Imagine yourself, by yourself, completely alone. You feel no heat or cold, nothing for you to physically sense. Everything around you is dark, black; there is a total and absolute absence of light. Imagine existing there for the rest of eternity. Is this what it's like to die? Is this the result of becoming worm food? The total lacking of everything forever? Now what if you were still completely self aware of yourself in this place left with only your thoughts to recycle over and over? I bring the subject of Hell up because I have been thinking about it a lot lately... My concept of it is not close to what most people stereotypically describe it to be, being filled with fire and brimstone. I don't believe there will be literal flames burning your flesh off. I don't think you'll be able to share your thoughts and experiences with those around you. In other words, there will be no "meeting you in Hell" as I hear said often. Hell is a total separation from God, right? With no chance ever again to be close to Him. A fiery place where there will be weeping and gnashing at the teeth... but perhaps eternal loneliness could be described as painful as a burning fire? Most of what we read in the Bible about Hell appears to be figurative... I imagine Hell as a place of total isolation knowing full well that God exists, that you made a choice not to believe and now am left in utter darkness without anyone, ever. -------------------- Ultimately, my question is, if you believe Hell exists, what do you believe is within it? What do non-believers supposedly face? Note that I am coming from a Christian perspective, but other perspectives are welcome. Am I completely out to lunch? Do you agree with me? I am curious as to what others ideas are as I form an opinion for myself... Peace. :m:
Sounds better than living in this world. But that may be what this world is. Nothingness. Because we (the self) can only think, the thoughts start to become more and more real, like dreams. We feel alone, we start to imagine, dream things, and so this world is created. Atheists believe that they stop existing when the body dies. There's nothing painful about loneliness. That's exactly what reality is. There is only one self. About hell. It exists on earth. When people suffer much, they're in hell. And yeah... I heard from someone that after your body dies, if you have lived in a wrong way, you will be in darkness and there will be nothing but you. You might stay there for many years, then you'll be born on earth again. Those who have lived the right way, they will come to the "light" and merge with God.
I don't believe in Heaven or Hell. I do believe in reincarnation, but I don't believe in karma. It doesn't matter if you were good or bad, you get recycled. Maybe as a human, maybe on Earth, maybe not. I believe in the existence of a soul as a form of pure energy. I think the concepts of Heaven and Hell are just ways for us to answer the question of what happens to us after we die. When I was little I was told by a Christian (don't know what particular sect) that animals had no souls. With no souls, they can't get into Heaven. I didn't want to spend eternity in any place where my best friends weren't allowed. Since most of them were cats, I created in my mind "The Temple of Bast". The spirits of all the cats I've ever known are waiting there and when I die I'll spend some time there (before being recycled) giving them all the ear-scritchin's they could ever want. When I lost my best feline friend of 21 years, it eased the pain to imagine her curled up on a big cushion by a window that's always sunny. I still haven't decided what happens to the dogs who win our undying affection. I think my little Rexie's spirit moved into my heart.
we as life forms.. are, especially in the brain... electrical in nature. and electronics teaches us that T=CR and assuming our resistance to a so called heaven was low.. then all we require is the potential to.. as energy.. transcend any distance and as such.... potentially leave our space and return to the original source of energy... as now.. as souls.. qualitively changed... i.e... God made the universe... and all things... by the application of energy that followed mathamatical precision and resulted in our universe... predestining the formation of life forms on planets, and in the end.. collecting back the crude energy originally applied... collects back that energy as Jewels in the form of souls... the life and memories of good Godly people... who make themselves worthy by being good.. and having memories which God may wish to collect and preserve... i.e.. God doesnt want memories of raping and murdering.. and theiving... the people with an over abundance of bad memories ... are not collected. and what happens to their energy is simple... it is lost into deep space as wave energy... purgatory. or it is converted into HEAT... due to entropy. HELL. -MT P.s.. the reason a God wouldnt collect the souls and so memories of every animal is because they don't do anything.. they dont really think. they dont have values, and they follow only instinct.. thus comparatively their souls would have much less value than that of a coinscous being such as humans. (but house pets are different.. they form bonds and relationships with people.. and will often.. think of themselves as human.. and as such.. know affection and sorrow and lonelyness and so forth... thus.. perhaps.. their memories maybe worth something.. but of this i cannot be sure.. how can we?) (hence a church of science : http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=50697)
Apparently God has never seen a mourning dove beside a recently deceased mate. They think. They have emotion and memories, and they aren't house pets.
