Just how bad do you think would Hell would be?

[Helm]

If that's what it entails then it's not all that bad, even if I'm not too sure whats going on. The people on the top left seem to have been crushed by a giant ear, but it's certainly not boring.

[Djûn]

Nice picture

Hell, assuming we are talking about a physical one, is meant to consist of eternal torment. We don't know exactly what goes on in it and we only can rely on speculation (e.g. Divine Comedy). However, from my understanding, it is a place where every unpleasant feeling occurs to you at once without cessation.

[The Dude]

Well, as I have often said, it's where all the atheists are, so it can't be that bad.

[Xen]

Assuming Hell exist's, and if I've read the bible correctly. You can not imagine hell and your nto condemned to it forever. In Islam you are only condemned to hell untill you see the wrong in your ways and Allah forgives you.

As for me, I don't need some big man in the sky with a book to keep my in line, I have a brain, I can think for myself. I don't fear death as I do not believe that I will be judged and punished accordingly.

I think, therefore I am Atheist.

[Chaigidel]

no, atheists are not in hell, they simply go where they want to go, which is nowhere

[The Dude]

no, atheists are not in hell, they simply go where they want to go, which is nowhere

Haha, I can play that game.

I don't want to go to nowhere. I -think- I'll go to nowhere. Where I really -want- to go, well. Somewhere with lots of hot women and the power to rule over everyone.

[basics]

Hell is only the precursor, the holding place, until the day of judgement arrives. Those held there will be brought out to join all the others that Christ Jesus our Lord never knew, not only to accept and acknowledge who He is, but to receive what the Law requires, that being called the second death.

Now it is not death as we know it but it is eternal torment wherein the persons enduring that would wish that death could come. Whatever the torment is, it is surely not something that ever sees an end because it is eternal. Now that is what the Gospel warns against and one must wonder at why so many scoffingly disparage it?

[Helm]

Atheists don't particularly want to go to nowhere, it's just nowhere seems to make the most sense. You came from nothing so why not just go back to nothing?

[Playfishpaste]

Atheists don't particularly want to go to nowhere, it's just nowhere seems to make the most sense. You came from nothing so why not just go back to nothing?

I don't think it makes the most sense. You came from nothing and then you were something, so why would you then eternally become nothing? I don't think that's logical.

Atheists don't necessarily believe in a nothing. They just don't believe in the linear view of an afterlife that theists have. An atheist could believe a whole swath of interesting things happen after death.

Anyway, my view of hell, although I don't believe in it, would be akin to Dante's book. Simply because if that were the case, you could break everyone out and have an epic boss fight with the big red guy. Alternatively, you could ally with the forces of darkness and wage war on the heavens. Don't know why the hell they'd choose you though.

[Tigrul]

I don't think it makes the most sense. You came from nothing and then you were something, so why would you then eternally become nothing? I don't think that's logical.

Atheists don't necessarily believe in a nothing. They just don't believe in the linear view of an afterlife that theists have. An atheist could believe a whole swath of interesting things happen after death.

I think that Helm was making a good point about many atheists, but you also offer a good addition. I want to place a bit of an emphasis on Helm's post, because I think he brought into discussion a good point about atheists. We don't really dismiss religions because we hate them or any such reason. I mean, I would really love it if, for instance, after death, I could get to the Elysian Fields and start some nice conversations with Athina. But even though I would love that, I do not believe that there is such a thing as the Elysian Fields, nor that there is such a goddess as Athina.

What I do believe? Well... I mainly go with two ideas. One is the basic one... when we die we die, it's the end. The other is that our perspective on time is not accurate. It may very well be true that we have always existed and will always exist, it may very well be possible that time is not a factor which advances irreversibly, but just a simple dimension as any other. So it is therefore, in my opinion, very possible that there is no such thing as beginning to live or ending this process, because I believe it is highly possible that life is not even a process, but rather a succession of an infinity of stances which all have a different coordinate in the time dimension, and that it's just the way our brains have evolved that offer us the sensation of continuity.

[Tigrul]

because it's rather obviously too neanderthalian a behaviour for god, maybe?

[basics]

Tigrul,

God calls it righteousness, His righteousness. It is by this that we were made at all and by this that we have been judged at the cross. Now it is only a matter of time until them that never could believe it will find out just how real it actually is.

