I totally agree. Heaven sounds like a bore. It seems that Christians have spent far more time dreaming up punishments for people they don't like rather than fleshing out their heaven concept.
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Why has Hell been reduced to a metaphor
- Thread starter Sha'irullah
- Start date
I totally agree. Heaven sounds like a bore. It seems that Christians have spent far more time dreaming up punishments for people they don't like rather than fleshing out their heaven concept.
CynthiaCypher
Well-Known Member
Both concepts are childish and mean-spirited. You get all the candy and goodies for all eternity because you are special while all the other kiddies who weren't special don't get anything, in fact all they get is punished because they weren't special.
In my tradition, both heaven and hell are impermanent, they are only way-stations until a person is cleansed or rested enough for transmigration or to advance towards theosis.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
I see the question the other way around, why is the metaphor of hell reduced to a literal meaning?.
Of course. Religion is often an expression of tribal instincts so that's not a surprise. Everyone thinks their group is better. What a bunch of silly apes.
That certainly makes more sense.
Runewolf1973
Materialism/Animism
Psychoslice! You're still around, good to see.
As far as your interpretation of Hell, I think you're right.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
Psychoslice! You're still around, good to see.
As far as your interpretation of Hell, I think you're right.
Hi Runewolf, thanks, yea just keeping quite.
There were well-known Christians within the first century or two of Christianity writing about hell and its punishments, and the Qur'an is very detailed regarding hellish torture. So, literal interpretations of hell occurred right up towards the beginning of such religions.
Christianity was rather varied in the beginning, with multiple views on things.
Christianity was rather varied in the beginning, with multiple views on things.
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
You just described my heaven, a place of eternal worship. I am most happiest worshipping the Lord. I see nothing hellish about it
CynthiaCypher
Well-Known Member
Being devoid of free will, eternally happy with a big smile on your face singing happy-happy songs all day long does not sound like paradise to me.
It sounds like a mental institution.
Runewolf1973
Materialism/Animism
Or like being roommates with Barney the Dinosaur?
CynthiaCypher
Well-Known Member
And I would not even wish that fate on the worst of my enemies, not even The Talking Snake.
CynthiaCypher
Well-Known Member
Exactly.
Amechania
Daimona of the Helpless
Wondering if Heaven and hell aren't really the same place and God and the Devil are the same person and we are all just royally screwed. This is why I drink.
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
nazz
Doubting Thomas
Well, not exactly. The concept already existed in Judaism having developed in the intertestamental period. Since Jesus talked about it it got recorded in the gospels.
work in progress
Well-Known Member
So, you believe in worshiping a sadistic monster, who can only control his creatures through the threat that they will be sent off to an eternal Guantanamo Bay!I liked the concept of hell
If your god was real, I still would resist worshiping him. A god who can only win the respect of his creatures through terror is not worthy of respect, let alone worship. I wouldn't treat my pets like that, let alone my children...the usual allegory for the relationship of God to humans.
work in progress
Well-Known Member
The concepts of life after death are pretty sketchy, and almost non-existent among the few remaining hunter/gatherers in the world, who still depend on what nature can provide. Some tell stories of reincarnation as animals, or even trees, but god or goddess rewards and punishes in this life, not the next one! At some point in civilization, someone noticed that some lying, cheating ******** achieved great wealth, while those around them who they oppressed, ended up as the ones who were suffering. So, the only option to reward those who were good, but persecuted, and address this injustices that go unpunished in this life was to place the rewards and punishments safely out of reach in the next world.
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
I expect God to be infinitely merciful and infinite wrathful. I expect both qualities because life is nothing without suffering. I cannot appreciate bliss without suffering and this is why I practice asceticism and learn to make myself suffer in order to appreciate other things more. This is my theology and it is my practice and how I perceive the world and its qualities.
"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering." ~Nietzsche
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work in progress
Well-Known Member
Like most atheists, I grew up in the kind of straightjacketed religion you espouse! The only way to keep your kind of religion in control of large populations is through intimidation and the threat of violence for anyone who tries to leave or even ask tough questions about ideology or scriptural accuracy....going back a few years, I recall a Muslim scholar in Cairo being thrown out the window of his sixth floor office for theorizing that the Quran was originally written in Aramaic and translated into Arabic. Rather than offering a rebuttal, his ideological opponents just through him out a window!
I find little of value in the self-absorbed crap that Nietzsche wrote! But, my main reason for rejecting gods that promise eternal rewards and eternal punishments is because life after death is nonsense to begin with. Our sense of self is an illusion...albeit a useful illusion created by brain function to plan future responses and generate an emotional attachment for our bodies for self-preservation. The fear of death that accompanies self-preservation is the likely source of all of the fantasies of souls rising above the body and life-after-death experiences. Our minds are the product of brain function - there is no mental activities that are not correlated with brain function, and when the brain dies, the mind is no longer generated and no longer exists. It is extinguished just like the image on a TV or computer screen goes out when you shut off the device.
But, the fear of death is very powerful and always working in the background at an unconscious level...or at least that's the whole point behind Terror Management Theory...which I won't get into right now. What I want to get to before I close, is that those of us who are atheists have transferred hope for an afterlife into hope for continued human progress towards paradise on Earth, and eventually leaving the Earth to establish colonies in space or on other planets. The great angst that a lot of atheist/humanists aren't getting a grip on right now is that all of the environmental trends towards a hotter world, with an oversized, unsustainable human population, and an increasing rates of animal extinctions unprecedented in the last 65 million years, are evidence that we have grown and consumed so much already, that we are on a trendline towards human extinction that is looking unavoidable right now.
If there is something that makes me feel nihilistic, it's not my own death, but the fact that our species...which has held so much promise, may be gone by the end of this century, and all of our concerns about all of our issues will be snuffed out like a candle flame!