It is true, even primates can , and have been documented to act very much like humans... one for example in the wild.. clung to its mother all its life... and when its mother died.. it fell into depression and soon after died, even though it was young.. As i said... i just don't know.. how could i? How can anyone? -MT
"The Damned cannot Create. Thats the true nature of Hell!" - Don Juan's Final Night by Edmond Rostand Ignorance is Hell! (Was it not Walt Whitman who said, "Hell is other people?")
no it was Satre, and i agree wit him, but am not an Extentialist. who else but certain people created hells for others and for earth,,,? Vertigoll.......the whole idea of 'hell' is the 'stick' of patriarchal belief system.....so i wanna take you back to a prepatriarchal understanding of death, darkness, etc...to tryy eaaaase yo miiind Formprepatriarchal agrarian people death was not to be feared.....blackness/darkness is sacred to the Goddess (notice how patriarchy demonizes darkness, and Nature).....for think of the seed deep in the dark soil, how it is nurtured tee and then begins to crack, and shoots emerge and thewn grows towars the light yet ROOTS are in the dark. the patriarchy CUTS those roots off from us via its oppressive ideology. it makes us FEAR the dark/....what IS dark?....is it just a colour or does it represent someting else?.....how about the unknown?.......does erveryting have to be kbown about....cannot there be an unknown that can nev er be known no matter how much one knows?/....get me? this unknown is maybe what you fear. yet it is this unknown which is the soil for the known......think it as p;oar relationship wich is dynamic of 'known and unknown........' can you have one witout the other....? a very ancient prepatriarchal mythical Goddess is Hekate, Goddess of Compost Heaps..........is this death? that we become recycled?......that consciousness and matter/energy is a living process which recycles itself natrually. isn'y this insight more fruitful and liberating tan te dusty patriarchal one of stasis/ of 'just darkness forever and ever' an 'just lightness for ever and ever'...??
Hell is the worst. You dont know anything bout bad, until you take a trip to Hell. Bein there a few times in the past, not such a nice place.I hear theres somewhere called heaven? Wouldnt mind that, how many angels do you get for free??? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
definatly spot-bollock on, in my belief that was the sole purpose of any/all religion, to 'control the masses'. It kinda worked for a bit , but not in this day and age. :bugeye:
hell is a construct of the human mind, just as is heaven. from a jewish perspective, the most detail you will get regarding hell is the word "sheol" which means "the grave" or "death". all religions which sprout from judaism that talk about fire and brimstone are just making things up. the ministers, priests, imams, etc...that spout this dogma are just repeating what was taught to them by the church itself. other religions, however...they have quite interesting views on hell. why doesnt anyone stick up for zoroastrian folks on these forums?! lol :m:
Self-imposition. Very little in this world is in clear-cut black & white, so people in desperate need for something with no ambiguity cling to the basic tenet that good people go to Heaven, bad people go to Hell. They allow themselves to believe in these concepts for some sense of definition and maybe as a coping device. When a killer gets set free because of lack of evidence or because of some loophole, much as we'd like to hunt the SOB down and put him out of our misery (let's assume he's actually guilty but the arresting officer left a comma out of the Miranda rights or something stupid like that), some of us keep our baser emotions and impulses in check with the belief that he'll get his just deserts in the end. He may be smug now, but just wait until Satan is shoving live rats into his anus.
The aura field of our bodies collapses at death... where the energy goes is determined by our polarity.. that is what i preach. -MT
Mosheh- When I first read your post I thought it said "...where the energy goes is determined by our popularity..." AAAgh! My aura field needs more coffee! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Seriously, though, what do you mean by it's polarity? Are we talking traditional electrons, protons, neutrons, etc?
I think you misunderstood me. But thats just it, i dont believe religion works in controling the masses now at all, i mean look at the present day situation, the war in Iraq, terrorist activity rife throughout the world, all in the name 'of the lord'. But thinking about it, its not just in this day and age, its throughout history, virtually every war thats been waged has been done so on 'behalf' of religion, this of course is bollocks, as many religions preach peace, but is the excuse given. Therefore religion in my eyes, has failed.
