Religion Do you believe in Heaven and Hell?

Frank D. White

THE CRAZY OLD GUY !!
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Let's all go to hell! Do you believe in heaven(save that thread for later) or hell?? What is your version of hell like?
Is it the general fire & brimstone or something personal, a special torture for you? Is it eternal, or might there be a pardon after you have done your time? Do super evil people (Hitler,Stalin, etc. ) get special treatment from the devil? If most of your friends & relatives are there, will it be so bad to go there? Maybe it's a regular sin city like a super trip to Vegas? Unlimited sex, drugs, rock&roll; not so bad??I wonder if the Devil's office has air conditioning;does he go on vacation, where to? Does the average person really do enough bad stuff to be sent to hell? What will you have for a body, if any? The one you die with, or when you were young, or maybe a red body with horns & tail? Do you get a break from the torture, ever, or is it 24/7 for eternity?
SO, what do you think? Is there a hell? If yes, what do you think it will be like? Have you done(or not done) anything to deserve being sent there?
I don't think I've done anything to deserve going there, but like everyone, I'll have to wait for death to see?

Frank

:?
 
I don't believe in the concept of heaven or hell...once your cells stop regenerating you're a gonner ;)
 
I agree with Rock Lee and Lina. I only believe in rational or logical things.

@Hell and heaven
First of all, going to this "paralell dimension" implies that we have a soul, which I don't believe in, because (neuro)science can now explain exactly why we alive, how, and how we feel (emotions, senses...) and think. In this book, reputed neuropsychologist Antonio Damasio explains how people who had some parts of their brain damaged (tumor, accident...) and subsequently removed, could not feel positive or negative emotions such as joy, anger or fear (in the case of the front lobe) or "feel physical pain" (in the case of the upper lateral lobe), while they could still think and behave perfectly normally otherwise (count, speak, imagine, remember, move, etc as anybody else). That somehow proves that there is no soul. Even if there were, would these people not feel any pain or fear while in hell ? Convenient, isn't it ? What about taking morphine or other potent pain killer while in hell ? People wouldn't feel bad at all, even under torture.

As for the point of air conditioning, etc. that presuppose that hell or heaven evolve jointly with the current human society (worldwide or just in the country where people come from ?). Is there such entertainment as TV, movies, music, sports or computers in heaven ? If not that cannot be heaven for a modern human, can it ? If yes, did they have it in previous centuries when that didn't exist here, and who developed (and produced) them ? Can they enjoy future technologies in adavance ? What if the world develops another way, and inventions happen to be different on earth (or just not invented) in the future ?

For both heaven and hell, can't people('s souls) grow accustomed to eternal well-being and get bored, or to eternal punishment and become insensitive ?

Anyway, as emotions and feelings only make sense in connection to a body with nerves and and brain, all of this cannot exist outside the body.

@judgement of good and evil

This happens to be very culturally and religiously biased. What if you commit suicide and one religion accepts it (or even praises it, if it serves the emperor like the Shinto of Japan), but another consider it a fatal sin (like Christianity) ? Where do you go ? What if you changed religious beliefs sometime during your life, or if you don't have any ? There are thousands of examples of contradictionary good and evil for the same act. Actually, many books have been written on the topic, and specialists on the matter agree that not a single thing (not even murder) is universally accepted as good or evil, even if we limit ourself to established religions (not just people's opinions). How many ancient or present-day animist or polytheist religion regard sacrificial murder as a gift to the gods ? Didn't Ancient Greek king Agamemnon sacrifice his own daughter to the gods to help achieve victory in Troy ? That was the moral at the time, in the Ancient world (also in Judaism, Hinduism, Aztec religion or whatever). What about extremist Christians or Muslims putting the malcreants to death (Inquisition, etc.) ? Another form of religiously approved murder.

All this to say that there is no good or evil, and as Albert (Einstein) said, everthing is relative. Modern wisdom comes from understanding this. The rules or relativity apply very well for morals indeed.
 
Heaven and Hell do exist.

But only in your head. Does that make it any less real? I don't think so. We create reality in our minds, moment by moment, thought by thought, word by word. If you believe in Hell, then it's damn sure real for you.

I believe in Hell on earth. No, I don't mean my Monday morning English lessons. (Although my students do act like little hellish imps.) There is a great Zen story about a warrior who demanded a monk show him the correct way to heaven and how to avoid hell. Well, the monk told the Samurai he was an idiot, and couldn't tell his head from his @sshole, much less learn the Way. Angrily, the warrior drew his sword to kill the monk for insulting him. At which point, the monk shouted, "This is Hell!" The Samurai, realizing his error, immediately apologized. Then monk then replied, "This is Heaven."


