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Originally Posted by Checkmate
I'm not sure if you are actually implying anything But it seems you are implying that hell was made up by someone and then interpolated into the religion. This would imply that much of Christianity was made up. But your only evidence for this is that there is a similar concept in another religion. That's hardly logical
Religion is used to fill the gaps for things that are unexplained by science.
Religion was first brought up by ancient civilisation, who used Gods as an excuse for things they didnt know. At this point in time this would be just about everything besides building a house and hunting animals. They did not know when or how children were born, they only knew how to make it so, they didn't know anythign about where they were or how it was made, so it is natural that an answer would be made. Humans require answers to their questions, by having a question unanswered within society it would tear apart the fabric of humanity itself. It is the way it works.
Christianity in particular borrows many things from other religions. Check out the article here and tell me what you make of the views of christianity in the dark ages. It gives a pretty clear definition on the subject it is based upon and also shows how it was worked into christianity.
Christianity condemns those who do not beleive in it's ways and ideals. Why do you think that you are sent to hell for not beleiving in god? That is highly immoral. He gives free will and then expects us to beleive in him otherwsie hell? Thats a bit messed up really. It can hardly be called free will can it? Because nobody wants to be damned to an eternity of punioshment, which leads onto my next point.
How is hell a punishment? You are in there for eternity apparentley, and punishments are used to teach you not to do things like what you did again. Hold on a second, you don't get a second chance after your punishment and it just continues for eternity, oh thats real nice. Hardly a punishment is it?
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Those in rebellion against God (a.k.a. unrepentant sinners).
So you get punished for using your Free will that is supposedly given by God eh? That's good, and it isn't even a punishment, wow! That makes no sense whatsoever. Your being punished for something and you are then expected to not do it again. The punishment does not continue. As for the ideals of forgiveness, what is the criteria?
-Show that you mean it
Wtf please? You don't go into a confessional and mean what you say really do you? I was told by my mother that she had Roman Catholic parents and was often found making up ridiculous things in the monthly confessional she had to do because there wasn't actualyl a sin worth of note. She was 11 at this point, very few 11 year olds sin.
As for murderers and the such. You murder someone and then say your sorry. You need to be sorry from the heart though. What caused you to murder someone? Hate. You cannot honestly say you killed someone because of any other reason bar love. It's either through love or through hate. There is no inbetween. These two things are from the heart so how can they be cancelled out from an apology from the heart? Wouldn't the things be of an equal level?
-Be Truthful
Please see that about my mother.
-Show a true love for your lord god.
Did you love god when you went against him and murdered someone? No. You didn't, because you went against him. Love takes many years to build, or rather, it can take many years to build. And you cannot simply got from hate to love in a short amount of time.
There are other things like that but that's basically the jist of what I'm getting at. A murderer can get off scott free for showing that he loves god and that he is sorry for his sins, yet that is badly screwed up as you can see. An atheist can lead a fulfilled life, helping charities etc. and have an auto ticket to an eternal punishment that is a contradiction within itself because he didnt beleive.
Real moral.