Alright, I've been wondering about this for a long time and I wanted to know what you blades think. Say you die, and go to heaven because it turns out your religion was right. Then your friends die and they were atheists or followed a different religion and go to hell.. Now how are you supposed to have eternal peace and happiness knowing the people you loved on earth are being burned in fire and tortured for that same eternity? In a few words, you can't be.
The same way i'de feel if someone I love gets life in prison for murder. I would accept that they did it to themselves and that it had to be done to protect the rest of society. I wouldnt be happy about it but its something you just accept and move on. (I dont believe God is going to send anyone who didnt have a belief of him to hell, whatever the reasons are, i'm sure it would make sense in the end.)
I understand what you mean.. but In the world today you get exposed to so many religions and if somebody picks the 'wrong' one how would they know? People say just have faith but most religions are based on faith, it wouldn't really be their fault, they were just misguided..
I added more to that post. I dont know how God would judge so anything I say would be a guess. For all I know, everyone may be given a chance to believe/accept God in the end, there may be some things we just arent meant to know.
Oh alright I see that now lol. Well I guess we won't know for sure until we die.. then if there's nothing, we'll never know
Congratulations, you just explained how religion was created to control people. Through fear, they are told they must save everyone they love from eternity in hell. Then, they are told to pass the collection plate and ask God forgiveness for masturbating. Amen.
You can follow the "American Dad Cartoon" theory and assume that everyone has their own personal heaven. No way my heaven is the same as the next guy's. In fact heaven for some people may be hell for others. I wish this god fellow would stop being so ambiguous.
the way i look at it there isnt a 'wrong' religion.. as long as you got total faith in whatever it is you believe in then youre good to go.. i told my girl she was just almost just as atheist as i am.. over 10000 years with 1000 religions and 10000 different gods and she doesnt believe in any of them but one, they all MUST be wrong except the ONE she believes in.. she thinks all other religions sound ridiculous.. i just took it a bit further and dont believe in ANY haha.. but thats dumb to her.. pick your battles i guess
Heaven and hell aren't really real. They are artificial constructs used to explain spiritual/moral concepts to laypeople. Space and time are illusory, so if they are illusory, then there's no space to actually go to when your physical body can no longer support life. It's kind of like teaching small children about mathematics. Their understanding of the world is primarily based on simple arithmetic. You tell them about multivariate calculus later, when their consciousness has expanded to the point where they can grasp it. But you start with teaching arithmetic. The "teachings" about heaven and hell are for people who are at the "simple arithmetic" level of spiritual/moral concepts. It is a rather dualistic way of looking at a universe that is not really dualistic at all. The world is not black and white (duality). Rather, the world is painted in a single, unified spectrum of infinite color (unity AND infinity wrapped in one. plus, this is also scientifically true. and the visible spectrum of light is just a tiny fraction of the larger electromagnetic spectrum). Likewise, there is no good/evil or heaven/hell duality. Perhaps you see Christianity (i'm just picking Christianity as an example) as a unified body of spiritual teaching. But it's really not. Instead, it's kind of divided up into levels like how we break up math into levels to teach kids. Spiritual teachings for duality consciousness (rule of 2) is like K-12 education. Spiritual teachings for unity consciousness (rule of 1) is like undergraduate education. Spiritual teachings for stillness/emptiness (rule of 0) would be like post-graduate work. If you re-examine Christianity or any other major spiritual tradition, you will see there are different tiers of teachings for people at different levels of "spiritual education" as it were. And also, you might see that breaking up spiritual teachings into different levels actually makes sense since at any given moment, the human population is divided up into different levels of spiritual awareness. You seem to be one of those people who are starting to outgrow duality consciousness since you are recognizing the unavoidable flaws and limitations of teaching spirituality in terms of duality. Instead of saying "this is all bullshit," you can instead say "hey, i'm graduating from spiritual high school school now and ready to refine my understanding in spiritual university!" It's a good thing. Smile and be happy. Do not worry about you or your friend. Life and death are just another duality, you see. Namaste.
As long as our experience lends itself to duality, heaven and hell are here. They are not place we experience when we die, they are realities that we experience right now. So might say that earth, our world, our society is in hell. As a whole, maybe, maybe not, I don't pretend to know where it lies. Anyways, it bears no importance on whether or nor we as individuals, part of the collective, experience heaven or hell. The choice is up to us at each and every moment we experience. Many people choose to experience hell simply because they do not realize they are making that choice. Others choose hell because it is what they know, they have been tricked to believe that hell is where they belong, that it is the easiest, best choice, that it is the best choice for survival and self preservation. These of course are all lies, deceptions. Other people will try and stand between you and your salvation. Your salvation is right here, right now. Between you and yourself. There is no other to help you, to guide you, to experience it for you. There is no other time to make the choice, as the choice is always happening. The choice between fear and love. It seems obvious but the decision is harder than it seems. But don't worry, there is nothing to fear.
I usually ask it a slightly different way: what if I don't want to be immortal? The answer is usually the same: you get a lobotomy when you show up! You are mentally incapable of critical thought. Some people use logic that would support a statement like this: She had nice legs, she was bound to get raped. It was her own fault! So at that level of delusion, you're capable of telling yourself anything. The lobotomy isn't going to be needed.
It relieves my back pain, I'm sure it can help the sensation of burning flesh. Of course this is considering that everything logical and sensible is false and Hell exists afterall.
I agree with what the second poster said it would be similar to that kind of situation, plus I think in eternal paradise God would ease away you're pain I don't believe there's suffering in the Kingdom of Heaven.
You only get marijuana in heaven. There is no weed allowed in hell.....forever. I'd have thought you'd figured that out by now. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!