To me heaven and hell are just euphemisms for the dualistic world we live in. Hell is the consequences of ones own bad choices coming to fruition in this life. Making mistakes, sinning and having to endure the pain and hardship associated serve to make us stronger on the inside, and make us appreciate and strive for the good in life. It's like when you're little and your parents tell you not to smoke cigarettes because they are bad for you. Obviously you are going to be tempted to try them and your parents warning will have done little other than to entice you all the more. So you try them and either immediately after you puke or years down the road when your health starts to deteriorate only then do you realize the value of your parents wisdom regarding the issue. You're parent's(or god) gave you sound advice you chose not to listen and now you have to deal with the cancer down the road, you're own personal hell. To me that's what this life is, it's a lesson to be learned, and the punishment and suffering we reap during our lifetime is proportionate to the good or bad choices we make. To me eternal punishment for sins committed during this very limited narrow life makes zero sense. The only way eternal punishment would be justifiable is if god lifted the veil one day, showed his face to all mankind and said hey guys im god, I created you these are my rules follow them to the letter or im going to burn your ass forever. Instead he gives man the gift of reasonable doubt then puts centuries worth of writings in a book and expects us to take it as fact without being able to substantiate any sort of ACTUAL credibility. The bible is such a messed up book if you actually read it, it's so disjointed and schizophrenic in it's teachings. I mean the stories and teachings of Jesus were pretty sound. He was a righteous man and if he was truly the son of god he acted in a manner of which I would think a godly man would act. But then you read the old testament or the book of revelation and it's just page after page of WTF. I'm not saying there isnt alot of really good teachings to be found in there, I just don't think the bible was made for literal interpretation so much as allegory.
Yeah and why do they say they are christian if you can just put any belief on it. I've seen people claim Jesus was for self defense and others say he was against it.
The one I hear often is, "Can I murder someone then repent to go to heaven"? The Christians who follow Christianity by the book will say yes. But the Christians who add their beliefs will say something like, "I believe God wouldn't let murderers into heaven".
Or they say things like : "I believe god doesn't care that people are gay he has more important things to worry about/why did he make them that way then!1?" even though the bible clearly says to kill gay people
Love makes you feel good, fear makes you feel bad (scientifically proven as well=stress causes illnesses), it's obvious what 'feels' like the natural way of things to the majority of human beings. Trying to scare people using fear in order to follow a message of love (Jesus' main teaching) is borderline psychotic. Just use logic and you'll see how ridiculous this created game is.. Hell is a created concept to get the masses to fall in line. ..plain and simple.