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Talking with my daughter yesterday and she started asking questions about hell and if people do this and do that will they go to hell. My response to her was simple. The Bible and other religious books aren’t the word of god. They are what MEN have said that god has told them the word of god is. Then I asked her if I told her that God had told me that I was the prettiest person in the world would she believe it. She said no. Then I told her that god telling me I was prettiest person in world has as much validity as what people who wrote these books say about god telling them something. Maybe it wasn’t the best way but I hoped it worked.

abyers1970 7 July 28
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7 comments

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2

I have a niece who sometimes asks those kinds of questions. Her dad and I are atheist. Her mother is not. We usually respond with “I don’t know. What do you believe?” It’s quite effective.

I told her that pretty much anything that people try to scare or threaten you into is pretty much false. The truth doesn’t need manipulation tactics for you to believe

2

You were good and this can be good too... "There is no heaven and there is no hell. There is only one and limited life and it is up to us how to make it good for us and others."

0

How old is your daughter? Important piece of info left out that is necessary in order to give relevant feedback.

11

@abyers1970 then your reply was spot on

0

I've used the same example many times and it has never sunk in. That doesn't mean it won't for your daughter, especially if she's not too grown up yet. But in my experience the indoctrination runs deep and it's difficult to reason people away from it.

3

I really like your angle on god, very interesting I think. I have a thought to add to that. Let's say, hypothetically, that god of the bible is true. Does the things god did in the bible make him worthy of worship? Absolutely not! Just give that a thought when people talks good and praises their precious god to you. Unbelievable.

1

You handle that like a true free thinking human, without judgement!

When facts overrule myths then one must conclude that truth is made up of facts, not myths!

4

fwiw the hell your daughter fears is not in the Bible anyway--believe it or not--but was translated into It by our Angle/Saxon scribes from the Norse concept, which was the closest analogy they had. Gehenna is on earth, and Tartarus is a Greek god, and these were meant to be analogies anyway, not to be taken literally. Loved your answer tho!

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