Thread: Why hell?

hey peregrinus are you going to explain those lines. Because if it's a quote from a famous foreign philosopher...I surely would not be familiar with it.

And existentialist...I think it would be better not to start discussing the immense tangle of contradictions made in Christianity. Put it in another thread I would say. And those are dangerous generalizations you are making about "all religions."

Thanks lonewolf for that post and good ideas leo (is that your personal opinion of hell?)

I think Gawain said something like "Life is a test, and failure is hell." I think this is a perfect explanation.

Maybe I'm giving Gawain too much credit.

Let's just say I came up with that.

XD

Originally Posted by Inverting_world_lines

OK I really hope no one's done this theme before, but why do you guys think the existence of a "hell" is prominent in popular religions? It is often something that turns people away, because they ask "why would a loving God let me go to hell?"
Was the idea of hell created to scare people into believing into God? Or isn't the promise of heaven enough motivation to believe in Him with out the threat of hell? Is hell meant to balance the good and evil? Without sin, how would there be any "victory over death"?
So yeah no flame battles please!!! Just your ideas.
[/b]

I think hell is just a warning to those who completely cross the line. Think about it. If a person committed murder and spat in any god-believers face, do you think god would let that person escape unpunished? If a man raped your daughter, should he be let into the afterlife freely? It wouldn't make sense.

mongreloctopus, I think your right about hell being most states according to the buddhist views. From what i've gathered of Buddhism philosophy, at every moment your state of conscious being is not accepting the all-light and loving source of consciousness your are engaging in the turbulence that forms our 'Hellish' realities in the reincarnation process of 'samsara'.
I could be wrong but I believe the tests are there for you to overcome yourslef by identifying those places as manifestaion of yourself. Identifying yourslef as the peaceful deities encountered after death free's you from the violent dualistic being. Dualism being just as illusionary as hell itself.

Originally Posted by Inverting_world_lines

OK I really hope no one's done this theme before, but why do you guys think the existence of a "hell" is prominent in popular religions? It is often something that turns people away, because they ask "why would a loving God let me go to hell?"
Was the idea of hell created to scare people into believing into God? Or isn't the promise of heaven enough motivation to believe in Him with out the threat of hell? Is hell meant to balance the good and evil? Without sin, how would there be any "victory over death"?
So yeah no flame battles please!!! Just your ideas.[/b]

I think "hell" is prominent in popular religions because they recognise that it exists, they didn't invent it. "God" doesn't let us go to hell, he/she/it/whatever has no power to determine this. I don't necessarily mean a hell afterlife, I mean anywhere and anytime. Are we not like gods living easy lives in heaven compared to poor souls living in other places where there's war, famine, drought so they drink cow's blood, disease. That's hell to me. And even in 'heaven' some people are in 'hell' and vice versa. I think it's true the concept is used to control and scare people into believing in god however. Which is silly because something exists whether or not we believe in it. Whatever is behind the word 'god' exists but is impartial, if we want to do something good or evil it wont stop us or help us, we're responsible for our actions.