Fear of Hell

[ke1985]

To keep you in check religions tend to have a love and punishment system setup. (ex. Christianity/Catholicism have the love of the heavens, but the punishment of hell for not believing) This fear of hell is paralyzing and the best defense mechanism known to humanity, it is a fear so powerful that many will not leave their belief no matter how much evidence. Who wants to live in a fiery pit for all of eternity right?

The truth is people tend to develop a powerful emotional connection with their imaginary friend (God) and any other higher being under them (Jesus, Saints, Muhammad, etc). This emotional connection creates a feeling that someone greater than them loves them unconditionally, and love is a bond which is very difficult to break. This feeling does not prove that they are correct about the outrageous claims they are making with their religion. This bond grows even stronger within people if they have experienced the death of a loved one and now believe that person is with God(s). The emotional bond grows stronger everytime they pray or credit these higher beings with good occurrences in their lives. People do not want to let go of the satisfying and nice feelings they get from their belief and therefore ignore the evidence as if they never heard or read it.

Mental Defense Mechanisms

I am having a hard time trying to find the faith when I read the above. It's so frustrating to not be sure of it all.​

 

[razeontherock]

Are you trying to "find the Faith?" If so, by your own words, you should be avoiding reading things like that. It is factually incorrect on so many levels as to not be worth the effort of trying to correct it. You will find Faith in the Gospel of John! Read that ...

 

[Faulty]

The problem here is the assumption that early Christians (or whoever you wish) created Hell. That's a lot like claiming the ancient Egyptians created sand.

If you think Christianity is false, you have to assume it made up Hell as a part of the system, but it doesn't actually prove anything, because if Christianity is true, then Hell predates even Adam and it was just there and we had nothing to say about it or to do with it.

One could claim all they want that Egyptians hated their grass, so they invented sand and covered it all up a long time ago, and no matter how much they sincerely convince themselves of that fact, it doesn't actually make them correct on any level.

 

[Timothew]

The problem here is the assumption that early Christians (or whoever you wish) created Hell. That's a lot like claiming the ancient Egyptians created sand.

If you think Christianity is false, you have to assume it made up Hell as a part of the system, but it doesn't actually prove anything, because if Christianity is true, then Hell predates even Adam and it was just there and we had nothing to say about it or to do with it.

One could claim all they want that Egyptians hated their grass, so they invented sand and covered it all up a long time ago, and no matter how much they sincerely convince themselves of that fact, it doesn't actually make them correct on any level.

The Other problem is assuming there is a hell of eternal torment.

According to the bible, the wages of sin is death, not eternal torment in hell. The hebrew word that is sometimes translated hell in the Old Testament is Sheol and it means the grave.

 

[razeontherock]

it means the grave.

You do realize this says nothing, right?

 

[Timothew]

You do realize this says nothing, right?

The grave is nothingness? Yes, I agree. There is no eternal torment in Sheol. When Jacob said he would go to Sheol, he meant the grave, not hot hell.

 

[ViaCrucis]

To keep you in check religions tend to have a love and punishment system setup. (ex. Christianity/Catholicism have the love of the heavens, but the punishment of hell for not believing) This fear of hell is paralyzing and the best defense mechanism known to humanity, it is a fear so powerful that many will not leave their belief no matter how much evidence. Who wants to live in a fiery pit for all of eternity right?

The truth is people tend to develop a powerful emotional connection with their imaginary friend (God) and any other higher being under them (Jesus, Saints, Muhammad, etc). This emotional connection creates a feeling that someone greater than them loves them unconditionally, and love is a bond which is very difficult to break. This feeling does not prove that they are correct about the outrageous claims they are making with their religion. This bond grows even stronger within people if they have experienced the death of a loved one and now believe that person is with God(s). The emotional bond grows stronger everytime they pray or credit these higher beings with good occurrences in their lives. People do not want to let go of the satisfying and nice feelings they get from their belief and therefore ignore the evidence as if they never heard or read it.

Mental Defense Mechanisms

I am having a hard time trying to find the faith when I read the above. It's so frustrating to not be sure of it all.​

The above bold paragraphs demonstrate an overly simplistic view of religion in general to the point of not understanding the world's religions at all.

It may adequately describe a few religious people, but it hardly describes most let alone all.

As such, it's simply an opinion piece--at least as stated, isolated in its present form--and has no more weight than if I said I think chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla.

-CryptoLutheran