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Goodbye Jesus

Leaving Behind The Fear


Hawk

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Newly enlightened here.

 

I was raised Catholic and had 12 years of Catholic school drilling the fear of eternal damnation and suffering into me should I stray.

 

I am now looking into what I call philosophy, not religion. I enjoy buddhist teachings and meditation and find myself being more of an atheist in that respect every day.

 

The really funny thing is I find myself being a more compassionate person since leaving the old, never truly my own, 'faith'. I do more for my community and feel stressed, angry, and sad less often.

 

My problem, is this - all of those years of indoctrination have done damage to my self.

 

How does one leave behind a long Christian upbringing without the fear of eternal hell that was drilled into you?

 

 

Atta hi attano natho

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Guest riverrunner

well, you have to try to look at it objectively. why would we even exist after we die let alone there being a hell or heaven? just read 'jesus interrupted' and it cemented that the bible is pretty much all made up with not a hint of divine anything. they lied to you. they lie to themselves.

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The fear of hell can be hard to overcome for sure. But once you decide Christianity is a lie, why fear hell any more than Zeus's thunderbolts or being turned into a stag by a pissed off Artemis. Superstion, nothing more.

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How does one leave behind a long Christian upbringing without the fear of eternal hell that was drilled into you?

 

Unfortunately, this is a common question posed on this site.

 

You use the word "fear" and that is what it is. Fear is often more emotional than logical and rational, though it may be logical and rational to have a fear. For example, it is rational to have a fear to jump off a ten story building.

 

You have to approach it from both angles. First, you should look at it logically and rationally so you see that hell is a made-up concept and thus there is no basis for the fear of hell. This means that you look at all the evidence. You should look at the fact that hell is really a New Testament concept and that it was borrowed from other religions of the time. You can also think of the injustice of hell and how no matter what the "sin" the punishment is the same. You will come to see that if the most vile rapist/murderer who is about to be executed acknowledges belief in Jesus just before he is injected with the lethal dose, he goes to heaven. But if the person who merely lusted after a woman in his heart but never actually touched her but who does not believe in Jesus, will go to hell. This means that god accepts rapists/murderers into heaven, but rejects an otherwise good person who was merely sexually attracted to a woman, though never touched her, and causes this person to be eternally tormented. None of it makes any sense and is completely false.

 

If that does not quite do it for you, then what is left is the emotional side of the fear of hell. Confront the emotional fear head-on. Keep reassuring yourself that there is no hell so you come to recognize that your fear of hell is emotional only. Eventually, the emotions should fade and die a natural death. If they do not and cause you problems in living your life, then you may decide to seek some sort of professional help in dealing with this emotional fear.

 

One of the most important things for you to recognize is that you are not alone in this. And it does not mean that you are a weak person. It only means that you are human.

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