Well, if the idea of hell is imprinted into your mind, heaven must also be imprinted into your mind. As well as God, and whatever Christians believe in. Why can't you forget about hell, but you can forget about god and everything else? |
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Hi, I have recently become an Atheist. But I have a problem that I need some help with. |
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Pm me about any lucid dreaming related questions you have!
Adopted: Zalak123, Bleant, Fengo, SuperDub49, olo12
Well, if the idea of hell is imprinted into your mind, heaven must also be imprinted into your mind. As well as God, and whatever Christians believe in. Why can't you forget about hell, but you can forget about god and everything else? |
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Theres no more reason to believe in hell than there is Mordor. Do you believe in Mordor? If not, why not? Seems like a silly question, but it applies identically to hell. |
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What about it are you having trouble letting go of? The fear of it? How confident are you in it's non-existence? When I stopped believing in God I realized that even if a God does exist he certainly doesn't torture people for eternity just for not believing in him. It's such a ridiculous notion. |
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157 is a prime number. The next prime is 163 and the previous prime is 151, which with 157 form a sexy prime triplet. Taking the arithmetic mean of those primes yields 157, thus it is a balanced prime.
Women and rhythm section first - Jaco Pastorious
you have no problem labeling yourself an atheist, which by its very definition means no belief in god, yet you can't let go of the concept of hell? |
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Hell is a concept meant for minds that for whatever reason feel it's necessary for morality to be dictated from without. For you to get over hell, you first have to ask yourself what morality means to you. Without hell, what purpose does it still serve? |
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Last edited by Omnis Dei; 01-06-2012 at 07:42 AM.
Everything works out in the end, sometimes even badly.
I have a hard time believing this statement to be true. If it is, though, how about this: You were a christian, and then through some mental process (likely some form of critical reasoning), you came to the conclusion that it's time to grow up, or move on. Why not apply that same type of critical reasoning to hell? |
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Like others have said, I think you need to give more of an input... what do you mean by letting go of the idea? Do you still think it might exist; or is you still cautious about acting in certain ways out of a reflex; or what? |
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Kona: you know why you came to your conclusion, and you know that the path that took you there was not malicious or evil. You know that you haven't acted immorally. If your child did something wrong, would you ever deem it right to lock your child in a furnace forever as a punishment? Of course not. And yet this God guy, who is supposedly wise, is going to do the same thing to you, for not even doing anything wrong; for just believing what your honest inquiry led you to. And the guy who's going to do this is also infinitely just and loving?? The idea is so blatantly a disgusting and nonsensical piece of propaganda, it really doesn't merit spending any time thinking about it. |
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Last edited by nina; 01-07-2012 at 02:37 AM.
I'm watching the vid right now Ne-Yo and it brings up a very good point |
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Everything works out in the end, sometimes even badly.
The worst thing you could do right now is to restrain your curiosity and thirst for knowledge, because you might feel ashamed and doubtful about your disbelief. People tend to do this, so they get stuck in this unsure state of mind. My suggestion is, keep yourself curious and brave; embrace the idea of your own personal progress and surround yourself with scientific books, humorous materials and people who trigger insightful and meaningful questions. |
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Go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. Go take a flying fuck at the moon.
Wouldn't an interest in the causal functions of reality be the ultimate praise of God's creation? |
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Last edited by Omnis Dei; 01-06-2012 at 07:19 PM.
Everything works out in the end, sometimes even badly.
Yes, you have free will to choose God or not. What choice did you make Omnis Dei? Are you with me or not? |
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SUP NE-YO! Long time, no talkie. How you been? Since we're scaring the new Atheist with Hell to try to bring him/her back to the fold, I thought I'd jump in with the Buddhist model. Should we be making bets or something over which one of us nails the conversion? |
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Last edited by PhilosopherStoned; 01-06-2012 at 10:10 PM.
Previously PhilosopherStoned
Removed comments that directly go against the stated intention in the OP. Any further such trolling will result in infraction. |
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Holy crap I didn't expect that many replies. Thanks for all the help guys, it means a lot that so many of you would reply to this. All your suggestions and stuff are really helping me let go. |
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Pm me about any lucid dreaming related questions you have!
Adopted: Zalak123, Bleant, Fengo, SuperDub49, olo12
Deleted personal attacks and off topic trollish crap. Everyone is welcome to express their opinions, please do so in a more respectful manner. |
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Hey Kona, I was in the same boat as you. My parents are protestant, and I was raised protestant. Up until I was like 11ish, I didn't question whether or not God was real--more out of fear than anything. Then, I started to form my own ideas about the world rather rely on my parents', I began to branch out. I began to realize that what I was taught didn't make much sense, the first seeds of doubt were sown. When I was more about your age (assuming you're 14) I made the step to full blown atheism, though not with baggage many atheists carry (nihilism, materialism, etc.). I simply chose not to believe that a god existed for reasons that, since I first started doubting that God was real, had compounded until it eventually reached a threshold--after this point I saw no more reason in calling myself a christian. First I saw that I had been lied to by every sense in the word. Not everyone lying to me knew that they were lying, but at some point down the line, lying had occurred. The Bible had stories that were specifically picked, Hell as a concept in the Bible didn't really show up until the Middle Ages, the inconsistency with which God acted and reacted, the violence carried out in God's name, the fact that there were other religions that were fundamentally the same but were totally rejected under the guise that they were "wrong", the confidence in knowing Christianity was the right religion (though the penalty for choosing incorrectly is eternal damnation), the inconsistency of religion in general, how much money was being made by the church, the list could literally go on and be quadrupled in length--just to list a few of my grievances. And to those that said to me, "why not believe? Even if you have a hard time believing, all God asks is that you believe, so the chance that you may make it into heaven just for believing is worth it," I kind of just shrugged it off without trying to be offensive. If I wanted to believe in God, I wanted to believe in God--not pretend to believe in him, like some kind of coward, just so I could make it into heaven. Besides, if they even read the Bible, they'd know God is omniscient. If you only believed to make it into heaven, God would know, and I doubt he would be pleased. It seems like it sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? |
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