Who goes to hell? Nobody. Because it doesn't exist
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Ready for something earth-shattering? No one goes to Hell. No one goes to Heaven, either. Both are concepts invented by canny (and unscrupulous) people to exert control over frightened, credulous people, to get them to do what they wanted.
Heaven and hell are like the proverbial carrot and stick. Do as we say? You get the carrot (heaven with untold riches or 72 virgins, depending on your religious persuasion). Don't do as we say? You get the stick (hell, which is hot, sticky and so, so humid).
Unsurprisingly, religious leaders, who have contributed little to the progress of humankind, have bleated on about heaven and hell until enough people were scared at the prospect of an unpleasant afterlife to finally believe them. A bit more surprisingly, despite absolutely no evidence of either heaven or hell actually existing (besides the ranting of people who have a vested interest in maintaining the illusion), there are plenty who would rather have their life and values dictated by others than challenge a notion that has no basis whatsoever.
It's a bit sad that some people, either due to poor upbringing or mental sickness, are lacking in common human decency, and "require" religious leaders to tell them that, for instance, killing people is wrong, and that there's an incentive (remember those singing angels & 72 virgins?) and threat of punishment (sweltering heat, torture, evisceration) in order to remember that. So, I suppose for those without an instinctual drive to be good, the concepts of heaven and hell are useful.
- Examining Islamic Ideology & Scriptures: The Carrot and the Stick (Heaven, Hell and a Muslim)
Islamic descriptions of heaven & hell, and a great quote by Albert Einstein. - The Ineffable Carrot & The Infinite Stick
An atheist's view of morality. - Haunted by the Afterlife
The belief in an individual, personal, eternal ever-after, in either "heaven" or "hell," has been used for thousands of years by ruling classes of whatever ilk as a rationale for oppression and exploitation of the vast majority of people.
Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake.
If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense.
If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
-- Bertrand Russell
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Comments
Excellent pt Paraglider.
Interesting points. I like the quotation.
As a Christian Psycholigist and a retired missionary, I'd like to study you. There must be something in your background that makes you think like you do. Unfortunatley, you may find out too late how wrong about heaven and hell you are in your thinking. Here are the title of two books you may find interesting: The Holy Bible, (New American Standard Version), and Evidence That Demands a Verdict.
Ray P Burriss
More scare tactics from a religious leader. My background in science and rational thought make me realize that heaven/hell are figments of a religion's imagination. The Bible has a bunch of interesting stories, some edifying, but is in no way supernatural. With you I leave a quote:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it. (Upton Sinclair)
The term faith, to believe with out question, is the foundation of every religion. The reason for this is simple, the basis of religion rarely survives questions.
The ability to tell right from wrong is not common in the human species so it has been common practice to inform others that they are transgressing against the current common morality.
The problem with that is the description of what is common morality changes with changes in society, unfortunately religion is a written form of the current morality. As religions base their statements on books written a long time ago, this often limits their relavance to modern times.
This is not to say that there are not noble virtures in the books that should be passed on, it is just that it is difficult to believe that every word can be applied to modern society.
The religions themselves rewrite their books to reflect modern society, and claim that it is the original word of their God. Unfortunately when the followers of a religion can not abide by their own strictures, the whole system that allows them to become leaders in the religion is called into question.
Ultimately I feel that the statement
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN by Robert Fulghum.
Awender - I would disagree that we have to learn what is right and wrong. Although we may debate on issues like abortion. I believe we have an inate feeling that it is wrong to murder or cause suffering to another.
Alright people listen up, religon was invented by people 10's of thousands of years ago and it was created to scare man it to being a better person, there is no such thing as haven and hell they just dont exsist so you need to learn to accept that, the bible was written as a form of entertainment and hope for people so they would keep thinking things would get better when they really didn't.
Correction: There is no humidity in hell. Just heat. Hell is kind of like Arizona. It's a dry heat.
Religion was invented when mankind didn't understand the natural phenomenon around him, and when leaders wanted to assert control over their fellow man. I'm sure people don't like their beliefs challenged, but having beliefs for absolutely no reason just for the sake of having beliefs and because people had the same beliefs before is ridiculous. What leap of courage did Galileo make when he suggested that people's belief that the earth was flat was nonsense? Religious fundamentalists wanted him jailed! Now we know he was right and religion was wrong. We continue to step forward out of ignorance and towards knowledge, and this is why religion is the last bastion of the ignorant.
You might want to check with Isaiah and Luke because they both mention HELL and they are both proven by history to be deadly accurate.
Isaiah - Sargon | Sennacherib | Tirhakah | House of Tophet | King HezekiahLuke - Census of Augustus | Pontius Pilate | City of Capernaum | Tiberias Caesar
That will tell you why HELL does in fact exist - hellandjustice dot com
Interesting view, but it is just a view. One cannot prove or disprove the existence of heaven or hell because no one has experienced them, yet. However, many of us have had supernatural experiences that prove there is life beyond which we believe to be heaven. Our proof would not convince another, nor is it intended to.
Life is a journey that each individual must take. Enlightenment comes to those who seek it.
Logically speaking, it doesn't seem logical that these concepts would have survived for thousands of years and have had so many different people writing about them if it was not true. There were many writers during the New Testament era, we have but a few of them included in the Bible.
I love the article. I used to be very involved in the Church, but there was never a time that I didn't question why I was there. I felt like I HAD to. My whole family was in the Church and there's another carrot/stick for you. I gave up 'forcing' myself to stay Christian about 10 years back when I finally decided to start using logic against what I'd been told.
Premise 1: God is Good
Premise 2: God is all powerful
Premise 3: God is all knowing
Well, they can't all be true. If he's all powerful and all knowing, then he's evil. I'll put it this way - if I were omnipotent and omniscient, I'd wipe out war, poverty, hunger, disease, etc... And I'd keep wiping it out. And it would be GOOD of me to do that. So if God is omnipotent/omniscient, then he's not a good God.
If he is in fact good, then he's either powerless to do anything about the troubles of the world (but then how did he create the Universe?) or he's not omniscient. So if God created the Universe, then he must be all powerful.
So, if God is good and all powerful, but not omniscient, then that explains all the poverty, disease, etc... on Earth right? Nope. In Christianity, God came down in the form of Jesus. So at the point, he'd be keeping tabs on us. I would. But apparently that hasn't happened. Katrina (though it was dumb of us to live in a bowl), Iraq, Darfur, San Andreas Fault line (though it's dumb for us to build on top of it), etc.... Surely an all-powerful God, who has already been to Earth would do something about this if He were good?
So the premises are clearly false. Therefore, if there is an all powerful God that created the Universe, he's either not good or don't know we're here.
P.S. I found 'Ray P Burris's comment rather funny. 'What, you don't believe in Heaven or Hell? May I recommend the Bible?' That's about as relevant a comment I'd expect from Mr. Paperclip in Microsoft Word.
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Paraglider says:
13 months ago
Greetings - I think you should make it clear where your Bertrand Russell quote (which I think comes from "Why I am not a Christian") begins and ends. Maybe with italics.