The efficiency of hell.

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What's up with Hell? Is God trying to teach me a lesson by sending me to hell? I don't believe in God, so, by Christians standards, I should be going to hell. Add to it, I sin by telling lies. I refuse to be one of those people, however, who steals, rapes, and murders, and gets "saved" at the end of his life. Supposedly, if he who rapes and steals accepts Christ into his heart, he will be granted an eternal happiness in heaven. Me, being a liar and a disbeliever, will go to hell.

So, here's my question. Since I'm going to hell, and I don't believe in it, is God teaching me a lesson by sending me to hell? He can't be. I don't come out of hell, ever. I don't come out of hell as a better person than I was before I had gone to hell. I spend an eternity in pain and suffering, dealt to me from an all-loving god. So, what does hell achieve?

I think it's a way for God to get his vengeance. A way for God to deliberately take out all of his rage on us, and punish us with something worse than death, every single day forever and ever and ever.

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@Quinn phil,

A man went to heaven, and was shown around by St. Peter...Along the way he met two other fellows, and he inquired as to how they were spending eternity....One did a lot of reading and the other did a lot of sleeping... After being bored for a few days, the saved one asked St. Peter if he could check out hell... There he found a great party in progess, with musicians playing, girls dancing, theives theiving, and all drinking and acting smashed... Returning to heaven, the saved one told St. Peter of his adventures, and said why couldn't we get a band around here??? St. Peter said what!!!You want me to hire a band for three people???

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@Fido,

Fido;116119 wrote:

A man went to heaven, and was shown around by St. Peter...Along the way he met two other fellows, and he inquired as to how they were spending eternity....One did a lot of reading and the other did a lot of sleeping... After being bored for a few days, the saved one asked St. Peter if he could check out hell... There he found a great party in progess, with musicians playing, girls dancing, theives theiving, and all drinking and acting smashed... Returning to heaven, the saved one told St. Peter of his adventures, and said why couldn't we get a band around here??? St. Peter said what!!!You want me to hire a band for three people???

I've never seen Hell described as such a fun place. O:

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@Quinn phil,

Hell is just a concept to make you behave and support the church.
It does not work on unbelievers. The keys to the kingdom is a powerful concept to those who believe in an afterlife or for whom prospects in this life are so bad hope in the afterlife is all that keeps them going.
"When you feel blue, you bet that Job's got nothing on you"

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@Quinn phil,

Quinn;116133 wrote:

I've never seen Hell described as such a fun place. O:

Look about you...One man's hell is heaven for a fraction of a man...

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@Fido,

prothero;116136 wrote:

Hell is just a concept to make you behave and support the church.

Of course. Well, that's what I see it as. In the mind of most Americans, however, Hell is a real place.

prothero;116136 wrote:

It does not work on unbelievers. The keys to the kingdom is a powerful concept to those who believe in an afterlife or for whom prospects in this life are so bad hope in the afterlife is all that keeps them going.
"When you feel blue, you bet that Job's got nothing on you"

Right, Hell is definitely an effective concept. But this idea that God loves all of us equally, would suggest that he loves even the non-believers. So if the non-believers go to hell, then what's the point? God would know every aspect of the non-believers life, so he would know WHY he didn't believe. So, why would God send the non-believer to hell? Maybe I need a "personal relationship" with God, because right now it just doesn't add up. It's to contradictory for me to believe.

Fido;116158 wrote:

Look about you...One man's hell is heaven for a fraction of a man...

The context that I'm describing hell in, is the old-fashioned one, used by Christianity. The place that Christians say we will go to if we sin. Hell on earth is just a figure of speech. I have not met a man yet who would see, "eternal suffering", as any sort of heaven.

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@Quinn phil,

Quinn;116116 wrote:

I think it's a way for God to get his vengeance. A way for God to deliberately take out all of his rage on us, and punish us with something worse than death, every single day forever and ever and ever.

And that is why it doesn't exist. It's a better threat than a punishment. Wait do believe in hell or not?

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@YoungSocrates,

YoungSocrates;116183 wrote:

And that is why it doesn't exist. It's a better threat than a punishment. Wait do believe in hell or not?

People don't mind hell... They prefere hell by a large margin to nothing...Hell is not without hope...

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@Quinn phil,

Quinn;116116 wrote:

So, here's my question. Since I'm going to hell, and I don't believe in it, is God teaching me a lesson by sending me to hell? He can't be. I don't come out of hell, ever. I don't come out of hell as a better person than I was before I had gone to hell. I spend an eternity in pain and suffering, dealt to me from an all-loving god. So, what does hell achieve?

Quinn when I was a kid I asked our priest "what happens to the people who have not heard the gospel of Christ, will they go to hell?" The answer was yes and from that day forward I considered that type of Christian logic as flawed. Given that I did believe in god at the time I considered that man could not know the mind of god and perhaps it was a scare tactic. For this post I entered the question on google and the below excerpt seems to be the current consensus.

