When I realised how terrible eternal hell is it wasn't as perhaps some other things, but still it probably helped me towards liberal Christianity. What is your type of Christianity? I know you believe God is part of the physical world. I'll try to reply to our other convo soon, but it has turned into to large posts now XD
I hear you on the "large posts" by the way.
I'll try to be more focused.
I would consider myself to be a Universalist Christian. I once filled out an online questionnaire to see which branch of religion my beliefs most closely fit, and I also scored surprisingly closely to a 'Modern Day Quaker" of all things.
I think it was a 98 percent fit as I recall.
I ultimately believe that Christ will eventually redeem everyone.
FYI, I was baptized as a Catholic and raised in the Lutheran Church. I became a self professed 'atheist' somewhere around 15-16 and returned to theism in my mid twenties. I don't think I thought of myself as a 'Christian' for a few years after returning to theism and after I studied a little bit about the afterlife beliefs of Judaism and early Christian Theologians like Origen. Oddly enough my "Christianity" was solidified after reading a book by a Hindu Yogi by the name of Paramahansa Yogananda, called 'Autobiography of a Yogi'. If you are ever interested in comparative religion, and would like a more "Eastern" view of things, I highly recommend that book. It actually did more to help me understand "Christianity" than anything other than the Bible itself.
Your parents/ church were really into the creationist thing huh?
No. Actually my father was a big fan of science and my mother wasn't into science at all, and she trusted my father's judgement on such matters. Both of my parents "interpreted" the Bible in a more metaphorical way, not from a literal perspective. I didn't really have a lot of trouble with that aspect of the Bible, but the concept of eternal torment eventually eroded my faith in "religion", and made me really think about life quite differently. I'm still not a huge fan of 'religion' to this very day actually, although I recognize that I participate in one.
I didn't really attend all that much Church between the ages of 15 and 50, but I have found myself attending one of the local Christian churches on a semi-regular basis the last couple of years. It's not actually a Universalist Church, but I like a lot of folks in the congregation. At my age, I can easily filter out the dogma that I simply don't agree with.
I can see why people raised like that would hate fundamentalists. I find it hard to remember I once believed things I now consider immoral.
The moral aspect was ultimately what caused me to really think about the concept of "eternal torment" as "moral punishment" for "finite sin". I simply could not reconcile that concept with "Love your enemy", "turn the other cheek", and "be perfect" as God is perfect. It wasn't until I studied the history of Early Christianity, and studied Judaism, particularly the afterlife beliefs of Judaism during the life of Jesus, that I finally understood where "Christianity" took some wrong turns. FYI, the concept of eternal torment comes straight from the "pagan" (that's how the Jews listening the the Jewish Messiah would have perceived the religion of Rome) religion of the Romans, and from the concept of 'hades'. Augustine kludged the religion IMO, probably because he grew up in a pagan religion and never could quite let go of it.
I always found Hitchens and Dawkins too arrogant to take seriously.
FYI, me too.
![[serious]](/data/avatars/m/160/160873.jpg?1431539545){kind=avatar}
