Question for theists about hell

[Professional]

Well, I'm new here, so I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this. But, here I go anyway.
One thing, that I never understood while trying to be Catholic, is heaven and hell. Basically, in most religions, God/s judge/s people's souls (assuming they exsist) and sends them to heaven or hell for eternity. These are called different things, in different religions, but the basic concept is the same. So, what, exactly, is the criteria? Do you have to believe in a certain religion? But what if you are not exposed to that religion or simply struggle with believing in it? Do you have to be a 'good person'? What if you were a terrible person, but you believed you were doing the right thing? And, if the criteria is simply being a good person, shouldn't you do it simply for the sake of being a good person, not for the sake of going to heaven?
I don't know; this is just something I've always wondered and never heard a good answer for.

 

[Sunstone]

Basically, in most religions, God/s judge/s people's souls (assuming they exsist) and sends them to heaven or hell for eternity. These are called different things, in different religions, but the basic concept is the same.

The concept of eternal damnation doesn't exist in most religions. It seems to be confined to religions of Middle Eastern origins, and not even all of those.

 

[JRMcC]

And, if the criteria is simply being a good person, shouldn't you do it simply for the sake of being a good person, not for the sake of going to heaven?

Absolutely. I do understand why people can't let go of a hell because they wish people like Hitler would go there. But generally if one person is leading a moral life without any regard for heaven or hell (as an atheist would) and another is doing so under the threat of hell or for the reward of heaven, which person appears to have the moral high ground? I'm sure almost all theists (I'm thinking of Christians and Muslims in this case really) would still live moral lives if they stopped believing, but you get my point.

Your profile says you're agnostic. Does part of you think heaven and hell might be real?

 

[Professional]

No, I'm agnostic because it doesn't limit me to a certain viewpoint. I feel as though that leaves me to be able to see things from a more balanced perspective. It's not that I really believe in heaven or hell; it's that I would like to believe that I would see dead family members again or have all knowledge or a happy eternity. But I also think there's joy in living each moment as though it may be or last, of making each day as fufilling as possible, because you may never get another life. Ultimately, the idea of heaven is nice, but, overall, I think that's all it is: an idea.

 

[StarryNightshade]

The concept of eternal damnation doesn't exist in most religions. It seems to be confined to religions of Middle Eastern origins, and not even all of those.

^ This.

The majority of religions in the world don't believe in a "hell"-esque realm. And even then, many don't believe it is eternal. Heck, there are many Christians and Muslims who are universalists or think hell is only temporary.

 

[Professional]

Clarification: when I referred to most religions, I meant most commonly followed religions, i.e. Catholism, Muslim, etc.
Most religious people that I've been in contact with believe in some sort of afterlife. *shrug*

 

[Sunstone]

Clarification: when I referred to most religions, I meant most commonly followed religions, i.e. Catholism, Muslim, etc.
Most religious people that I've been in contact with believe in some sort of afterlife. *shrug*

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Sultan Of Swing]

Well, I'm new here, so I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this. But, here I go anyway.
One thing, that I never understood while trying to be Catholic, is heaven and hell. Basically, in most religions, God/s judge/s people's souls (assuming they exsist) and sends them to heaven or hell for eternity. These are called different things, in different religions, but the basic concept is the same. So, what, exactly, is the criteria? Do you have to believe in a certain religion? But what if you are not exposed to that religion or simply struggle with believing in it? Do you have to be a 'good person'? What if you were a terrible person, but you believed you were doing the right thing? And, if the criteria is simply being a good person, shouldn't you do it simply for the sake of being a good person, not for the sake of going to heaven?
I don't know; this is just something I've always wondered and never heard a good answer for.

No one is good, not one, no one seeks righteousness, no one seeks for God. No one can earn heaven, because frankly no one is good enough. Before our holy God, our uncleanness stands out and condemns us, and all of us are deserving of Hell.

Only by God's grace through Jesus Christ can those who believe and trust in Him be made into new creations and granted eternal life to live for God and to see His glory. Jesus paid the debt that we owed to God from our rebellion and sinfulness, He was nailed to the cross and in His death that price was paid, before triumphing over death in His Resurrection three days later. Whosoever shall believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I do not do good things so I can get to heaven, none of us can earn heaven by merit, it is only by God's grace. Christians are called to do good things because we are the children of God, we are "created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Ephesians 2:10), we seek God's glory and are called to let our light shine in the world so others may glorify God, we seek to see His face. In our duty as image-bearers we are called to radiate God's love and mercy to the world, to preach the Gospel and care for the disadvantaged.

There are more selfish reasons for many actions too, for example, sometimes doing a good deed just makes me feel good. That is not a good reason to do good things, and is borne out in selfishness.

 

[morphesium]

Well, I'm new here, so I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this. But, here I go anyway.
One thing, that I never understood while trying to be Catholic, is heaven and hell. Basically, in most religions, God/s judge/s people's souls (assuming they exsist) and sends them to heaven or hell for eternity. These are called different things, in different religions, but the basic concept is the same. So, what, exactly, is the criteria? Do you have to believe in a certain religion? But what if you are not exposed to that religion or simply struggle with believing in it? Do you have to be a 'good person'? What if you were a terrible person, but you believed you were doing the right thing? And, if the criteria is simply being a good person, shouldn't you do it simply for the sake of being a good person, not for the sake of going to heaven?

