I Have Been Told Hell Is Real And It Scares Me.

[Jedah]

To me, Hell serves as proof that xianity is self contradictory and thus false.

 

 

I have seen many apologists attempt to explain how it is compatible with an all just god. All of their arguments have ranged from bad, to absolutely ridiculous.

 

 

Your sister is delusional. Just because a person does not lie does not mean they speak the truth either.

[sarahgrace]

Just because your sister believes that what she sees is true, doesn't make it true. And yes, if she's seeing satan and visiting hell, she needs some serious therapy. She's not lying to you; she really believes that what she's experiencing is real, but it isn't. It's all in her head.

 

Hell was an invention of the early church in order to scare people into submission. It's not part of the judaic tradition at all; all the words that get translated as "hell" in the bible actually mean "grave". Hell is not real. Never has been. Never will be. You have nothing to be afraid of. Neither does your sister, for that matter... the mind is a really powerful thing, and can produce some really convincing illusions, but they are just that: illusions. The sooner you both learn this, the sooner you'll be free from your fear.

[FiddlingAround]

Hi cutie.

 

I looked at some of your old posts, and it looks like you've been confused about christianity for awhile. I hope we can help you think about some of it.

 

It's hard for us to be helpful, though, because you've said some kind of unusual things in your posts, but didn't give us very many details so that we can figure out the best way to answer.

 

So why don't we back up and start at the beginning?

 

What exactly did your sister tell you and when did she say it? What were the two of you talking about at the time?

 

I do not think your sister actually went to hell. Hell isn't real, but even if it were, people aren't supposed to see it until after they are dead. It makes me uncomfortable that she told you this and I want to understand why she said it.

 

I am very sorry for the loss of your grandmother. She was obviously very important to you. Can you tell us a little bit more about her, too?

[Vixentrox]

Why do you believe what your sister says?

 

She is not a lier, our Mum never bought her up to lie.

Christianity is a lie. Easter Bunny is a lie. And so is hell. You afraid of other religion's unpleasent afterlives? I hear the Muslim one makes the Christian one look like child's play.

[Tabula Rasa]

Cutie, I want you to consider this. According to Christianity, God is all powerful. He can do anything. He could turn the sun into a giant peanut butter and jelly sandwich that still created nuclear fusion generated flame to give light and warmth to the earth. Supposedly, he created the entire universe with it's billions upon billions of stars and galaxies. If he's that powerful, he must then be able to forgive people when they screw up. He wouldn't send them to hell no matter what awful thing they did.

 

I don't quite know what's running the universe,but an all powerful god isn't going to be so cheap and petty that he'd eternally torment people for not worshipping him or doing bad things.

[Franko47]

Cutie, people can sometimes react very strangely to things that terrify them.

 

 

Something that is grotesquely frightening can begin to become obsessive. One can begin to see "signs" or "omens" for instance when one is very worried about their life, or their future.

 

If one is feeling guilt, insecurity, or anxiety over their life, they can begin to become gripped with such notions like "hellfire" and "Satan". I, too, once knew a fellow who had experienced the firepits of hell (not in a dream, but awake). Even though he seemed normal for the most part, I could tell that he had a psychotic obsession with the subject. Telling others at his church made him a bit of a "celebrity" for a while. Whether he really did believe he experienced these things or not, is hard to tell. It's interesting to note that some of the things in his "vision" did not coincide with how scripture describes this place. He was not very well-versed in the Bible, and his "vision" was made up of more popular folklore than anything else. For instance, he saw Satan and he had a pointed tail, and looked like something out of a cheap horror film. As well, he had a print of "Dante's Inferno" in his rec room that he had owned since childhood. Many aspects of his 'hell experience' were elements from this painting. I was surprised that he didn't get the connection, or pretended not to.

 

Can you see what I'm driving at ? People will sometimes experience vivid visions and so on based upon what they have heard, or what their imagination tells them. As well, some people like to brag. Your sister may in fact be enjoying the fact that she's secretly "scaring you". I've known Christians like that. I've witnessed them weaving their little stories and mind games, and enjoying it when they know they are disturbing another person who is not inclined to be skeptical or critical of these tales.

 

Many otherwise sane and rational people have (even with lie detector tests) claimed to have been taken aboard alien spaceships, seen ghosts, faeries, gremlins, even faces under hypnosis that turned out to be characters from Star Trek.