:D
 
Hell is a pure invention of humans, just like the Bible. The Bible wasn't writen by God with the help of some chosen humans, it was writen by normal (or maybe not so normal) humans who wanted to put into words the stories they had heard (and by the way enhancing them to make it sound like it was really God writing) and set the morals and beliefs for an ideal religion. The same goes for the Coran and the all other religious book supposed to represent the words of God. As for hell, someone said, only humans are cruel enough to invent such a place as hell, and in my opinion they were simply inspired by what they saw in real life. So hell was created in order to threaten naive believers but it is clear now that the idea is obsolete for the reasons Maciamo clearly stated, there is nothing when the brain stops functioning. We shouldn't act morally on earth for what awaits us after we die but for the sake of living and society but if you need faith to achieve that, then so be it.
But for the sake of the thread here is what I would imagine as hell, a place with no moral, absolute freedom, anarchy, and all the people who go there had a chaotic life on earth and therefore create chaos in hell. Heaven would be exactly the same except that only people who had an harmonious life would go there and therefore create harmony in heaven.
 
Religion is brainwash.

Keiichi

:)
 
Remember, this isn't a religion bashing thread. If anyone wants to start a thread debating the value of religion, be my guest. Otherwise let's keep to Frank's topic.

:beer:
 
Legato said:
But for the sake of the thread here is what I would imagine as hell, a place with no moral, absolute freedom, anarchy, and all the people who go there had a chaotic life on earth and therefore create chaos in hell. Heaven would be exactly the same except that only people who had an harmonious life would go there and therefore create harmony in heaven.

So hell would be the US, country of absolute freedom where no harmony exist and people are paranoid due to the constant violence. And heaven would be Japan, where people enjoy similar freedom but live in harmony. :sorry: :D
 
Lina Inverse said:
Just like RockLee, I don't believe in this Christian garbage! :D

So heaven and hell are exclusively Christian constructs?
 
Heaven is sleeping, dreaming. Hell is having to get up in the morning.

:D
 
Counselor: What's the problem, you look depressed?
Guy: Well, what do you think? I'm in hell.
Counselor: Hell's not so bad, we actually have a lot of fun. Do you like to drink?
Guy: Sure, I love to drink.
Counselor: Well then, you are going to love Mondays. On Mondays we drink up a storm. You can have whiskey, rum, tequila, beer, whatever you want and as much as you want. We party all night long. You'll love Mondays. Do you smoke?
Guy: Yes, as a matter of fact I do.
Counselor: You are going to love Tuesdays. Tuesday is smoke day. You get to smoke the finest cigars and best cigarettes available anywhere. And you smoke to your heart's desire without worrying about cancer because you are already dead! Is that great or what? You are going to love Tuesdays. Do you do drugs?
Guy: Well in my younger days I experimented a little.
Counselor: You are going to love Wednesdays. That's drug day. You can experiment with any drug you want and you don't have to worry about overdoses or getting hooked because you are already dead. You are going to love Wednesdays. Do you gamble?
Guy: Yes, I love to gamble.
Counselor: You are going to love Thursdays because we gamble all day and night -- black jack, craps, poker, slots, horse races, everything! You are going to love Thursdays. Are you gay?
Guy: Well, no I'm not.
Counselor: Oh, you're gonna hate Fridays...

mikecash said:
So heaven and hell are exclusively Christian constructs?

Err... no. Much about Christianity isn't original. Sheol, Gehenna, Hades, Underworld... there are many hells and also many concepts of hell, across world religions.

Try this link: http://www.rotten.com/library/religion/hell/
 
jeisan said:
sheep goto heaven, goats goto hell.


I'm going to hell i'm a GOAT!!!!

[Capricorn=December 29,1983]

:balloon:
 
hell is pretty simple of a place. There are a few rules though.

There are beings that will tear you apart into nothing and scatter you across the four corners of the universe.
There is a tv in a waiting room that says who's allowed to go up into heaven. Theres about 4 tv's usually in each building.
You can sit around and do whatever you want.
People look kinda spooky but they are all dead so i wouldn't worry too much.
You have a curfew which is when the monsters come out to scatter you.
You don't have to follow the curfew but, people who are not following my rule are willing to overthrow me meaning you get your arse tossed.

It's basically pure boredom. You can talk to people but they usually stare at you and go blah whatever lemme alone. A lot of patient people there. One of the more disturbing things is not eating. Your body is powered by light. So.. that gets to some people. But they smile and laugh about it later. And for fridays... i'd watch out..

some people like the spirit detective option... but few qualify.. you get off the hook faster.
 
Say there would be a hell and heaven...and "GOD" excisted...why would he ban some of his creations to hell??Isn't he supposed to be thoughtfull and loving for all his creations???That 'in my honest opninion' disabled the fact that there is no "GOD" either....simply the fact "GOD" is a manmade word is enough to believe it's all made up....if you believe in hell,heaven etc...you should also believe in zombies,vampires..etc.. :souka:
 
@Maciamo: The only difference is that there are some places where heaven would exist in the US and likewise, places where hell exists in Japan.
About hell being only part of christianity, not the concept, all beliefs seem to have some kind of punishment in the afterlife but the word hell apllies to christianity although it comes from the Norse mythology where the Goddess of death is called Hel (If anyone knows if that's wrong tell me) but Anglosaxon christians borrowed a lot of words from the Vikings (for the week days and other things..)
 

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