Agnostic.com

15 2

My all time most puzzling aspect of Christianity.

If you go to heaven and then realize that your family members are not there and are burning in hell then how can heaven possibly be heaven if you care about your loved ones.

It’s amazing some of the answers I’ve heard and none make sense.

abyers1970 7 Mar 26
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

15 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

I agree completely. As a child brought up as a Catholic , we learned that unless you were baptized in the Catholic faith you would go to purgatory to atone for your sins. At my mom's funeral, the priest started talking about my mom being in Heaven and all I could think of was that my mom would be in hell if she couldn't see her mom (a Lutheran). At the point the absurdity of religion smacked me in the face and quadrupled my distaste for everything religious.

The problem is that the Catholic church made people money to get their family members out of purgatory

0

Religious people's first response would probably be that once you get to Heaven, God takes away all your "Earthly" attachments from you. There would be no pain and no confusion etc. Maybe they would say you wouldn't even remember your loved ones. You know, because they are all knowing and know this is all fact lol

...BUT.......if you get to "heaven", or what seems like heaven, then maybe they can say it's really hell because of that pain. You don't necessarily have to see your relatives for them to be in hell. So you can just be in hell with the torment of thinking that your loved ones are in hell while thinking you're in "heaven" without even KNOWING you're in hell.

Kind of like on Earth.

0

maybe they have a connecting elevator

0

It simply plays on the idea that YOU are not burning in hell.
IN England after the war there was an expression that summed up this mentality perfectly
"I'm alright Jack, pull up the ladder"

1

Heaven isn't about your wants and desires.

Since we are all gods children we are all family.

Maybe they are there in your heaven but at the same time they are in their hell.

Stop caring about murders, rapists, and the fat guy.

Make Heaven Great Again?

yeah

0

Depends upon the religion and also the denomination of that religion. Catholicism would say they were in Purgatory and making their way up to heaven and only the really nasty people you wouldn’t want to be associated with anyway are in Hell (See Dante’s Divine Comedy for a who’s who and type of people that are in the three states). If you’re a Calvinist it wouldn’t make the slightest difference because you are where you are because God says so, or by grace rather than works, hence the idea of pre-destination in some Christian ideologies. And that’s just two lots of Christians! There’s whole cornucopia to choose from worldwide

Catholicism would also say that if you give enough money to the church then you can buy way out of purgatory

@abyers1970 That’s true as well. They had a great little cottage industry going with their indulgences in Middle Ages.

0

That's because none of it is true and none of it makes sense..except as a way to frighten gullible people into submission and secure their money.

0

You are correct that none of the answers make any sense. Heaven and hell are the extreme expressions of right and wrong, reward and punishment. The concept puts mankind into a game of doing right for gain.

In the Dake bible courses he claims those in heaven can see those in hell. I'm sure this would not make anyone too happy. Maybe it's a reminder not to rebel as Lucifer once did and was "cast from heaven." Imagine all this work to get there and god still doesn't trust you. At one point this idea was promoted so the "righteous" could gloat. They actually enjoy seeing others that did not make it and are in hell. It's worse than school children playing, but people worldwide in many faiths believe it. I think it is all nonsense.

None of the answers make any sense.

2

The whole concept is crazy....why just single out that idiocy? Let’s get back to basics ....from the Garden of Eden onwards it is completely insane and contradictory. I was born into a freethinking, non believing family, but was encouraged to read the bible and other religious works and make my own mind up, when I was an adult. I didn’t have to wait until I was a grown up to see the glaring inconsistencies and contradictions, as a child I wondered where Cain’s wife came from...and that’s in Genesis. I didn’t need to look much further to realise it was just another collection of fairy-tales, much the same as the Arabian Nights, only I much preferred the Arabian Nights!

I think this is where the Adam and Eve and Forbidden fruit of knowledge came in. Convince people that if you acquire knowledge then it's bad and god will punish you for it SO it makes you scared to get knowledge or to question anything. If you question then you will be automatically sent to hell.

3

My heaven would be perfect knowing my family is in Hell.

But that might disqualify me from heaven anyway.

1

No one ever thinks anything through in religion.

There are a LOT of problems with an endless afterlife, not least of which is what do you do for all eternity, especially if you think it involves groveling 24/7 before a jealous god. Eternity is a LONG time.

Personally I don't even think the human psyche is built to live forever. I would take an affordable biological immortality with good quality of life, but only because it's nice to have options and to choose the timing and method of your exit. I'm pretty sure that after a few hundred years or maybe less, I would have had my fill and would choose not to have any more experiences. Life, after all, is not THAT compelling and even at age 62 I constantly encounter things that I've seen / done a hundred times before. I think even the most optimistic and cheerful folks would have trouble finding meaning and purpose beyond a certain point. Maybe they'd last longer, but not forever. Maybe novel experiences like colonizing Mars or taking the 300 year journey to a nearby star would help, but not forever.

1

All religions and sects were ": designed " for the ignorant by few wise dudes. What amazes me is that people in the XXI century remain as in the beginnings of time.

1

Fairy tales aren’t logical.

1

It can only make 'sense' if you don't think about it.
Logically there would be people you hate there.
All the pets you've loved are banned.
How would it not be boring eventually, and you have no way of ending it?

3

It's made up. No one I would want to be with meets the entry requirements anyway.

I know exactly what you mean!

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:318384
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.