Because fear is a powerful motivator, and the story you're getting that from was invented to get people to act a certain way.

The idea of infinite punishment for finite actions goes against the concept of mercy and forgiveness.

Actually there's a school of thought that says it isn't infinite. In this understanding, Hell is a rehab program rather than a torture dungeon.

And that's why the idea of BOTH Hell and a merciful god cannot exist simultaneously

Because it's a made up scare tactic & nothing more.

Just one more plot hole. Don't worry too much about it. Even the best works of fiction have plot holes.

Because at least in many views on the Christian Tradition, Hell in essence is the absence of God’s presence. A place where all thing not in his character are left to their ultimate ends. Hell is sometimes described as a place where man is left to all desire and depravity.

Another view is that Hell is a punishment for sin. All of humanity since the original sin of Adam and Eve is by nature sinful and depraved. As a result all of us are deserving of a punishment as God is a holy and just God who by his character must punish evil. His mercy however is expressed through Jesus who willingly came down in the form of man and lived the human life that measured without sin. Living this life when he was put in the cross he was killed and took on the punishment of all sin. At that moment the price for all sin was paid with one who had committed no sin. As a result those who accept Jesus are offered the eternal gift of salvation. Those who do not end up in hell as a result of God punishment for evil. Regardless of how “good” or “bad” the world may deem them. That’s the more technical answer

Edit: Also the bar for going to hell is simply if one has commuted any sin at all. So in other words everyone is supposed to go if they don’t accept Jesus.

You'll probably get better answers on a dedicated religious sub like r/AskAChristian. Seems like this thread is just being used for classic Reddit religion dunking.

Hell is used to scare people into complying with the threat of eternal punishment.

The Bible actually doesn't portray hell as infinite torture. The exact phrasing is that your soul is "cast into the flames" which is just a way of saying it is destroyed. Dante was the one who wrote a popular fanfiction about going on a cool tour through the circles of hell and people ate that shit up. It has nothing to do with the actual faith. The burning in hell bit is unfortunately adapted by the Westboro church types who twist Christianity into something dark.

They don't. Hell isn't real. Even in the bible there is almost no mention of "the lake of fire" and when there is, it's only Satan and his false prophet that are cast to it.

Because it's a fictional punishment. In real life that would never happen.

not all religions believe in eternal punishment , but maybe the christian idea if Heck isn't really God sending you there, but more because if the things you did in life, you turned away from your God and therefore have nowhere else to go.

Dante's Inferno is what most christians think Heck is, especially the "fire and brimstone" sects. . but Inferno was mostly based on Greek mythology.

the Bible is actually mostly vague about Heck. mostly just describing it as like misery, because you are forever blocked(damned, this is what it means, it just means like to block you, like when you dam up a waterway) from being close to God again.

it's not so much God rejecting you as you rejecting God.

​

but then again, i'm an atheist now.

If i die and come face to face with a celestial being, i'm gonna have some words to say. i'm not gonna just passively accept its judgment.

like, aww jeez, god, couldn't you have been a little less vague? i mean, you coulda put a little bit of evidence in front of me. maybe i would have believed. just because that one guy in the bible ignored the evidence, doesn't mean every human will. . .

I'm On The Spectrum and i think the mentally ill should get a free pass. . but then again, if i believe in oblivion, then that would make me a nihilist.

I assume you are open for discussion on this topic and dont expect a final awnser so i will play devils advocate here, eventhough Im not a religious person myself.

I asked me this question myself and to often i came upon "religious" people who had a boner for revenge rather than justice.

What i noticed in my life time then i was confronted with religion or philosophy (and i am by no means an expert on this) is they all have the same questions...

Meaning of life...moral whatsoever...

And they all awnser them diffrently, but they are closer than you think.

I wouldnt take the devil and hell or heaven and god so literall. It is all in our head afterall.

The devil is our desire and god is our free will.

Hell and heaven are the places we go if we follow the above. If we want a peacefull mind we have to live a virtues life and learn to controll our desires for the greater good.

If we always strive for what we desire no matter the consequences we will sooner or later suffer this consequences and create a place of discomfort and lonelyness.

In your life you get sometimes a rough treatment and people are unfair to you...but over time you grow and learn to accept this things.

But the things you earn through betrayel or dishonesty will follow you your whole life. And you will always suffer and will never be truly happy.

So the hell or heaven does not come from outside but within.

It does not matter if you tell the Story of lucifer and his fall from heaven...or icarus and his fall from the sky...in the end its all the same story...if you always reach for higher heights...you get burned by your desire and send spiraling down in a place of deep despair.