 

Just because someone you trust insists that these experiences are real, doesn't make them real. You need to calm down and realize that your sister is either playing games with you, or experiencing delusions that are manufactured by her own imagination. You need to perhaps talk to an intelligent Christian friend about some of this; perhaps a councillor or someone whom you know is very "down to Earth" about these kinds of "claims and experiences".

 

Remember, many Christians would be skeptical of your sister's claimed experiences just as we are. Sorry, but while people from time to time may have mystical experiences and spiritual dreams, nobody gets an "out of body" or "zoom through the cosmos" guided tour of either "Heaven" or "Hell".

 

At some point you have to come to terms with the fact that religion is the breeding ground of many extreme claims and viewpoints- not to mention liars and charlatans. When you don't have to provide any "proof" about something, it gets easier and easier to lie, make up stuff, and to even start believing it yourself. After a while, it can be become quite a dreamland of the most wonderful or the most horrid.

 

I hope some of these suggestions help.

[DirtbagDan]

This thread smells like there's a TROLL in it.

 

Anyhow, your sister sounds like she is claiming to have an NDE (Near Death Experience) in which she went to hell and God did this to show her what it's like? Well, let me inform you, my friend, that studies have been conducted on NDEs and found no conclusive result that there is a hell or an afterlife AT ALL. THere IS NOT A HELL OR A HEAVEN. Brain activity was monitored during these studies and found that the things these people saw while clinically dead were produced by the brain secretions of powerful chemicals during very intense moments before death. Even when the person was clinically dead, brain activity was still operating at a small level for a short period of time before they were resuscitated. MOST of the NDE cases and people studied actually reported NOTHING, while a small percentage did report seeing something during/after they were dead (i.e. white lights, seeing God, etc.). I'll say that again: MOST SAW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

 

Furthermore, the researchers found there is no single shared experience reported by those who have had NDEs. What that means is, no Muslim that experienced an NDE reported visiting Jesus, no Christian reported seeing Mohammad or Zeus, no Hindu reported seeing Thor, etc. Everyone saw different Gods and most of the time it conformed to their own beliefs. Do you see whats happening here? It's a product of your OWN BRAIN! If there really is one true god, then why didn't ALL subjects report seeing ONLY Jesus, or ONLY Mohammad, despite their different beliefs?? Why did some not report remembering or seeing ANYTHING at all?

 

THERE IS NO SOUL. THERE IS NO AFTERLIFE. THERE IS NO HELL

 

To view the rest of the study in an article and its results, please visit this link: http://skepdic.com/nde.html

[Shyone]

It was only a place in my mind; a dream, a fantasm.

 

Or even a phantasm...

 

Phanta S. Magoria

Oops. I was going to write fantasy, but that wasn't right, so I finished it "fonetically" (phonetically).

[PaulQ]

My sister used to tell me about this lollipop land which, according to her, really existed. She even knew approximately where it was; just down past the woods by where we used to live, because she actually seen this place. Why, the lollipops grow right on the trees and out of the ground, she told me. We'd spend hours looking for it, but for some reason, whenever I was with her, she couldn't find it.

 

I think that maybe if your sister and my sister got together, the two of them can visit hell and lollipop land all in the same day.

[florduh]

. . . she has visited Hell.

 

I only want serious replies . . .

 

Neither is possible.

[jdog]

...and if you pull a weired face and the wind blows it will stay like that or if you watch too much tv you will get square eyes, or if you wank too much your dick will fall off and you will go blind.

 

All this is fear tactics to scare people to change their "wicked" ways.

 

Something or someone has scared the sh*t out of your sister, and it has got her well and good and now she is passing that fear on to you, perhaps not on purpose to scare you, but because she really believes it all to be true.

 

In time you may begin to see that the idea of hell is just a cruel trick made up by sick individuals from long ago. You are not alone, many of us have been scared by hell at one or another, but if you keep on thinking with reason and rational, and read material to shatter the myth about hell and take advice offered here at Ex-C, the bad thoughts will disappear and you can be free from the fear.

 

I do hope you are a genuine person in need of help and not messing us about.

[HRDWarrior]

I would hazard a guess that your sister's "hell" was very real to her - but wasn't "real" in the sense that it exists as a place anyone can go to/end up at.

 

In my family, we have what are called "night terrors" - it's more prominant in the men, but when I was young I experienced them as well, only mine weren't scary like theirs. I saw a fancy hotel-type place, the entrance was in my closet. The greeter fellow "conversed" with me, and I would literally get out of bed and go "into" the hotel, even pushing my clothes out of the way to try to get in. I'd finally wake up when I smacked into the back of my closet. The closest analogy would be the wardrobe in the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, only I never could get in.

