Hell

[nailit]

why do religious people think that non believers (of their own religion) are not only destined, but worthy, of hell? Can anyone tell me, what 'sin' can be justified by a punishment of eternal, never ending, unimaginable torment?
Its something I cant wrap my head around. People who think like this (to my mind at least) must be psychopaths.
At least Goodlife (as a JW) believes that hell is no more than the grave but others such as keyplus believe it to be literal, as do Catholics, protestants and others.
One small life, followed by ETERNAL torture for not believing in the 'right' religion? What kind of psychopathic God is this?
I really do not expect the religious folk on here to respond because there is no justification for such a barbaric belief.

[naomi24]

^Haaaaaaa!

[sandyRoe]

Your forbearance would grace a Christian

[naomi24]

There you go, askyourgran, I think that's meant as a compliment.

[askyourgran]

Was it? Oh lol.

[naomi24]

:o)

[Old_Geezer]

Too long a thread to read through right now but to respond to the OP, it's my understanding it's not so much a case of being worthy of everlasting hell but of it somehow being an inevitable consequence. I guess a deity can't be as omnipotent as hoped for.

[idiosyncrasy]

I would agree with Goodlife on this. I was taught that hell is just the common grave of mankind. In fact I read somewhere (can't remember where) that the church of England is now re-assessing this doctrine.

Actually the word “hellfire” is an English distortion of “Gehenna,” this is the name of the refuse dump outside the city walls of Jerusalem. This is where the Jews burnt their rubbish and the bodies of criminals which were not considered worthy of a burial place. Jesus used this at Matthew 10 v 28 as a symbol of everlasting destruction.

Hell is translated from the Hebrew "Sheol" and Greek "Hades", and means the grave.

[jomifl]

The 12th century Cathars ( in southern Fance) believed that hell was the then present Earth and that if you were very good you would go to heaven. They also believed that the pope was the antichrist, an idea that does have some support and can be argued convincingly (one you have lost touch with reality).

[sir.prize]

Get yourself a harp and take no notice of keyplus.