Questions for hell believers.

1. Q: Do you believe in Hell?
--A: I did for a long time, I guess...but not anymore. I was raised Christian and got to the point where I just wanted to know if this thing everyone was so uppity about--Christ, "God," etc.--was real or not, so (like many, I assume) I decided to test it by delving into the occult. Long story short, it "worked," if by worked one means "I got the answers I was looking for," but like Kairos said, it wasn't what I thought it would be. It was...terrifying, and for a long time--over two years sleeping with the lights on every night (I still kinda' do this, actually, they're just dimmer now X D)--I thought I was surely condemned to Hell for what I'd done. The reason, I gathered, why witches and magic was forbidden in the bible, I concluded, was because, being something that actually is a thing, it bypasses faith; after all, how can one "believe" if one already knows? Therefore, magic is like cheating the system or breaking the rules of this game called "reality." You can do it, but you're out of the game after that--if it's all a test of faith to see who will act right in the belief they'll be rewarded afterwards, you can't really be rewarded or play anymore at all for that matter if you cheated to get the answers before the test is over.
--Thing is, though...and being terrified of going to Hell for many, many years and thus studying the subject for many, many more I know quite a lot about this (as well as many other things...X D)…Hell is an evolving concept. It's not the same now as it was then--the name, Hell, isn't even really what we tend to think of, and its origin isn't really only what we think it is, either. By saying that, I don't mean, "Well, you see, the ancient Abrahamic peoples believed in a concept called Sheol before Hellenic and Indo-Iranian cultures influenced"--no, that's not what I mean. I also don't mean, "Well, Hell, as a term, is a Gaelic, Germanic variant of the proper name of a Goddess associated with the realm of the dead, Helheim, in Norse and"--no, I don't mean that, either.
--…So what do I mean, then, by saying, "Hell is an evolving concept"? Well...I feel it...I can see it in colors and waves in my mind...I know what I mean, but saying it? Hmm...
--Damn, Imma' bomb this one X D
--I guess, well, yeah, I do believe in Hell, but what I believe Hell to be...is probably what each individual imagines it to be. Some might think that sounds too simplistic, but really, if you try to think about what exactly would have to be true in order for that to be the case, it's incredibly complex--divine, even...First you'd have to ask whether or not you even believe in an afterlife, and if so, why? And is there a God? Which God? And if this one, why this? And if that one, why that? So on and so forth--and if you're unwilling to piece together all the answers to all the questions that an inquiry like, "Do you believe in Hell" drags up along with it, then...well...
--You probably shouldn't ask.
--…That's just my thoughts on it, though (I'm not sure if I actually really said anything, however X D).
--I guess if anyone finds any part of that interesting or curious or helpful in anyway, I'll expound on it...
--...I might even answer 2 and 3 X D
 
Gnostic Christian said:
IOW iamonarch, to you, hell and heaven are mental constructs that only exist in our minds.

Right?

Regards
DL
Click to expand...

--Well, actually not entirely, but it looks like my message got cut off somehow: After that "r" that's just hanging there was a story about...well, a lot of what @Kairos was talking about earlier in the thread (I don't actually know how to "link" members or whatever yet, so I know the "@" is essentially useless--if someone could explain this to me that would be awesome X D).
--Okay...So...no, not entirely, and I just wrote for, like, twenty minutes trying to explain what I mean, and, well...I had to start over because it's hard to articulate. There's a lot of things you have to get established before you can actually get into it, so in a sense you have to take certain postulations as fact before you even start. Therefore:
--Postulate 1: Time is not only non-linear, but simultaneous.
--Postulate 2: The Big Bang point of origin is every conceivable location within spacetime at the same time.
--Postulate 3: Existence, or rather creation, is a continuous process, not something that started and will eventually stop--every moment is generated as it occurs.
--Postulate 4: There is no distinction between "material" and "spiritual" existence, but the "spiritual (read: incorporeal)" needs the material as a means of articulation and vice versa.
--Postulate 5: Each individual is the sum total of existence, but on a microcosmic level as opposed to the external macrocosm.
--Postulate 6: Each individual not only occupies there own unique position in spacetime, but their own unique "dimension," as well (what this really means is that every person, being all there is at any given time, still nevertheless is able to interact with other equally real people, i.e. it's not solipsism because of Postulate 1 and 2).
--Postulate 7: This is where we can sorta' answer the question, so...Yeah, it's all in your mind...but everything in your mind is actually just as real as everything outside your mind. Right now, it seems like you're interacting with other people in our own little slice of spacetime, but no, the "you" that constitutes the real, internal, fundamental "soul" that is you is actually all there is, period. Thing is, the same is true for everyone else. This (like I said in Postulate 6) is possible because time is simultaneous and each point in the universe is actually not only the center, but also the place of origin, which considering Postulate 3 means that the center of your dome piece (read: head) is the center of all reality and, every second, it projects the entire universe around you, and within each second, that is all that exists and ever will exist...until it's replaced by the next second. And everyone does this, just as I suppose every point in the universe does this...So really, there's only one thing that actually exists...Everything.
--Perhaps this would be helpful:
--Postulate 7: The most fundamental truths regarding reality are always paradoxes, e.g. time is infinite yet simultaneous, all things are one yet one thing is all, etc.
--It really...makes no sense, yet that's because everything makes sense, if only within it's context--nothing is real, but everything is real.
--Therefore...Your own personal idea of Hell would be different than mine, and as of right now it would exist in your mind, sure...until you go there (not you--the figurative "you"...I'm not telling you to go to Hell X D).
--Or how bout this instead: Heaven is perfection in God's presence, but what are you gonna' do all day without any thing bad? How will you know it's good? Because you remember earth? But what if your wife or momma didn't get in? Then you'd be sad, and it wouldn't be heaven. So what if you just forget all about earth? Then you wouldn't be you.
--In order for Heaven to truly be Heaven it would have to be your own personal idea of Heaven, which means that your momma (if you love her...which you probably should) would definitely be there. But what if your momma doesn't want you in her Heaven (bad momma X D)? Well...Then she goes to her own, all happy, and so do you...and there she is...so now there's two mommas X D but everyone--including you--is really only the "ONE THING," anyway...
--It's all a dream in the eternal God Machine...
--Heaven would probably be, well, a lot like earth, too...because of Postulate 4, which also means that Hell would be, as well, only, ya' know...uniquely a world in which you suffer your most dreadful circumstances imaginable X D only you don't realize that you're the one that caused those circumstances...and neither does anyone else.
--...
--Also...Only you can decide where you go and why. After all, who knows you better than you? Who really understands why you did or didn't do something more than you do? Who feels the most guilt about what you know was wrong but did all the same? You do. You're are the judge...You are the son of man, and also bene Elohim...So then if you really, truly feel like you deserve hell...you'll go there. And who really knows what they really, truly feel? After all, your dreams are made by you--do you know why? Exactly...You have no real idea what the hell you even are...
--And of course you could say, "Well, what about psychos who did terrible things but don't think they were wrong? Do they get to go to their own Heaven?" Yeah...which is why we have knowledge of an idea called "devils" who rage in worlds of abject horror...
--.(This has gone on for way, way too long)
--..So...Yeah man...It's all in your head X D
 

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