Heaven and Hell. What do you think?

[Tommi]

I think Medusa must think she's in hell about now.

Hell Yeah

[ravfem]

i was raised Church of God, and had to attend every Sunday until i reached 16 (for whatever reason it became my choice then). Heaven was where you went if you were a good, god-fearing christian, as defined by COG standards. Hell was for everyone else.

i started questioning the whole religion thing while in high school, and ID'd as agnostic for a couple of years, until i finally "came out" as atheist. One of my first questions was, "how do we know the bible wasn't written by people sitting around the campfire, passing a pipe around?" my next one was, "If god made us, who made god? Where did god come from?" and "if every single person on earth all came from one couple, then incest was accepted and widely practiced back in the day, huh?"

And for racist christians, including most of my bio-family, i point out that according to their bible, we all came from Adam & Eve, so.....

i believe people use religion as a crutch. All good things that happen to them are because they're good christians. All bad things aren't their fault, it's the devil trying to tempt them.

Miracles are credited to god. Bad things are the work of the devil. If your belief strong & true, you'll do just fine. If you misbehave, you'll burn forever.

It's like the police, or laws. Religion tries to keep people from doing "bad" things.

Only religion is much more judgmental & hypocritical. i don't need a book or a person to tell me how to behave or live.

i try to do the right thing and try to live by good morals & ethics. i try not to hate people or be mean to them, even if i don't like them. i try to treat others like i want to be treated. i wish more christians lived like that.

i believe when i die, i die. The end. Like someone else said, i've got it set up so that the medical community can take what's left that is useful, and cremate the rest.

[imperfect_cupcake]

"when will the Kingdom come?"
"it is is already here but men do not see it."

Basically, this is what I believe. I'm functionally Atheist, but I grove on good metaphor. The eternal, heaven, hell, the Kingdom, etc is here, now. it's up to us to see it and live it.

I know when I'm trapped in my own hell. I know when I'm in an eternal moment. There's no afterlife. it's all here, now. Right now.

[Ryobi]

Originally Posted by Tommi

I think Medusa must think she's in hell about now.

Hell Yeah

I think if there really were manuals for everything, the one for "site ownership" would have fine print that reads, "no matter what your intentions or how often you bend over backwards to bring them a little piece of heaven, they will give you hell."

[friskyfemme]

A simple description of my belief in heaven and hell is that each of us create our own based on the position we are in life when we reflect on the existence of each.

That being said and possibly 'clear as mud' to some, Let me explain my belief. First of all I believe we always exist as a spiritual being. At points in time we exist as spirit and an incarnate being. In our pure spiritual state, we are 'perfectbeings'. Being perfect does not allow us to grow or to experience emotions. So we choose to incarnate in order to grow our spirit. We do ths many times living many lifes. In some lifetimes we are the victor, the perpetrator, and others the underdog, or the victim. In each life we set out to learn the lessons we wish to learn, we bring with us other spirits that help us experience what we need to experience to learn our lessons. We choose our limitations and our challenges to overcome in order to meet our life's goal. Others present us with love, hate, gain, and loss (these are the variables for change in our life's plan). We don't know when are how these present themselves. We each,too, present the unknowns to others along our life's path. Living in a physical embodiment is our choice. Meeting and learning our lessons is our commitment to ourself and to our fellow spirits. Of course the difficulty we have is that we enter each life armed only with the knowledge and experience we need for our current life. So in essesence every life is a new beginning. With each death in each lifetime we grow our spirit. In spirit we are one. So as we grow our own spirit, we grow the composite spirit 'Great Spirit'. In this we are only as great as our least human and only as small as our greatest human in our lifetime. This of course is the preamble for our organized relgions, our cultures ,and our laws.

As some are thinking now, then how can we be one in Spirit and be so diverse in our beliefs, our treatment of others. It is pretty simple, these are our challenges. Whether we can set aside our differences to help each other, will determine whether we grow or diminish our own spirit and ultimately 'Great Spirit'. Blessings to all.

[Starbuck]

Heaven is going to be what you want it to be. Do you want all the saints around so you can ask any question you want? Do you just want to worship Father God? Or do you want to explore the beauties of heaven, the waterfalls, the scenery, read books and gain knowledge? It all depends, IMHO, on what you want to do, perhaps all of it a little at a time.

Hell, on the contrary, is HOT AND MISERABLE. You know that burning lake of fire you've heard about? Yeah, it's waiting for ya if you don't live your life right baby. God loves us and wants to save us from that! My granddad scared the daylights out of me about hell when I was young, telling me how all you do is burn, you're in pain, you're tongue swells up in your mouth, your throat is dry and cracked, and YOU CAN'T HAVE A DRINK OF WATER! That sounds awful!!! That's not for me man, I've got a ticket to the big show! Been baptized and everything and proud of it sugar!

[Sachita]

I don't believe in heaven or hell other then metaphor. For some reason people need these contrasts, good and evil, right and wrong, in order to manage their lives. They then can add the trappings of guilt, failure and all the other things the ego gets to rule and control. But to each their own. You need what you need to take your journey.

[Ryobi]

Originally Posted by Sachita

I don't believe in heaven or hell other then metaphor. For some reason people need these contrasts, good and evil, right and wrong, in order to manage their lives. They then can add the trappings of guilt, failure and all the other things the ego gets to rule and control. But to each their own. You need what you need to take your journey.

I like this post! I also believe ego has a huge part of people's personal hell. And even without the ego, I believe the heaven and hell we live is all self imposed. I too see them as metaphors, and not places I will go to but, places I visit regularly. I don't spend much time in hell though. I know I deserve much more than to do that. (and I think I'm much friendlier when not in hell. lol)

[princessbelle]

I used to believe in heaven and hell.

Not so much anymore. I do believe in an afterlife or new life. I don't think our spirits end when we take our last breath. As i've posted before I have had an afterlife experience so i know something is out there. And, being a nurse I've seen things that you would not believe at all.

Being brought up southern Baptist it was brainwashed into my head as far back as i can remember. Good=heaven. Bad=hell.

However, with maturity I have come to realize that it isn't so cut and dry.

Good people can do bad things sometimes. Bad people can do good things.

The lines are too fuzzy to know where they cross. With that thought it sorta proves, IMO, that the places of heaven and hell are man's way of promoting Hierarchy in a world full of "better than you" thought behaviours.

I have choosen not to worry bout it anymore. I have choosen to believe when i leave here I go back to the place i've seen. I don't know if it was heaven. I don't care. I just know it was beautiful and parts of my family are there now.