 

Once I woke up I'd run back to back and try to bring it back - sometimes I was successful, and back at it I'd be.

 

These experieces were very "real" to me. For my brother, his involved trees falling on him, or one day giant teddy bears trying to kidnap him. For my father, it's generally very large spiders.

 

During these experiences, the person appears to be very much awake - their eyes are open, they can converse with other people in the room (real people), answer questions, get up, walk around, and literally point out what they are seeing - only, nothing is really there. But to the person who's experiecing it, it is VERY real. It's also very difficult to wake someone up out of that, and they often can remember the "experience" very vividly, as if it had been very real.

 

For several years after I quit having these "dreams" I wanted them back, and tried, but apparently unlike the men, I outgrew it.

 

I would hazard that your sister experienced something very similar - it would be very real to her, but was in the end, really nothing more than her imagination - doesn't make it less real for her, or her feelings regarding the matter any less real, but that doesn't make it REAL.

[Loren]

This thread is getting dumb. Actually it started out dumb and just continues being dumb. You can believe that your sister is God and knows all things such as things about Hell, but if you do so, then you are just as deluded as she is. You're an admitted Christian, cutie, so I don't even know why you are posting in the "Ex-Christian Life" subforum. Either why, I'm leaving this thread.

 

 

Note from Moderator:

As long as the op seems to be honestly seeking help on an issue related to coming out of Christianity, I'll let it stand. I'm keeping an eye on it, ready to, "Break glass in case of troll."

 

Also, adding this note to current end of thread.

 

Note added 9/19, 9:46 am.

 

Loren

[cutie]

Hi cutie.

 

I looked at some of your old posts, and it looks like you've been confused about christianity for awhile. I hope we can help you think about some of it.

 

It's hard for us to be helpful, though, because you've said some kind of unusual things in your posts, but didn't give us very many details so that we can figure out the best way to answer.

 

So why don't we back up and start at the beginning?

 

What exactly did your sister tell you and when did she say it? What were the two of you talking about at the time?

 

 

Right, my Sister said that she went to Hell, where she saw the devil, demons and that it felt horrible strange there.

I do not think your sister actually went to hell. Hell isn't real, but even if it were, people aren't supposed to see it until after they are dead. It makes me uncomfortable that she told you this and I want to understand why she said it.

 

I am very sorry for the loss of your grandmother. She was obviously very important to you. Can you tell us a little bit more about her, too?

[cutie]

Hi cutie.

 

I looked at some of your old posts, and it looks like you've been confused about christianity for awhile. I hope we can help you think about some of it.

 

It's hard for us to be helpful, though, because you've said some kind of unusual things in your posts, but didn't give us very many details so that we can figure out the best way to answer.

 

So why don't we back up and start at the beginning?

 

What exactly did your sister tell you and when did she say it? What were the two of you talking about at the time?

 

I do not think your sister actually went to hell. Hell isn't real, but even if it were, people aren't supposed to see it until after they are dead. It makes me uncomfortable that she told you this and I want to understand why she said it.

 

I am very sorry for the loss of your grandmother. She was obviously very important to you. Can you tell us a little bit more about her, too?

 

My Sister told me that she visted Hell where she saw the devil, demons and it had a horrible sensation there.

My Grandmother was 74 when she died, she had cancer.

[cutie]

Cutie, I want you to consider this. According to Christianity, God is all powerful. He can do anything. He could turn the sun into a giant peanut butter and jelly sandwich that still created nuclear fusion generated flame to give light and warmth to the earth. Supposedly, he created the entire universe with it's billions upon billions of stars and galaxies. If he's that powerful, he must then be able to forgive people when they screw up. He wouldn't send them to hell no matter what awful thing they did.

 

I don't quite know what's running the universe,but an all powerful god isn't going to be so cheap and petty that he'd eternally torment people for not worshipping him or doing bad things.

 

Bloody hell, you know what? I never even thought about that.

[cutie]

Cutie, people can sometimes react very strangely to things that terrify them.

 

 

Something that is grotesquely frightening can begin to become obsessive. One can begin to see "signs" or "omens" for instance when one is very worried about their life, or their future.