[Tigrul]

haha

I just can't understand how anyone could believe in a god who shows such primitive-males behaviour.

[basics]

" I just can't understand how anyone could believe in a god who shows such primitive-males behaviour."

Tigrul,

Would you feel some difference if God was perhaps primitive - female?

Yet, it may sound primitive, may look primitive, but works even today. Do men and women still die? Do men and women not seek methods to stop the process? Even though there is an answer, you yourself it seems would rather avoid it, why?

Your soul is already in hawk to the devil so the choices you have are very narrow indeed. I find it strange that the Gospel you mock is the only source, and ever will be the source, of you avoiding hell.

[Tigrul]

" I just can't understand how anyone could believe in a god who shows such primitive-males behaviour."

Tigrul,

Would you feel some difference if God was perhaps primitive - female?

No. It would still be the primitive behaviour of a human, and I'd expect something totally different from that which is supposedly the highest form of existence. To believe in your god is as logical as viewing a frog as if it could reason. Just as a frog is too simple to reason, so do I consider that your view of what god is is too simple to actually be the real god, if such a thing exists.

Yet, it may sound primitive, may look primitive, but works even today. Do men and women still die? Do men and women not seek methods to stop the process?

your point here is?

Even though there is an answer, you yourself it seems would rather avoid it, why?

I am? First of all... which is the answer? And what question does it answer? If you want a discussion, be more specific.

Your soul is already in hawk to the devil so the choices you have are very narrow indeed. I find it strange that the Gospel you mock is the only source, and ever will be the source, of you avoiding hell.

except for the fact that your religion is only one of thousands, many of the other religion also depicting hell. So no, the gospels I mock aren't the only sources, there are hundred other sources, and I don't see why your gospel were to hold any more value than any other religion.

But that isn't the case.

God is very much a male bronze age Semitic deity.

well said.

[basics]

" To believe in your god is as logical as viewing a frog as if it could reason. Just as a frog is too simple to reason, so do I consider that your view of what god is is too simple to actually be the real god, if such a thing exists."

Tigrul,

Have you not read my postings where I share what happened in my case? I mean when I read your rather silly remarks, that demean you more than God, I remember being not so unlike you in those longforgotten days of vanity and blindness.

I never chose God, but He certainly chose me and since then I have lived the experience without any doubt at all. I have seen miracles, heard of many more, have had visions come true and even saw Christ Jesus on the cross long before I ever read anything about it.

I have never studied a frog but then I never studied God either, as if one could, but give me God anytime. If I could give you just one day's experience of any of those things that you too could believe I would do so but that is not mine to give so let the Gospel suffice. People die because people disbelieve. But you don't have to.

[The Dude]

" To believe in your god is as logical as viewing a frog as if it could reason. Just as a frog is too simple to reason, so do I consider that your view of what god is is too simple to actually be the real god, if such a thing exists."

Tigrul,

Have you not read my postings where I share what happened in my case? I mean when I read your rather silly remarks, that demean you more than God, I remember being not so unlike you in those longforgotten days of vanity and blindness.

I never chose God, but He certainly chose me and since then I have lived the experience without any doubt at all. I have seen miracles, heard of many more, have had visions come true and even saw Christ Jesus on the cross long before I ever read anything about it.

I have never studied a frog but then I never studied God either, as if one could, but give me God anytime. If I could give you just one day's experience of any of those things that you too could believe I would do so but that is not mine to give so let the Gospel suffice. People die because people disbelieve. But you don't have to.

Why is it that the converts are always the most fanatical? How predictable, not to mention boring because why always be so zealous about it. If god exists then whoop dee doo enjoy your PALS 4 LIFE christianity membership and try being a bit more casual about it. If god exists then it's really nothing special. In fact, it's the most natural thing in the entire universe since supposedly everything begins and ends with him.

In other words, stop talking about him like he's captain laserbeam eyes with rocketfeet. He's really nothing special and everything he does is completely normal since he's GOD. That's how gods work. They do big crazy things that make us go OOOH and AAAH but are hardly special to them.

[Markas]

I'm sure it's as bad as every other make-believe post-death punishment zone in human mythology. There's been quite a few.

[Pfundner]

this is what happens in hell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ZcZ2h4Ths

[Helm]

Look at this way we didn't exist 100 years ago, we may not exist 100 years in the future, but we do exist here and now. And anyone at any point in history can say the exact same thing.