The word in the original Hebrew that's been rendered as "Hell" is usually Sheol.  It just means "the grave" and it's got nothing in common with the medieval conception of hell.  It's complicated by the fact that Gehenna is also translated as "Hell" - Gehenna is a place of fire where the wicked go to be annihilated (not tortured) after death.

Quote from: Kait on September 19, 2009, 10:48:25 AM
It's complicated by the fact that Gehenna is also translated as "Hell" - Gehenna is a place of fire where the wicked go to be annihilated (not tortured) after death.

My understanding is that Gehenna was the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem's walls.  I haven't dug into though, so I might be spreading FUD without basis.

I feel a little bad posting in the Christianity forums, since I'm not Christian, but here's my own idea of hell(which may or may not work for others):  for me, hell isn't a group experience.  It's not a place you go to hang out with other damned souls.  Hell is a very personal experience designed specifically for you.  Because it's created by you, from your own mind, your own psyche.  It's not punitive - it's simply a process that's intrinsic to the mind/soul/self.  If your soul leaves the physical with unfinished business or unfinished lessons to learn, that carries with you into the after-life.  It would "haunt" you as something unresolved that you can't now resolve because you're no longer incarnate.  It's like leaving a conversation and realizing that something you said didn't come across right or that maybe you offended somebody and feel bad - it's something you mull over because you can't resolve it.  That's why I think it's so important to resolve what we can now, because if you don't, it will carry with you into the great beyond and, if you're in the camp that believes in reincarnation, into your next life.  So, for me, hell is not a place(we all go to the same "place"), it's a state of mind - the one where you're haunted by the physical because you didn't resolve issues and tackle challenges like you were meant to.

That's hell for me anyway.  I believe spirituality is individualistic because the soul is a portion of the mind and each of us is unique.  If believing in a pit of fire and brimstone works for you and feels like the fundamental truth that resonates with you, then that is how it is for you.  If there's no resonance, then it's time to move on.

Quote from: calliope on September 19, 2009, 11:01:00 AM
My understanding is that Gehenna was the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem's walls.  I haven't dug into though, so I might be spreading FUD without basis.

It's not FUD - you're right.  It was a place where rubbish was burned. and it's the namesake of the place of annihilation.  There was a great deal of conflation of the two - tradition holds that the physical valley of Gehenna has a gate to a lake of fire.

Quote from: calliope on September 19, 2009, 11:01:00 AM
I feel a little bad posting in the Christianity forums, since I'm not Christian.

A lot of people posting on this thread - including me - aren't Christian.  No one will eat us as long as we're respectful.

In A Course in Miracles, Jesus says there is no such thing as sin, only mistakes and the chance to choose again.

If there is no sin, there is no need for hell or for purgatory.

Robyn

Not all of Christianity believes there is a hell. If some don't find out why?  might make things look diffrent to you. I don't care what area of Christianity one comes from it is not good to think that (this is all there is to it). I don't want to say this right that is wrong because I have done that in the past just to be proved wrong. there is always a reason for the other persons views or they would not see it that way. you can put each groups teaching in a box of its own to sort them out. without compromizing you own views. if we are free we should be free to view all views without affending God.

Quote from: Miniar on September 04, 2009, 12:35:52 PM
(Here I go, the heathen, replying on the christianity forum... I really should stop reading the bible...)

You have to remember that the modern hell is not the same thing as the original judeo-christian hell. Originally it referred to being separate from god, being without god.
It was in the early middle ages that the christian faith borrowed imagery from all other world religions to turn it into the fiery pit in the center of the planet.

This. 

I don't think there's a hell and I'm slightly Christian, and I don't think there's a purgatory (but I learned that purgatory was only talked about after the Black Death in the 1300s and never before so it influenced me).  I don't like the idea of a place that people go to if they 'sin' or they go to if they're not Christian, I can't see why God would really care if someone believed in something else. 

Maybe ET's are fallen angels.

Quote from: laineyjain on July 26, 2010, 11:41:59 PM
Not all of Christianity believes there is a hell. If some don't find out why?  might make things look diffrent to you. I don't care what area of Christianity one comes from it is not good to think that (this is all there is to it). I don't want to say this right that is wrong because I have done that in the past just to be proved wrong. there is always a reason for the other persons views or they would not see it that way. you can put each groups teaching in a box of its own to sort them out. without compromizing you own views. if we are free we should be free to view all views without affending God.

As Cindy Jones says earlier, the notion of hell is a contradiction.

I figured, many years ago, that it's also rather insulting to God to even suggest that He would take any satisfaction is watching people suffer.

I later discovered the mistranslations referred to by Kait.

Then it occured to me that the whole notion is based upon our perception of revenge. Others do, what we percieve as bad. We satisfy ourselves that they will get theirs later.

But this assumes that what others do is bad. We can cite the behaviour of, for example Blair. His behaviour is evil. But however terrible is was for those affected, those in Iraq and Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, but also the military people whose minds have been permanently scared by what they have been forced to witness and do. Some of these troops have behaved in terrible ways themsleves, from a human perspective, we are looking at pure evil.

But would this be the same perspective for an omnipitent, omnipresent being?

It is often asked, how can a loving God allow some people to suffer? How could the God of the Jews allow the murders of WW2? Why do bad things happen to good people?

To say that it is some sort of devine retribution returns to the insult to God. To call it a test removes omnipitance.

For an omnipitent being, all time exists in the same way as all space exists for those with sight. Time, for an omnipitant being isn't a sequence, it's a single event.

However terrible some events are, within the entire event that consists of time from the begining to the end, however much many people suffer, in the greater scheme of things, in the scheme of the entire universe, from the begining of time to the end, each of these is part of that single, greater event.

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Has anyone been to http://www.tentmaker.org If not it would be a good place to learn about this stuff. I hope this helps.