Religions, Controlled by man or god?

[spacemonkey]

To the ancient Greeks, Hades was not necessarily a place of punnishment, but it does seem to have been a place where the pleasures of living were largely unavailable. For instance, there are no Girls On Trampolines in Hades, and the shades (souls) there don't get to feast.

You are not entirely correct here. Hades was the underworld, we might call it the afterlife, and was seperated into area. First was the Fields of Aspodel, were those judged neither virtuous nor evil were sent. Next was the Elysian Fields, the resting place of the heroic and those blessed by the gods. Finally there was Tartarus, the place where Tantalus is "tantalized" by receeding waters when he is thirsty and fruit that lifts out of reach when he is hungry, the place where Sisyphus constantly pushes a boulder up a hill just to have it roll down the other side, and the place where Zeus imprisoned the Titans. This is most deffinately a place of punishment.

 

[gnostic]

Religions, Controlled by man or god?

Man, of course. And they are making trails of mess in their wake too. God or gods don't seem to be in control. But if they are indeed in control of religions, then what the hell were they or he thinking!!!

 

[Buttercup]

The notion that there are hells is wide spread and found in most, if not all, cultures. The specifics of what hells are vary considerably from culture to culture. For instance, to the ancient Aztecs, hells were places that one passed through after death on one's way to the heavens. To the ancient Greeks, Hades was not necessarily a place of punnishment, but it does seem to have been a place where the pleasures of living were largely unavailable. For instance, there are no Girls On Trampolines in Hades, and the shades (souls) there don't get to feast.

There have been threads on the subject of hell, but I don't recall any threads on the subject of the various hells imagined by people in different cultures. The conceptions of hells vary widely.

Of course being a Christian,....the hell I refer to is the one described in the Bible. Fire and brimstone, eternal thirst, wailing and gnashing of teeth, separation from God. I find it all really difficult to take in and believe. I could understand the concept better if God were to stand before me in all his amazing glory tonight after dinner, ask me if I believed in him now and if I said no he would proclaim, "Ok, guess you've made your choice my dear. " How could a person be thrown into eternal damnation without absolute proof of something? And then add to the mix the 5 million other religions out there that claim to be the truth as well? We're all just dumb homosapiens....how are we supposed to know which one to pick without some audio visuals to go along with the decision? *shrugs*

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Of course being a Christian,....the hell I refer to is the one described in the Bible. Fire and brimstone, eternal thirst, wailing and gnashing of teeth, separation from God. I find it all really difficult to take in and believe. I could understand the concept better if God were to stand before me in all his amazing glory tonight after dinner, ask me if I believed in him now and if I said no he would proclaim, "Ok, guess you've made your choice my dear. " How could a person be thrown into eternal damnation without absolute proof of something? And then add to the mix the 5 million other religions out there that claim to be the truth as well? We're all just dumb homosapiens....how are we supposed to know which one to pick without some audio visuals to go along with the decision? *shrugs*

This is how Augustine described hell, but you won't find it in Scripture. A significant problem for Augustinian damnation is that he couldn't read Greek and know that the destruction in the NT is not eternal in duration but in effect. Eternal sufering is Augustinian in origin and completely foreign to the New Testament and its authors.

 

[Buttercup]

This is how Augustine described hell, but you won't find it in Scripture. A significant problem for Augustinian damnation is that he couldn't read Greek and know that the destruction in the NT is not eternal in duration but in effect. Eternal sufering is Augustinian in origin and completely foreign to the New Testament and its authors.

You are a Christian right? And Christ is the only supposed route to the Father, correct? If there is only one route....what happens to the travelers that take a different highway?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

You are a Christian right? And Christ is the only supposed route to the Father, correct? If there is only one route....what happens to the travelers that take a different highway?

I agree - Christ is the only way to the Father. This does not mean, however, that people who follow different religions have no access to God - or are not on the path of Christ.

Romans 9
" 25As he says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one,"[i] 26and,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,'
they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "

 

[Buttercup]

Thanks for answering JH....I was hoping you'd come back.

What do you think the definition of hell is? I'm struggling with the whole concept lately.

 

[Valjean]

I don't get your point.