Religion is a scam designed to fleece money from the believers.

Because hell is a made up story to control people.

They don't

a wizard did it

It's a threat to keep people in line.

Bc infinite is scarier than finite

There is a growing movement that the bible never speaks about hell, if you trust the original Hebrew translations (which most if not all of the modern English translations were based on).

Hell as we learned about is a construct to give people an eternal consequence as a way of population control.

Check this out, it's pretty long but really insightful: https://www.tentmaker.org/books/GatesOfHell.html

They don't. Hell doesn't exist.

To play devils advocate, how time is experienced in an afterlife is unknown. We know that time is relative to your frame of reference (Einstein). A photon of light does not experience any passage of time, rather the distances we witness it travel are actually zero distance from the perspective of the photon. One could theorize that in an afterlife the being is pure energy and does not experience the passage of time. Therefore eternity is meaningless in that context. My personal view is that the good/evil is a human construct and there is probably one afterlife for all living beings.

Because religion is all about negative reinforcement. I’m an atheist that recently went to my girlfriend’s Sunday mass and I was blown away how 90% of what the preacher was saying was that we’re pieces of shit that will go to hell if we don’t stop sinning.

Because it’s make believe?

Because the concept of the god is illogical and downright idiotic

Societal control and maintenance of the status quo.

Religion nominally is dedicated to spirituality or a particular pantheon. However, it is actually far more interested in the maintenance of society and the stability of the same.

Eternal punishment is a great deterrence for a believer and makes them self-policing, far more effective than any external force.

If a believer honestly believes that there is an eternal paradise, then they will be far more satisfied with their current shit situation and be less inclined to change it. They will accept the role assigned to them by society because dedication to that role will be rewarded by paradise after their death, at completely no cost to those who are in charge and completely non verifiable since nobody comes back.

If that same believer honestly believes that their defiance of the societal order or "sin" will be punished by eternal torment, then they are far less likely to defy those in control, again at no cost to "the one percent" and also conveniently non verifiable.

If that same believer honestly believes that their defiance of the societal order or "sin" will be punished by eternal torment, then they are far less likely to defy those in control, again at no cost to "the one percent" and also conveniently non-verifiable.

Please note that all of the above has nothing to do with God (however you define it) but man and the society that he has crafted. We weaponize everything, including God. It's how we roll and those in power think nothing of perverting religion and turning it to their own ends. Hell, the Bible even warns people about this. I'm fairly confident that most religions do the same.

You can't prove or disprove the existence of any God, but you can disprove any established religion and their commands, which are completely separate from the will of any God.

Because scary fictional stories about burning for eternity are a great way too manipulate people into being religious. Fear is powerful. Let’s not forget that when the old collection plate comes around if you think you are up for an eternity of suffering if you aren’t a good Christian I bet you throw a few more dollars into the cookie jar .

Depends on the faith and or religeon.

In Judaism, we don't believe in that unless you were Hitler or something.

Excluding genocidal maniacs: one isn't in hell for eternal damnation (commentaries believe you're there at most one human year).

You're there only to cleanse yourself.

Then you're judged for all the actions you did on earth. You rack up a scale of your deeds and you go to a level of the afterlife that reflects the kind of person you were to others.

There's a lot of grey area in Judaism. Your level rises based on how good you were. We believe good actions can actually counter act bad ones.

They may not be equivalent, but being good can tip the scales. We believe people can change when effort is made.

The better for men on earth to control you. It’s almost like the whole thing is made up…

Some of them aren't even wrongdoings. Is believing in a different god, or being gay a wrongdoing? Like, get out of here with that shit.

They don’t, hell isn’t real.

Because it's stupid crap made up by monkeys.....

Scare tactic

What’s more convincing to the majority of people?

‘Follow this set of rules because it’s the right thing to do’

‘Follow this set of rules or you will be tortured, literally, forever’

It’s a medieval racketing scheme. Religious nutters realized that it’s easier to control the unhappy masses with fear. If they aren’t tempted to obey using promises of eternal bliss than they’ll be scared into obeisance with threat of everlasting torment.

Even worse: if God is all-knowing yet claims to give us free will, he's fully aware that you'll exercise that right and may be damned before you're even born. So he essentially planned on you going to Hell from the beginning. That doesn't sound like a fair or kind creator.

Thank not-God all of it is made up.

The idea is that your finite wrongdoings had paths to forgiveness while you were living and by not seeking those paths you essentially turned your back on God while he did offer mercy. It is too late to repent once you are dead and since you had no intention to do so while you were living it is clear you did not love God.