 

If one is feeling guilt, insecurity, or anxiety over their life, they can begin to become gripped with such notions like "hellfire" and "Satan". I, too, once knew a fellow who had experienced the firepits of hell (not in a dream, but awake). Even though he seemed normal for the most part, I could tell that he had a psychotic obsession with the subject. Telling others at his church made him a bit of a "celebrity" for a while. Whether he really did believe he experienced these things or not, is hard to tell. It's interesting to note that some of the things in his "vision" did not coincide with how scripture describes this place. He was not very well-versed in the Bible, and his "vision" was made up of more popular folklore than anything else. For instance, he saw Satan and he had a pointed tail, and looked like something out of a cheap horror film. As well, he had a print of "Dante's Inferno" in his rec room that he had owned since childhood. Many aspects of his 'hell experience' were elements from this painting. I was surprised that he didn't get the connection, or pretended not to.

 

Can you see what I'm driving at ? People will sometimes experience vivid visions and so on based upon what they have heard, or what their imagination tells them. As well, some people like to brag. Your sister may in fact be enjoying the fact that she's secretly "scaring you". I've known Christians like that. I've witnessed them weaving their little stories and mind games, and enjoying it when they know they are disturbing another person who is not inclined to be skeptical or critical of these tales.

 

Many otherwise sane and rational people have (even with lie detector tests) claimed to have been taken aboard alien spaceships, seen ghosts, faeries, gremlins, even faces under hypnosis that turned out to be characters from Star Trek.

 

Just because someone you trust insists that these experiences are real, doesn't make them real. You need to calm down and realize that your sister is either playing games with you, or experiencing delusions that are manufactured by her own imagination. You need to perhaps talk to an intelligent Christian friend about some of this; perhaps a councillor or someone whom you know is very "down to Earth" about these kinds of "claims and experiences".

 

Remember, many Christians would be skeptical of your sister's claimed experiences just as we are. Sorry, but while people from time to time may have mystical experiences and spiritual dreams, nobody gets an "out of body" or "zoom through the cosmos" guided tour of either "Heaven" or "Hell".

 

At some point you have to come to terms with the fact that religion is the breeding ground of many extreme claims and viewpoints- not to mention liars and charlatans. When you don't have to provide any "proof" about something, it gets easier and easier to lie, make up stuff, and to even start believing it yourself. After a while, it can be become quite a dreamland of the most wonderful or the most horrid.

 

I hope some of these suggestions help.

 

I never gave that a thought you know, it is just that when she told me, she sound so serious about it.

[OpheliaGinger]

Wait, did she go to Hell, Michigan? I thought it was supposed to be a descent place.

 

In reality, your sister is having hallucinations or night terrors, but it is all created by the brain. There is hard science behind this.

[Shyone]

Wait, did she go to Hell, Michigan? I thought it was supposed to be a descent place.

Triple entendre? I understand the Hell/Hell, but Descent place? Like - downwards?

[Dhampir]

Doesn't the bible say that to view hell would cause the person that sees it to die? In that case, Your sister couldn't have seen hell. Not that it exists to be seen anyway.

[DirtbagDan]

All these people who claim to have 'seen' and experienced/been in hell are all either harlequinns out to make a lot of money (like Bill Weiss), or they are just VERY delusional people who have experienced rare brain hallucinations and/or take bad dreams too seriously.

[dB-Paradox]

I just remembered about the world's deepest hole in Siberia. Do any of you remember hearing about this? Some Christian websites actually make reference to it as a scare tactic! Seriously!

a YouTube video from (I'm assuming) a Christian.

 

Or copy and past -

[nightflight]

I've never been to Toronto...what else did your sister say about it, other than it being a very real place?

 

In all seriousness, no one can say there is such a place or not. Even among near death experiences, the stories vary greatly. And remember, invoking fear is a method of control. By the way, why are you thinking of leaving Christianity? Make sure you leave for the right reasons and not just because someone else is.

 

My Sister has told me that she has this infortunate problem of being taken to Hell by the devil, nooooo she is not mentally ill.

 

She is mentally ill.

[Shyone]

I just remembered about the world's deepest hole in Siberia. Do any of you remember hearing about this? Some Christian websites actually make reference to it as a scare tactic! Seriously!

a YouTube video from (I'm assuming) a Christian.

 

Or copy and past -

Lots of weird noises, I'll grant you. How about

recording?

 

I could make my own, but I would do a better job.

[dB-Paradox]

I just remembered about the world's deepest hole in Siberia. Do any of you remember hearing about this? Some Christian websites actually make reference to it as a scare tactic! Seriously!

a YouTube video from (I'm assuming) a Christian.

 

Or copy and past -

Lots of weird noises, I'll grant you. How about

recording?

 

I could make my own, but I would do a better job.

I guess I was beat to it....here's my version (hope this works):

sounds_from_hell.mp3