Venting Venting about christianity and the fear of hell

[jawdropped123]

I spend alot of time on reddit and ive posted about wanted to CTB on there. Most responses are kindhearted people who doesnt want you to go but there is always that one christian that is trying to put the fear of hell in you.

I used to be a christian and if i came across my post i would have done the same. Because you feel like putting the fear of hell in people is the best way for them to also become christians. You really dont want them to go to hell. But what people dont understand is that the worst way to get people closer to god is by scaring them into it.

Being a christian feels like someone holding a gun to your head at all times and you dont realise this until youre not a christian anymore.
The gun symbolize dead and hell. As a christian you feel like if you dont talk to people about god than its your fault that they are going to hell. The guilt you feel is beyond this world. I was just a child with extreme anxiety about hell i didnt deserve that.

Why does this all loving and all knowing god would want us to burn in hell for not following him, for being gay, for lying for literally anything human beings do.

When christians try to scare me with hell now that im 21 i dont feel anything anymore and im glad.

When i was a christian i thought that people that are atheist are crazy but i get it now. I finally have peace.

 

[jimmy7754]

Western civilization has a gun to your head no matter what you believe.. even nothing..

 

[NorseHel]

I have plenty thoughts about christianity, but I'll sum them up as follows:

The american redneck, bible thumping, fear spreading version of christianity, and any version like it, is the complete opposite of what I believe it can and should represent. I genuinely believe it can be a beautiful thing that can enrich people's lives, but not when it's bastardised and abused to employ the kind of rhetoric that you've described here. If that is what is offered, then atheism certainly is the better option.

 

[lili]

Yeah for me if God existed it would feel like having a really abusive parent. If you commit one sin they will send you to hell to burn for eternity. Such as mortal sins which include suicide, or the sin of sex before marriage. Or abortion.

Then the idea of a higher power just having people be born in random circumstances, some lucky in wealthier environments with supportive families, others into families that have endured generational abuse and rampant poverty.

The inequality of suffering in this world would only demonstrate that if this higher being were real it would be a very cruel individual who is just staring at us as we suffer.

 

[jawdropped123]

Western civilization has a gun to your head no matter what you believe.. even nothing..

100%

 

[TotallyIsolated]

I love how Christians' reaction to an increasingly irreligious world that doesn't need them anymore is to double down on the hatred and threats of punishment. "Believe that hell exists or else you'll go to hell". They seem to genuinely not understand why this doesn't persuade people.

They gave up on the loving god long ago. Now they just shout about how persecuted they are for not being allowed to persecute people any more. Idiots.

 

[jawdropped123]

I agree we never asked to be here. Some of us are punished since birth..for what reason

Yeah for me if God existed it would feel like having a really abusive parent. If you commit one sin they will send you to hell to burn for eternity. Such as mortal sins which include suicide, or the sin of sex before marriage. Or abortion.

Then the idea of a higher power just having people be born in random circumstances, some lucky in wealthier environments with supportive families, others into families that have endured generational abuse and rampant poverty.

The inequality of suffering in this world would only demonstrate that if this higher being were real it would be a very cruel individual who is just staring at us as we sufs

 

[Un-]

I used to be a christian and if i came across my post i would have done the same. Because you feel like putting the fear of hell in people is the best way for them to also become christians. You really dont want them to go to hell. But what people dont understand is that the worst way to get people closer to god is by scaring them into it.

Being a christian feels like someone holding a gun to your head at all times and you dont realise this until youre not a christian anymore.
The gun symbolize dead and hell. As a christian you feel like if you dont talk to people about god than its your fault that they are going to hell. The guilt you feel is beyond this world. I was just a child with extreme anxiety about hell i didnt deserve that.

As someone floating in between Christianity, and the unknown, I understand how you felt. However, I really hate when Christians fear-monger - not all of them do, but it happens quite a lot, and it tarnishes both what Christianity stands for, and villainises it. I rarely talk about my beliefs with another person, but if I ever do, the first thing I'd tell them is that there's no point in being Christian if you feel forced to believe in it; if you're only in it to escape hell. Fear is no way to promote any idea, nevermind religion. Atheism would be better than that.

 

[symphony]

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Your metaphor with the gun is completely on point. I relate so much with everything you've written here. I, like you, am an ex-Christian atheist. All my knowledge and beliefs convince me that the existence of any afterlife is highly improbable, and the existence of any specific afterlife (e.g. the Christian Hell) even more so.

And yet, childhood indoctrination dies hard. I can't get rid of that voice in the back of my head telling me I'm doomed to burn for all eternity, suffering far, far more than I am now, far more than I could even imagine.

It helps me to remember that if the Christians are right, unless I reconvert (which seems unlikely given my current convictions), I'll end up in Hell regardless of the time and cause of my death, so fearing Hell shouldn't keep me from CTB, if that makes any sense.

 

[Journeytoletgo]

I fucking hate Christianity it's why many of us are here that wanted to CTB but we're instilled with the fear of hell. It's evil and cruel.

 

[eternalflame]

Fear of hell is what partialy keep me alive. I don't believe in kind and loving caring God, but what about bad one? After all he chose jews to be his chosen people and what about other nations? Some say about noahian laws or something but i'm sure some native americans in jungle in south america have no clue. Speaking about jews what about the holocaust/shoah?

 

[Superdeterminist]

I'm not really scared of hell because I'm confident that it's only an imagined idea of some nutjobs. I also don't want to let any such tyrant of a god scare me into continuing to live a shitty existence.

 

[ewigeruhe]

I think more important then to fear to be judged by whom ever one should simply live life as a kind and honest human being in any case.
There are thousands of differing religions out there and nobody can be 100% sure his is the correct one. And the religous texts were written by humans after all.

 

[eternalflame]

Well i'm an atheist but still have some irrational fear of hell. It's just that bad can get worse, you know? Also i feel sad that this pitful existence on earth is all that is.

 

[splashofvanilla]

Read about nihilism it all makes sense after that.

We are all just trying to justify living one way or another and religion no matter in which god you believe gives us purpose a path to follow.

That is why religion is so flawed it was made by us to control us and to give us a path a structure in this meaningless universe.

 

[eternalflame]

Nihilism hits hard.