Personally, I found that that fear recedes over time. I too was raised an evangelical christian. It's the fear that keeps people "in line". A fear of death is natural for all human beings. But I think ultimately it's the quality of the life you lead now that matters.

It took me a while to get my mom's voice out of my head like quite a few years but it will happen just believe in your self

Don't let it steal form the time in your life that you are spending

Go to Amarillo, Texas. Hell will look pretty good.

I used to think that way, but as I got older I realized the only real hell is the one in this life. Humans already are capable of doing some of the most hellish things to each other, there is no need for an afterlife for that. Heaven and hell exists right here, right now. You create which one you want with every decision you make.

You get over the fear of hell by realizing that you'll be in good company if the Bible is true. The Bible says that MOST people are going to hell.
I made a couple of videos on the subject.

No gods, no satan, no heaven, no hell. There is NOTHING to fear about death.
Nothing happens after you die. You're just dead, that's it.

No, that’s stupid, but if it were real I’d have a first class ticket and reservations.

I've never had a fear of hell, even from a very young age I always felt nobody knew what happened after death. I'm not afraid of death either, but a little irritated by the thought of it, I know I'll have stuff I still wanted to do

Think about it... There is no more evidence you will go to hell when you die, than there is that your soul will ride on the back of a purple unicorn for eternity. The only reason you worry about it is that others believe in hell and you were taught to believe in hell. If the majority of people believed the moon was made of cheese, that would not increase the chances that the moon is made of cheese. Keep logically challenging that fear. Also, we often think our emotions decipher what is true or not, but they don't. Being afraid of going to hell doesn't increase the chances that hell exists.

I began to lose my fear of punishment during the period of time I was rethinking God's nature, prior to completely losing faith in faith. I'd come to the conclusion that a supreme being would not be vengeful or sadistic, as tradition has held. Hell no longer scared me, at that point.

If you intellectually accept that they lied to you about the existence of hell, then if it really exists, they probably lied to you about what it's really like. Think of it as an eternal cocktail party with your pals. That's ridiculous of course, but it might take an irrational rationalization to lose the irrational fear. Just do the best you can and try not to dwell on it.

Indoctrination is hard to over come..all of those former fears and guilts will disappear eventually..and congrats on making a rational decision about religion..welcome

You're going to hell when you die in most religions, some don't have one. The main thing to remember is that a religion is essentially an alternate reality.

From what I hear, Hell is the smoking area of the afterlife.

Self doubt is one of the greatest things we can ever have. It allows us to grow. Fear is also a great motivator, if controlled and channelled. Because I have no knowlege of the afterlife, it is possible that there is some savage deity looking over all of us demanding our attention at all times, and if we don't give it and follow it's continuously changing requirements, we are DOOMED TO SUFFER IN DANTE'S INFERNO (I am hoping I can squeak by as a Virgil). But if you weigh all the possibilities of an afterlife, it seems absolutely foolhardy to think you can pick one and it is gonna be right, no matter how you logic it. It's a closed door that nobody (well, maybe nobody) get's to go through and come back to give you a scouting report.

I don't remember ever believing in hell, but consider this:

• Would a loving father figure torture his children forever for some minor transgression.
• There is no reason to believe in an afterlife.
• Hell was never defined or described until Dante Alighieri wrote "The Divine Comedy."

No, but I didn't really fear it when I was in fundamentalism either. In my experience, if you feared it then, you'll fear it now; if you didn't fear it then, you're unlikely to fear it now.

I was pretty active in the church and two or three pastors I knew personally over the years confessed that their most vexing challenge was people who would come to them complaining that they didn't "feel" saved or forgiven. Sometimes they would answer an altar call whenever it was made "just in case".

In my particular denomination this was considered a matter of relying on feelings rather than "fact". He would step them through the dogma -- have you acknowledged your need of a savior? Have you accepted Jesus as that savior? Then you're saved, end of story. If you're able to worry about it, it's actually "evidence" that you're saved. However -- nothing you can say to these folks would ever make them feel they had their bases covered.

And this, mind you, was in a fairly "mild" centrist sort of fundamentalist / literalist camp. I can only imagine what a more sawdust-trail, hellfire-and-brimstone environment would do to such people. Indeed, sometimes these miserable folks came to us OUT of those sorts of churches. (It's not like there aren't "degrees" of deconversion sometimes -- from harsher to milder kinds of religions, relatively speaking, as well as out all the way like us).

I think it's a combination of personality, parenting, and religious experience that traumatize some people while not bothering others. In my case, I was from the "once saved, always saved" camp, and always figured that was a non-issue for me. Also my parents were unconditionally loving, and unintentionally protected me from the worst features of fundamentalism. And -- I was, as I mentioned, in a relatively less authoritarian group than some, and not in the thick of the Bible Belt where some of this authoritarianism / judgmenatlism would spill over into my educational experience. All of this I think spared me the emotional trauma you're describing.

As others have suggested it's partly a matter of the passage of time and the gradual retraining of your mind, of your emotions catching up with your intellect. However if it keeps you up nights you're probably suffering a form of PTSD and might want to seek help for that. You're hardly alone in being tormented by operant conditioning via religious ideation.

...never mind.

Hell is just a threat to keep believers in line

As far as I'm aware, there is no mention of hell in the bible, but rather it was made up as a way of controlling us. I'm not sure there's absolutely nothing after death, but I am sure that it's not what people have let us to believe..and if there is something, it's not anything we can understand or comprehend as biological beings.. It's beyond our scope of understanding.

I'll be very happy to really be alive after I'm dead, even if it's hell. I have a feeling it's going to be exactly like the last time I was dead, though. You know, that time before I was born.

Well, first of of you have to realize that the visons of an aferlife depends otn eh religion. Often pepel talk of Haites and Hell as if they are interchangeable, but Haites is actually and freezign cold, whiel Hell is incredibly hot. The visions of Haides originated in colder climates, whiel the idea of Hell originated in hotter climates.

I fyou were to study comparitive religions, you'd find that the idea of an after life is not univerally "hellish". And as you learn each new story of an afterlife, you will likely find that what you were were taught as a Christian was just a made up story just li9ek any other religion.

You might lok for book recommendations on this site. Most of hte books recommended here have expanded my own understanding,or at least have been very interesting and worth reading.

I remember as an atheist youth worrying about hell despite myself. But over the years it occured to me that "eteranl life" as described by Christians was equally abhorant as was the idea of hell. Oblivion, a dreamless sleep seems not all that bad by comparison.

Truly sorry to hear that -sounds like one of the after effects of coming off the drug, I wasnt ever religious so I really don't know what you are truly going through but I do wish you well , and hope that you get some help. I have a sense form soem of teh other things that I have gone through that its true, time heals, give yourself an easy ride for a bit and when those feelings come try talking back to them soothingly - 'ssshh - all will be well!'