Every religion is man-made and none of them is god - sent.


In the past, as humanity progressed into tribal societies and beyond, power always had to be vested with a few for proper administration. And it was easy for them to realize that they could guarantee their strong hold the most if they could take advantage of the fact that

1. The fear of the unknown is always much greater than fear of the known.
2. There is always the uncertainty of the future.
3. People had to suffer extreme hard ships for their survival and this demanded something strong to pacify them.

and nothing fits better than the God factor and hence the formation of a religion. This is something very easy to sell and makes the least oppression which they can easily suppress with some magical trickery and stories. Additionally, it has a very addictive nature and can propel itself for generations. Rituals and other holy practices were incorporated into it which not only strengthened the religious bondage, but also helped the religious heads to keep an eye on those who are stepping away from such practices. followers are easily made to believe that they get some form of divine protection.

so as different tribes formed, so were different stories and different gods. As societies merged or progressed or destroyed through war etc, so was religion.


So we have different religions, different stories, different gods, heaven and hell etc.


Now if you study any religion, there are a lot of scientifically false statements in it. from earth being center of the earth to boasting as the creator of the universe (but with restricted powers and knowledge) to contradictory statements which are all proof that these religions and the gods they portray are not at all right (or are far from the truth).


what i personally believe is this - if god created us, then he has the message in each and every one of us and I believe that it is through our moral - the sense of righteousness that god speak to us. Listening to our moral always polishes oneself. in turn, it polishes the society. The reason why we can’t agree with slavery, child marriages, etc is that our morals have much improved or evolved from the morals of those people who lived in past (these were once prevalent in our society) . And we will improve to have much higher morals in the future.


of course, i do agree that i know nothing about ( the True) god. I don’t know its physical properties - it mass? Volume? Or does it have them? - Nothing. I don't know its mathematical properties either - stuff like - does god has the mathematical property which enables one to count him? For this reason, i don't accept concepts like there are multiple gods or that there is only "one" god.

I don't know; this is just something I've always wondered and never heard a good answer for

This is exactly my case too... keep on wondering and find your own answers - that is the way it is intended to be.

Best regards.

 

[Jogg]

The believe in hell exists in all religions...
with different names!
If you look deeper in all literatures you can see that the judgement do you by yourself in the afterlife/light stadium.. "Purgatory"....
Not a god.. or something other!
Only the concept of self damnation exist!


The Greek mythology
Hades
The Greek underworld, in mythology, was a place where souls went after death and was the Greek idea of afterlife

Tartarus
Tartarus is not considered to be directly a part of the underworld, it is described as being as far beneath the underworld
as the earth is beneath the sky. It is so dark that the "night is poured around it in three rows like a collar round the neck, while above it grow the roots of the earth and of the unharvested sea

Naraka (Buddhism)
Naraka (Sanskrit: नरक) or Niraya (Pāli: निरय) is a term in Buddhist cosmology
usually referred to in English as "hell", "hell realm", or "purgatory".

Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.nintendojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Sandro-Botticelli-Dantes-Inferno-546x360.jpg

Gates of hell

Secret Tibetan Book Of The Dead

A good explanation of the demons are in St. Augustine's "City of God."
Entities - Min Hemsida

 

[Levite]

Well, I'm new here, so I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this. But, here I go anyway.
One thing, that I never understood while trying to be Catholic, is heaven and hell. Basically, in most religions, God/s judge/s people's souls (assuming they exsist) and sends them to heaven or hell for eternity. These are called different things, in different religions, but the basic concept is the same. So, what, exactly, is the criteria? Do you have to believe in a certain religion? But what if you are not exposed to that religion or simply struggle with believing in it? Do you have to be a 'good person'? What if you were a terrible person, but you believed you were doing the right thing? And, if the criteria is simply being a good person, shouldn't you do it simply for the sake of being a good person, not for the sake of going to heaven?
I don't know; this is just something I've always wondered and never heard a good answer for.

I wish I could give you an answer. However, Judaism has no doctrine of eternal damnation, nor do we believe in Hell.

While there are very specific obligations we believe God expects from the Jewish People (namely, observance of the commandments), we do not hold that non-Jews are obligated to any of those things, only a few general principles of decent behavior, mostly concerned with trying to establish just societies. While we are not exclusivist (that is, we don't believe that non-Jews should ideally become Jewish), most of our authorities do teach that God frowns on idolatry, no matter who's doing it; but all agree, better an idolator or an atheist who treats other people well and helps make a more just world than a dedicated monotheistic worshipper of God who mistreats other people and promotes greed and oppression.

And one of our great sages of the first century CE wrote that one should serve God and observe the commandments (i.e., do what is right) for their own sake, not out of expectation or desire for reward.

