Do you believe in Hell? For non-Christians.

[Owlswing]

Floo has a thread with this title on the Christian Topic and, I, for one, am totally uninterested in the Christian Community's views on the subject but I am interested to see what all those who follow a religion that is not Christianity feel about the possibility of Hell's existence and the form in which it exists, or might exist, for them.

[trippymonkey]

Sorry NO belief at all in any kind of Hell.
Many feel being HERE on earth is more than enough, thanks !?!!?

[Owlswing]

Sorry NO belief at all in any kind of Hell.
Many feel being HERE on earth is more than enough, thanks !?!!?

Aye, trippy. My definition of "Hell" in the sense used by Christians is nothing more than a rather nasty guilty conscience, but I would like to find out what other non-Christians think.

[Rhiannon]

Agatha Christie might have written popular detective stories but she often had her characters say some things that seem very true for me. As well as my signature text, there's this from The Moving Finger:

“God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're so busy punishing ourselves.”

[ekim]

Hell, as the underworld, might be what we now call the subconscious.  Some people might be trapped in or attached to the contents of their subconscious whilst living, a kind of Hell on Earth.  What happens at death if still so attached? ..... wait and see.

[Rhiannon]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

[ekim]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

That would be for you to determine, but some might prefer not to be trapped in a psychotic state, an addictive state, a phobia, a state of loss, a state of unrequited desire etc.  These could perhaps be seen as forms of attachment.

[Owlswing]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

If your conscious thinking is anything like mine you are already deep in the mire so death should hold no fears whatsoever.

[Udayana]

Does not hold any meaning for me except possibly as a state of mind, a way of experiencing the world, maybe involuntarily.

[Rhiannon]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

That would be for you to determine, but some might prefer not to be trapped in a psychotic state, an addictive state, a phobia, a state of loss, a state of unrequited desire etc.  These could perhaps be seen as forms of attachment.

I think both can be friend or enemy. The conscious mind can talk itself into hell as readily as the subconscious can drag us there unwittingly.

[Owlswing]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

That would be for you to determine, but some might prefer not to be trapped in a psychotic state, an addictive state, a phobia, a state of loss, a state of unrequited desire etc.  These could perhaps be seen as forms of attachment.

I think both can be friend or enemy. The conscious mind can talk itself into hell as readily as the subconscious can drag us there unwittingly.

Agreed, but for what definition of Hell?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

Then isn't a part of you atrophied?

[ekim]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

That would be for you to determine, but some might prefer not to be trapped in a psychotic state, an addictive state, a phobia, a state of loss, a state of unrequited desire etc.  These could perhaps be seen as forms of attachment.

I think both can be friend or enemy. The conscious mind can talk itself into hell as readily as the subconscious can drag us there unwittingly.

Yes, the mind finds it difficult to be still and present and thinking will often drag it into a 'remembered' past or an imagined future, both being components of the subconscious.  Sometimes it's harmless speculation or fantasy and sometimes it can dredge up an overpowering emotion.

[Nearly Sane]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

Then isn't a part of you atrophied?

What would that 'part' be?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

Then isn't a part of you atrophied?

What would that 'part' be?

You have a point.....It could alternatively be a part that hasn't developed yet. Which would explain the total ignorance of it.

[Nearly Sane]

You have a point.....It could alternatively be a part that hasn't developed yet. Which would explain the total ignorance of it.

It could be, who would know? And how would you tell the difference between someone who thought they were right but disagreed?

[Rhiannon]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

Then isn't a part of you atrophied?

Because?...

[Rhiannon]

I don't find my sub-conscious any more troubling than my conscious thinking. Should I?

That would be for you to determine, but some might prefer not to be trapped in a psychotic state, an addictive state, a phobia, a state of loss, a state of unrequited desire etc.  These could perhaps be seen as forms of attachment.

I think both can be friend or enemy. The conscious mind can talk itself into hell as readily as the subconscious can drag us there unwittingly.

Agreed, but for what definition of Hell?

Hell to me is torment without any chance of it ending. I can only imagine this in physical or emotional terms.

[trippymonkey]

Can you really imagine ANY good parent allowing its children to suffer this forever ?!?!?!?

[Rhiannon]

No. But I think it possible to suffer torment that approaches it in this life.

[trippymonkey]

YES EXACTLY. But we CAN do something about it here on earth ? Agreed

[Rhiannon]

Some of it, yes. Especially the torment we subject ourselves to, the torment of beliefs and fears.

[BashfulAnthony]

I don't believe in hell, and have said so over and over. It is an immature and ludicrous concept.

[Rhiannon]

I agree, BA, as both a Christian and not I've never believed in hell. Hell, insofar as it exists, belongs in this world.

I don't know about Matt but on my loose neopagan path the underworld is a concept. It isn't a place of torment but it is the counterpoint to 'above'. We have dark deities - they aren't evil but will take us to the depths before we can emerge, re-formed. For me this is a useful concept to use when considering the difficulties I've encountered on my own journey, to make peace with them and see the gifts within.

[trippymonkey]

Just how much of Christian doctrine actually relies on a notion of Hell to 'keep' its power over mankind???