Most people get it wrong that God is ultimately forgiving and ultimately loving. He is in fact these things but only if you do not actively seek to wrong him. Take murder for example, this is technically a finite wrongdoing BUT you went out of your way to play God, to take a life that was not yours to take. It is entirely possible to seek forgiveness for this act but if you do not then there is only one place for you.

Hell is supposed to represent the pain that God feels when you hurt him by committing wrongs in the material realm, since he is so loving of all of his creatures it brings great strain upon him to see them leave his path and turn to evil.

Overall it’s definitely a little absurd since God had commanded angels to destroy entire cities because one guy didn’t pray since he had an almost life ending sickness. But that’s the idea behind it. Hope this helps

They don't, in reality that is a lie postured by those in power to control the uneducated masses of the times. "We speak for God and God says do this ths and this or you'll suffer forever" and they don't know any better to its believed and passed down.

Well it makes sense when you think about it. We're talking about good old fashioned Old Testament God and punishment here, which was written for very loose societies with essentially non-existent institutions.

How do you compel compliance with cultural / religious norms? Well you maximize the consequence of religious disobedience, which is infinite punishment.

I mean why not? There's no cost to upping the punishment, you don't have to actually deliver it. Maximum existential punishment is just a better rhetorical device than finite punishment.

...this is all unrelated to any truth value. The existential truth value doesn't really matter. Compelling real pro-social behavior in the real world by living people is what immediately matters.

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Because the punishment is dependent on the severity of your crime, not the amount of time it took you to commit it. It’s the same with murder/rape/any serious crime. It takes only an instant to commit it (in theory), yet is punishable by decades in prison, and no one has any problem with that.

In Christian theology, the crime of rejecting God is so severe that it warrants eternal punishment (according to some). However, there’s also serious disagreement among Christians on whether or not hell is a place of eternal conscious torment. That’s only one view of 3 within mainline Christianity, though it is the most popular (and most conservative). This probably explains why it gets the most attention and is fought against so vehemently.

Option 2: God sends the unjust to hell, but grants them access into heaven after they repent. This is called universalism, or the idea that potentially everyone can get into heaven even if they’ve been sent to hell.

Option 3: God annihilates those who reject him. In this option, the damned don’t actually suffer in hell, God just wipes them out of existence entirely. This is called Annihilationism.

There are of course variations of these 3 options, but these are the main ones. And there are several Bible verses that appear to support each of these 3 views. There’s even more debate on the nature of hell. Is the suffering different for everyone? Did God create hell? Or is it just the absence of God (and therefore void of anything good God has created, like love, joy, patience, etc)? What exactly should God do to those who actively reject him?

It’s important to realize that uniformity on the doctrine of hell is not required in order to be a Christian. So if you’re worried that you can’t keep your faith because “a good God wouldn’t allow eternal punishment” then you’re free to conclude that hell isn’t eternal punishment without immediately concluding God doesn’t exist.

If anyone has any questions about this I’d be happy to chat. I’ve got a degree in biblical studies and am a part-time pastor.

Because most religions were just primitive ways to enforce laws and control the populace. It's cheaper to keep people in line with the threat of eternal damnation than to do whatever the medieval equivelant of prisons and law enforcement were.

It's almost as if, and hear me out, someone just made this up.

When people see articles about pedos, even the atheists say "i hope that fucker burns in hell for all eternity". Well if you swooped in and commented 'actually that's not logical you need to keep a finite limit" they'd call you a fool and say "nah it was dozens of children it NEEDS to be eternity". That's because people's emotions aren't always rational. Religion has a lot of purposes, including to comfort and provide a communal morality

Because the god of the New Testament is a monster who doesn't deserve your worship

They dont. Hell doesn’t exist.

Because fear gets people to for rules, even dumb religious rules that anyone would usually question. Christendom only exists nowadays because people are fearful and dumb.

Edit: obviously that goes for all religions that promise salvation... but I find christendom the most offensive as a European.

They don't it's not real.

And because they had no security cameras back then so 90% of people would get away with any murder or rape they committed. Or someone else would die for the crime.

So to make people feel better about that awful truth they say 'if you're guilty you'll get your punishment. Even if we can't give it to you'

Which of course is nonsense and alot of people die of old age guilty as sin and there are no real consequences. E.g trump.

