbutal?", and explained how I survived about 15 grams of N 3 years ago. In it, I wrote briefly of my experience and how I remembered nothing. There was no pain, no fear, no dreams, nothing! Not even blackness. I saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing, thought nothing. Don't even remember "falling asleep" (of course we never really do when was go to bed each night. The next day you don't remember exactly when you fell asleep, right?) The only memories I have were when I was starting to wake up after what I was told was a 12 to 13 day long coma. I was out for nearly 2 weeks, but to me, it could have been 12 to 13 hours or 12 to 13 years. After awaking in the hospital, one of the other doctors told me I was very "lucky" because they said I was dead or very VERY near death and that he had never had a patient so close to death and still come back.

So for me, based on my personal experience, there was no afterlife. I did not see or meet god or the devil, deceased loved ones (people or pets), no bright lights, no walking through tunnels, no voices calling to me to come or to go back, or seeing my life pass before my eyes, or any visions of paradise or damnation, or anything else that could be called a "near death experience". It was just a whole lotta nothing. And nothing is not another form of something. I mean absolutely nothing. Oblivion might be the best word. Whatever fear of death I had before this is gone. Actually, my only fear now is failing again, i.e., waking up in a hospital for a 2nd time.

So when I came across this thread of "scared in going to hell", I posted what I did on the history of hell based on my own discoveries while trying to ease any fears I had about the possibility of any hell in preparation for my own cbt and how it is all made-up nonsense that has been passed along through the millennia and taken as being real and believable. Hope that answers your question.

 

[fox_wannabe]

@fox_wannabe

I responded to a thread, my first post here on SS, "How lethal is Numbutal?", and explained how I survived about 15 grams of N 3 years ago. In it, I wrote briefly of my experience and how I remembered nothing. There was no pain, no fear, no dreams, nothing! Not even blackness. I saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing, thought nothing. Don't even remember "falling asleep" (of course we never really do when was go to bed each night. The next day you don't remember exactly when you fell asleep, right?) The only memories I have were when I was starting to wake up after what I was told was a 12 to 13 day long coma. I was out for nearly 2 weeks, but to me, it could have been 12 to 13 hours or 12 to 13 years. After awaking in the hospital, one of the other doctors told me I was very "lucky" because they said I was dead or very VERY near death and that he had never had a patient so close to death and still come back.

So for me, based on my personal experience, there was no afterlife. I did not see or meet god or the devil, deceased loved ones (people or pets), no bright lights, no walking through tunnels, no voices calling to me to come or to go back, or seeing my life pass before my eyes, or any visions of paradise or damnation, or anything else that could be called a "near death experience". It was just a whole lotta nothing. And nothing is not another form of something. I mean absolutely nothing. Oblivion might be the best word. Whatever fear of death I had before this is gone. Actually, my only fear now is failing again, i.e., waking up in a hospital for a 2nd time.

So when I came across this thread of "scared in going to hell", I posted what I did on the history of hell based on my own discoveries while trying to ease any fears I had about the possibility of any hell in preparation for my own cbt and how it is all made-up nonsense that has been passed along through the millennia and taken as being real and believable. Hope that answers your question.

Thank you for answering <3
It might be a good news. Now I will have to sleep and really accept the idea of there being nothing. I am trying to somehow dodge this conclusion, but please do not judge me for it.

 

[Circles]

According to the medieval Cathars we're already in hell. Which quite frankly I can believe more.

 

[just_wanna_die]

Thank you for answering <3
It might be a good news. Now I will have to sleep and really accept the idea of there being nothing. I am trying to somehow dodge this conclusion, but please do not judge me for it.

You're welcome @fox_wannabe.

No judgment, we all have to come to terms with our eventual demise no matter how or when it will occur and what we believe it will be like.

It is funny that you mention sleep because sleep researchers have discovered that when a person sleeps, we only dream about 3 hours a night on average during a typical 7 to 8 hour sleep. This is not all in one 3 hour block of time, but broken up throughout the night, 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 45 minutes later and so on. We may remember some of our dreams after we awake, but then what are we doing during the times (perhaps 4 to 5 hours a night) when we are asleep and NOT dreaming? We see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing, think or dream of nothing, we are basically "dead to the world" and when we are sunk in sound sleep we have no cares or concerns at all. We could die while in a deep sleep and never know it. So for me, I have concluded that death and sleep are very similar. Except one is temporary and the other is permanent. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Snake of Eden]

when we are asleep and NOT dreaming? We see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing, think or dream of nothing, we are basically "dead to the world" and when we are sunk in sound sleep we have no cares or concerns at all. We could die while in a deep sleep and never know it. So for me, I have concluded that death and sleep are very similar. Except one is temporary and the other is permanent. Just my 2 cents.

maybe thats why some people who clinically die have NDEs and others dont. Maybe they are dreaming and the others are simply unconscious

 

[Hurt]

We are living in hell. Not going to there.

 

[NaughtyGirl]

We see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing, think or dream of nothing, we are basically "dead to the world" and when we are sunk in sound sleep we have no cares or concerns at all. We could die while in a deep sleep and never know it.

I don't think even the deepest coma is really like death. Unconsciousness seems to come in different flavours.

 

[Snake of Eden]

I don't think even the deepest coma is really like death. Unconsciousness seems to come in different flavours.

Its the closest thing though that we are able to compare it with

 

[Following Enoch]

Ignore the posts that say there is no scientific evidence of hell therefore no reason to believe it exists. By definition hell is metaphysical and therefore beyond the reach of science to behold. So no one can say it does or doesn't exist. In the absence of physical evidence all we can do is offer an argument for or against its existence.

Personally I don't believe hell exists because that would make it an intentional place which would have needed an intelligent creator to make and I can't see much intelligence in making people suffer eternally. It seems to me that death is at worst the return to the state of non-existence before we were born; or at best, the transition to a better place, which fulfils the purpose of our existence in the first place. I hope it's the latter but either way there seems to be no way to escape death, so having some say over the manner we go might be the next best thing.

 

[Snake of Eden]

Ignore the posts that say there is no scientific evidence of hell therefore no reason to believe it exists. By definition hell is metaphysical and therefore beyond the reach of science to behold. So no one can say it does or doesn't exist. In the absence of physical evidence all we can do is offer an argument for or against its existence.

Personally I don't believe hell exists because that would make it an intentional place which would have needed an intelligent creator to make and I can't see much intelligence in making people suffer eternally. It seems to me that death is at worst the return to the state of non-existence before we were born; or at best, the transition to a better place, which fulfils the purpose of our existence in the first place. I hope it's the latter but either way there seems to be no way to escape death, so having some say over the manner we go might be the next best thing.

This is by far the best argument i seen on this thread. Yes you are right. Nobody ever claimed that hell is a physical place to offer evidence for it. It is best to argue the essentiality of hell and what that means for us when we die

 

[MrOptions]

Hell is here on earth.

 

[butterfly]

I can't wait to fall asleep and never wake up.