Quote:

If all people who have never heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ end up in hell, then that would be right because God would never do anything that is improper. On the other hand, if any of them end up in heaven, then it would be the right thing to do for the same reason

If there is a god then man is a poor representative of his thoughts.

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@Quinn phil,

If hell does exist, it must be an acceptable place. After all, in heaven you have nowhere higher to climb and nothing to work for. Some would say hell is other people, which seems entirely plausible... There are plenty of people who enjoy raising hell for the rest of us, and we just put them in a cell and give them everything they need.

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@Leonard,

YoungSocrates;116183 wrote:

And that is why it doesn't exist. It's a better threat than a punishment. Wait do believe in hell or not?

If you meant o say, "Wait do you believe in hell or not?", then no, I don't. It seems to me like just a more extreme version of the "You'll get coal in your stalking if you're bad." thing with Santa Claus. And if you're good, you'll get presents! (heaven)

Leonard;116591 wrote:

If hell does exist, it must be an acceptable place. After all, in heaven you have nowhere higher to climb and nothing to work for. Some would say hell is other people, which seems entirely plausible... There are plenty of people who enjoy raising hell for the rest of us, and we just put them in a cell and give them everything they need.

Heaven being an eternal bliss, one might also say, "If working for something better is what pleases you, that's what you can do here." Supposedly it's just whatever your heart desires. If hell is other people, then surely hell is effective. Other people who raise hell make the people who don't raise hell, better people. indirectly, I would say, they help society. But, I'm referring to the old fashioned, burning eternally, hell. I see that as completely useless, and contradictory from an all-loving god.

Psycobabble;116585 wrote:

Quinn when I was a kid I asked our priest "what happens to the people who have not heard the gospel of Christ, will they go to hell?" The answer was yes and from that day forward I considered that type of Christian logic as flawed. Given that I did believe in god at the time I considered that man could not know the mind of god and perhaps it was a scare tactic. For this post I entered the question on google and the below excerpt seems to be the current consensus.

If there is a god then man is a poor representative of his thoughts.

That's pretty much my story as well. Once, I was a happy Christian, but I saw too much stuff wrong with it. I went back and forth for a while, wanting to believe in God for my own security, but, you know... Beliefs and reason over-ride security sometimes. I asked the preacher so many questions, that he hated it. He just kept telling me to "accept god". Hell is a scare-tactic. What else can it be?

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@Quinn phil,

The old fashioned hell as a physical place rather than a state of mind is a strange one, to say the least. People assume walking on hot coals and being jabbed with burning spears when thinking of hell, as it is written. If one claims that those who believe and have been good will go to heaven, couldn't someone also say that one who believes in/fears hell and has been worthy of it will go to hell?
Maybe god invented hell for philosophers to enjoy, while everyone in heaven is blissfully unaware.

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@Leonard,

Leonard;117518 wrote:

Maybe god invented hell for philosophers to enjoy, while everyone in heaven is blissfully unaware.

Love it, may I quote you?:bigsmile:

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@Quinn phil,

The justice denied to believers in this life by their churches must be had some where, but clearly those who most preach it are the least to believe it...Like that Indian being torture by the Spanish said: If you people are going to heaven, I want to go to hell...

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@Quinn phil,

People who believe in all that have no rationality and logic in their thinking. It's their choice to believe in fairy tales though, I suppose.

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@Quinn phil,

People find it impossible to question forms they have been born into...

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@Quinn phil,

Leaving the cave we're born in is scary, so some people never do. Even though I assure them that it's actually quite nice out here.

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@Quinn phil,

Show them a picture...Even if people cannot live without God, they would find they can do well without the nonsense of organized religion...I think some people are just in it for the Christian Bonding... I used to hope some old lady with the farts would sit near me so I could forgive her without her ever knowing it...

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@Quinn phil,

If any of us end up in the hell that religious dolts tell us we're in for - then I am glad I didn't worship a god with less character and more hypocrisy then myself.

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@Quinn phil,

I wonder if you go to hell, you get to repeat the deeds or other hellish deeds while there. As in,if drugs are bad and make you go to hell for doing them, if i go there, will i be able to do all the drugs i want? Or if i raped and killed, would i be able to do that over and over in hell? or is it only that in heaven you're allowed to do the things you want? beacuse i mean,come on life is fun when you live on the dark side. And if that meant hell was somewhere like a deathmetal fans bedroom, i might not consider it such a bad place.

some people say hell is your sins reflected back to you and your vices turned against you

ok ok! with that being said, what if someone like said me, who is a masochist kills a bunch of people and torture them,does that mean that those ''sins'' will be turned aganist me? Beacuse if so, would that mean i would be tortured or the oppsite? beacuse either way, sounds like a win-win for me.:lol:If i like torture, yet it was my sin, must be i'll have the oppsite. I'm thinking a spa treatment forever ,what do you say?

However, my sadomasochistic interests are a whole different story, on a whole different forum. hahaha...

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The efficiency of hell.

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