The Myth of Eternal Damnation

The idea of "Eternal Damnation" as taught by some religious fundamentalists seems highly questionable to me. And I`m not an atheist, mind you. I do believe there are "bad places" one can go to in the afterlife for transgressing against life. I believe it for the simple reason that ALL religions and ancient mythologies mention such places. There are variations of "hell" in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Egyptian, Tibetan and Greek Mythology, among other sources. But none of these traditions refer to hell as being a place where one is eternally alive and conscious of suffering.

I mean lets take Hitler for example. I can see how punishing him for a hundred years might seem reasonable and an opportunity to "learn the lesson" or as a deterrent. Even a thousand years might be conceivable. But after a trillion years of being punished and tortured, what is the point? And after 10 Trillion years its not enough already? Does ANY human deserve that kind of punishment? Apparently 10 trillion years is not enough. Not even a 100 Trillion years. No, it must be "eternal" and "forever", according to certain interpretations of religion. Anyone with even the slightest sense of justice would find this idea appalling.

A God for whom 100 Trillion years of fire and brimstone, humiliation and torture is not enough is not a loving and forgiving God but rather the most cruel and sadistic entity imaginable. How would any such God be worthy of worship?

So I kissed a woman I am not married to. Or I am a Chinese villager who has not converted to Christianity because its unfamiliar to me. Does that mean I will be eternally tortured in hell? I seriously doubt it.

The idea of eternal damnation seems to be a threat only the gullible would subscribe to and only the sadistic would teach. Btw..as far as I know, the Bible does not teach eternal conscious suffering, but rather "eternal annihilation", which would simply be death. So what makes christian fundamentalists teach of eternal conscious suffering? In what kind of mind-space does a person have to be to believe that?

Back in the 1990s I worked at a Catholic monastery for almost a decade. Volunteering and helping with the Third Order. An old nun explained Hell to me and it made sense. She said that the people in Hell WANT to be there. They hate God so much, and they hate hate hate so much, that they want to be away from the light and the good and God. So even if the metaphorical 'gates of Hell' were thrown wide open and the people were invited out, they'd just stay where they were and complain that you need to shut the door and leave them alone. The people in Hell put themselves there and want to stay there because it's as far away from God as they can get .... They want no part of Heaven.

Anyways .. made sense to me.

a reply to: Skyfloating

Eternal damnation for the actions done during a brief 75 years of time. It is such a silly concept. I'm in agreement with you OP. Eternal damnation is just a made up boogie man to scare peasants into compliance back in the middle ages which was appropriated from the Jewish Gehenna or Sheol.

You could literally kill EVERY person on earth, but if you were to add up the ages of every person on earth, the subsequent punishment in hell would STILL dwarf that number, because eternal (in this case, positive infinity) goes on forever. There is no stop.

Finally, someone who makes sense of the afterlife.(or at least a small portion of it)not insulting,just saying this can get way deep so i appreciate keeping it simple and localized.

I am glad you were able to expression this carefully. Too many people are "blinded" and/ or intolerant of others.

Jesus wan't a Christian
Buddha wan't Buddhist
Muhammad wan't a Muslim (?)

They were all teachers. Teaching Love. Love was their religion.
And somewhere along the way people felt that they had more "Love" than others and began using fear of eternal pain to persuade others to conform into their "beliefs" so they feel safer in their own insecurities that there way of Love is better than anyone else s.

Stars!!!

a reply to: FlyersFan

I like that explanation, but it seems to only cover those that want to be in there.
Like the OP example of kissing, or laying with a women that is not your wife is considered something that would send you to hell right?
Or if one breaks the 10 commandments, i stole some candy as a kid, wouldn't that qualify me to burn in hell for all eternity?

a reply to: SirKonstantin

Buddha wan't Buddhist

Lost me here,but that could just be cause of my ignorance of Buddhism.
Again forgive me if I am grossly wrong here, but didn't he create or found buddhism?

a reply to: FlyersFan

Makes sense to me as well! Smart Nun Btw.

True damnation is Oblivion and no longer having any existence.

I used to think about Hell a lot but you have hit upon something I realized was what would be that point. I do believe that those who do not wish to be with God will choose Oblivion after some sort of rehabilitation in Hell.

But then who really knows...

a reply to: Sremmos80


...but you understood where i was going with the opinion...?

a reply to: Skyfloating

Yes the myth is to scare one into being as good as possible. Its a thing of extremes. If there is a most good possible, and that is the good of God and the good God wants, then there must be a most bad possible, and if the good are rewarded with eternal great life then the bad must be rewarded with eternal bad life.

Other then that, perhaps they saw how harsh reality was, in terms of the sun and lightning and maybe lava, perhaps the concept is related to reincarnation, if you are good you will keep being reborn as a potentially enjoyable life form on a planet, and if you are bad your material becomes that which serves the life like the sun or lava etc.

originally posted by: Sremmos80
i stole some candy as a kid, wouldn't that qualify me to burn in hell for all eternity?