Basically, if one is a good person-- for whatever reasons, from whatever motivation-- and contributes positively to the world around them, then they are righteous in the eyes of God. Jews have a few more things they need to do, but even with us, better to err in disappointing God than in oppressing one's fellow human beings, since God is incapable of being harmed and has endless forgiveness, but people are easily harmed and what is done to them is harder to forgive.

 

[tjgillies]

Well, I'm new here, so I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this. But, here I go anyway.
One thing, that I never understood while trying to be Catholic, is heaven and hell. Basically, in most religions, God/s judge/s people's souls (assuming they exsist) and sends them to heaven or hell for eternity. These are called different things, in different religions, but the basic concept is the same. So, what, exactly, is the criteria? Do you have to believe in a certain religion? But what if you are not exposed to that religion or simply struggle with believing in it? Do you have to be a 'good person'? What if you were a terrible person, but you believed you were doing the right thing? And, if the criteria is simply being a good person, shouldn't you do it simply for the sake of being a good person, not for the sake of going to heaven?
I don't know; this is just something I've always wondered and never heard a good answer for.

Why is this addressed to theists? The Baha'i faith has no concept of heaven and hell as an actual place.

 

[jeager106]

Why is this addressed to theists? The Baha'i faith has no concept of heaven and hell as an actual place.

Indeed! I'm a Christian and don't even come close to believing in the concept of
"hell". Many Christians have debunked "hell" as a real place of eternal torment or any
real place at all.
A little presumptuous aren't ya?
Samo with "heaven".

 

[tjgillies]

Indeed! I'm a Christian and don't even come close to believing in the concept of
"hell". Many Christians have debunked "hell" as a real place of eternal torment or any
real place at all.
A little presumptuous aren't ya?
Samo with "heaven".

If you're Christian and don't believe in hell, what do you believe you have salvation from?

 

[jeager106]

If you're Christian and don't believe in hell, what do you believe you have salvation from?

Sin and death.

 

[tjgillies]

Sin and death.

Ah. In Baha'i we believe everyone is free from death because the soul is eternal. We still progress in the next life but I'm not sure if that means we believe sin exists in the next life. I'll have to ask some other bahais about that.

 

[Deeje]

Ah. In Baha'i we believe everyone is free from death because the soul is eternal. We still progress in the next life but I'm not sure if that means we believe sin exists in the next life. I'll have to ask some other bahais about that.

It seems amazing to me that belief in some kind of afterlife exists in all kinds of religions, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha'i etc......yet in the Bible book of Genesis there was not even a hint of an afterlife mentioned when God created man. The only choice that humans had from God was "life or death".

All the "Abrahamic faiths" seem to include this concept of life after death, but it isn't taught explicitly in scripture at all...so where did it come from?

The very first lie told by satan in Eden was that humans would "surely not die" if they acted independently from the commands of their Creator. God said if they disobeyed, they would "surely die".....not that they would go to heaven or hell or any other kind of afterlife. So is death really death? Or is it a transition to another kind of life? If so. where do we find that notion in the Bible? Or more importantly in the Pentateuch (the first five books of Moses, which is accepted by all the Abrahamic faiths)

Where or what is the Bible's "hell" and is it the same as say, a Buddhist hell? Is there a Hindu "hell"? Is there a Baha'i hell?

For the non Abrahamic faiths, where does your belief in an afterlife come from? What do you imagine it to be?

 

[tjgillies]

It seems amazing to me that belief in some kind of afterlife exists in all kinds of religions, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha'i etc......yet in the Bible book of Genesis there was not even a hint of an afterlife mentioned when God created man. The only choice that humans had from God was "life or death".

All the "Abrahamic faiths" seem to include this concept of life after death, but it isn't taught explicitly in scripture at all...so where did it come from?

The very first lie told by satan in Eden was that humans would "surely not die" if they acted independently from the commands of their Creator. God said if they disobeyed, they would "surely die".....not that they would go to heaven or hell or any other kind of afterlife. So is death really death? Or is it a transition to another kind of life? If so. where do we find that notion in the Bible? Or more importantly in the Pentateuch (the first five books of Moses, which is accepted by all the Abrahamic faiths)

Where or what is the Bible's "hell" and is it the same as say, a Buddhist hell? Is there a Hindu "hell"? Is there a Baha'i hell?

For the non Abrahamic faiths, where does your belief in an afterlife come from? What do you imagine it to be?

The Baha'i believe that Bahaullah did not get his revelation from the Bible but from God himself

 

[Deeje]

The Baha'i believe that Baha'ullah did not get his revelation from the Bible but from God himself

Is Baha'ullah the Baha'i equivalent of Jesus Christ? Is this the prophet whose teachings you follow? Did he teach about heaven or hell?

 

[tjgillies]

Is Baha'ullah the Baha'i equivalent of Jesus Christ? Is this the prophet whose teachings you follow? Did he teach about heaven or hell?

The Baha'i believe that Bahaullah is the return of Christ. Bahaullah taught that hell and heaven are metaphors for ones nearness to God.