I think the nuns point was that HATE puts people in hell. If you stole and aren't sorry for it and don't care about others, then you hate. If you stole because you were a stupid kid and now understand that was something that hurt others so you try not to do that anymore, then you don't have hate.

Her point was .... those in hell are full of hate and want to be there. They like it there. It's as far away from God as they can get. They want no part of Him. God doesn't send people to Hell ... haters RUN INTO Hell because that's where they want to be.

It's all about hate ....

Like I said .. makes a lot more sense to me then ... 'you are going to hell for eating bacon' or 'you are going to hell because you overslept and missed church on Sunday' .... ya' know??

a reply to: Skyfloating
It seems to me that eternal life is achieved by accepting Jesus into ones heart, at least from a Christian standpoint. This is ascension, nirvana or the achievement of enlightenment. The punishment for sin is death not an eternal life of damnation. There most definitely is a contradiction here.

I also strongly feel that the idea of hell in this context is also a created myth. There are a few other misnomers that have been predicated by this myth creation that I have a problem with; satan, Lucifer and the devil. The word ‘devil’ seems to be a fairly new creation and the words satan and Lucifer have entirely different meanings than the ones most Christians were taught.

The whole idea that “The devil made me do it” or that there is some evil entity whose purpose is to trick people into sinning so their soul is cast down into hell for all eternity is absurd, in my opinion, or better yet a cop out. Our actions are our own. No one else is responsible for the mistakes we make. We learn from our mistakes and ask for forgiveness from others. Attempting to blame some invisible immortal entity for the mistakes that we make is not only ridiculous but also teaches us nothing.

a reply to: SirKonstantin

I did yes, so I guess you didn't really lose me.
I guess I was just nitpicking the post, sorry

a reply to: FlyersFan

Gotcha
That is a great way of explaining it.

a reply to: Sremmos80

Peace and Love

originally posted by: Sremmos80
a reply to: FlyersFan

I like that explanation, but it seems to only cover those that want to be in there.
Like the OP example of kissing, or laying with a women that is not your wife is considered something that would send you to hell right?
Or if one breaks the 10 commandments, i stole some candy as a kid, wouldn't that qualify me to burn in hell for all eternity?

That raises another question about the duality of good and evil. Is stealing a piece of chocolate as a child (because you didn't know any better) the same kind of evil as murdering a bus full of children? Technically they are both breaking of the ten commandments. So if you go unforgiven from that event as a child, let's say that you never convert to Christianity and confess your sins, you will burn for that simple stealing of a candy bar just like that guy who took out a bus full of children. Also if you look at good and evil relativistically you start to follow a line of thought that kind of proves that good and evil don't actually exist and what we consider good or bad just changes with the times.

For instance, the OT condones slavery, but these days we view it reprehensibly. Does that mean that now that we disfavor slavery as acceptable, all the people who engaged in it back in the day when it was acceptable are all burning in eternal fire now?

originally posted by: FlyersFan
Back in the 1990s I worked at a Catholic monastery for almost a decade. Volunteering and helping with the Third Order. An old nun explained Hell to me and it made sense. She said that the people in Hell WANT to be there. They hate God so much, and they hate hate hate so much, that they want to be away from the light and the good and God. So even if the metaphorical 'gates of Hell' were thrown wide open and the people were invited out, they'd just stay where they were and complain that you need to shut the door and leave them alone. The people in Hell put themselves there and want to stay there because it's as far away from God as they can get .... They want no part of Heaven.

Anyways .. made sense to me.

So if I don't like God, I automatically default to damnation and eternal torture. Where's the competition? I'd like a few more options as to the afterlife I deserve. Surely it isn't so black and white?

I always saw Hell as a sort of prison sentence, thats if Hell actually exists, Personally I dont think a loving god would allow something to exist and if it does he would also send people to hell who try to use fear as a way to of getting them to believe in a God of some religion.

Let's take Hitler as someone above mentioned, If I were God, Hitlers punishment would be a couple of things - Firstly he would experience every death that he personally ordered, he would then have to witness each death for each of these people and do so on until every single human life that he removed from the earth he had personally viewed and experienced.

as for smaller sins, I think that when you get to the pearly gates you are given the chance to show true redemption, guilt or sorrow for what you've done but if you dont then you will be punished somehow (dont know how).

originally posted by: AfterInfinity
So if I don't like God, I automatically default to damnation and eternal torture.

Her explanation was hate. If a heart has hate ... it wants Hell because its' away from God. Heaven is where God is and where he rules .. so why would you want to be there if you don't like him? Answer .. you wouldn't. So you'd chose Hell in the afterlife and you'd be fine with it because the alternative would be to live in Heaven with God and Him ruling ... which you'd hate even more than Hell. It works out.

a reply to: FlyersFan

Can you answer why the decisions made during a very brief ~75 years is supposed to effect where you end up FOREVER after those years are up? This is why I think that reincarnation is more plausible. I can't see it making sense that you get one chance to get things right then you have to live (no pun intended) with your decisions for all of eternity.