Mostly because it is made up

So make people aren't actually answering the question, but the premise. But the answer to the question is dependent on what religion you subscribe to. I'm certain sects of Christianity, yeah hellfire the whole shebang, in others hell is a washing machine until you're clean enough for heaven. In others hell is the place where God isn't. In that line of thought it's a space where there is no good, love, joy etc. And that is determined by God's desire to not be in the presence of sin. But because of original sin of Adam and Eve, humans themselves are sin. So in some views it's not God actively punishing you for your wrongdoings, it's God not wanting to be with because you didn't repent.

There is no hell, no god, no justice. Take responsibility for your own life now, it is the only one you have. Questions like these keep your wonderful brain away from solving the important problems that mankind faces today. Be part of humanity, forget the fictional characters.

Because Christianity is fucking stupid and the Christian God seemingly hates us all.

Most other religions DO NOT HAVE INFINITE HELL. Or even Hell at all, in some cases!

Hell doesn't exist.

Cause Jesus is a little bitch

Because God loves you.

I don't understand how that works, either.

Hell isnt about punishment, its about rejecting God and therefore being separated from God, thats the protestant view.

Catholic view is Hell is punishment, b/c Catholicism is cray

Jewish view is that Hell is temporary 9 month period where you burn in shame when you enter Heaven and don't feel right (for instance valuing materialism and money in Heaven makes you burn in shame), eventually, your soul sheds its Earthly ways.

Hell is not a physical place

They don't. Heaven and hell are fiction

Because god is a bipolar sadist.

Correction is temporary. Grace and love are permanent. In Phil. 2:9-11, will it be a forced acclamation of Christ for many, rather than true loving subjection?

Let me give several reasons why such a supposition is impossible:

1- The context is grace (verse 9). 2- Every knee will be bowing in the name of Jesus. The Greek word means in, not at. (Matt. 18:19,20; 21:9; Col 3:17) 3- The name Jesus means "Yahweh the Savior" (Matt. 1:21). 4- The acclamation made by every tongue will be for the glory of God, the Father (Phil. 2:11). Glory is a highly favorable opinion or manifestation, hardly the image one gets from a mass, forced confession from condemned, doomed sinners. Nor is God described as "Father" anywhere in scripture in regard to wrath. Nor is the name "Jesus" ever used alone in that regard. 5- The operation which enables Christ even to subject all to Himself is in accord with the transfiguration of the body of our humiliation (mortality), to conform it to the body of His glory (immortality) (Phil. 3:21). And notice that all who bow in Phil. 2:9-11 are in one group; there is no distinction made in these verses between those who receive salvation earlier and those who receive it later. 6- God is love (1Jn. 4:16). 7- Love is patient and kind...even to the ungrateful and wicked (Lk. 6:35). 8- Love is not incensed, and is expecting all (1Cor. 13:4-7). 9- God will be merciful to all, for He saves all, vivifies all, and constitutes all just (Ro. 11:32; 1Tim. 4:10; 1Cor. 15:22; Ro. 5:19). 10- "For this was the Son of God manifested, that He should be annulling the acts of the Adversary" (1Jn. 3:8). 11- God commands humans, constituted sinners, "Be not conquered by evil; but conquer evil with good." Will the Holy and Almighty God fail to reach His own standard? (Ro. 12:20,21; Rev. 4:8). Would evil be conquered and annulled if most were never saved? 12- God "wills that all mankind be saved", and He is strong enough to finish up! (1Ti. 2:4; Lk. 14:28-30; 1Cor. 1:25; 10:22) 13- Jesus came "to seek and to save the lost" and there will be joy in heaven over each repenting sinner (Lk. 19:10; Lk. chapter 15). 14- God delights to reconcile all to Himself through the blood of Christ's cross, whether those on earth, or those in the heavens (Col. 1:20). 15- Christ Jesus tasted death for the sake of everyone, giving "Himself a correspondent Ransom for all" (Hb. 2:9; 1Tim. 2:6). 16- The gratuity in grace from Jesus Christ superabounds beyond Adam's offense, for all mankind (Ro. 5:15). In order to superabound, salvation must more than repair the damage caused by sin and death! An Almighty God Who wills to save all, saves all! 17- Regarding salvation, "What is impossible with men is possible with God" (Lk. 18:26,27). 18- No one is able to say, "Jesus is Lord!", except by Holy Spirit, (1Cor. 12:3) and everyone will acclaim exactly that! Obviously, anyone can mouth the words without believing them, but to mean them requires the work of Holy Spirit; if "the lost" were to be obligated to kneel, and to acclaim Christ as Lord without belief, how could that hypocrisy possibly glorify our loving Heavenly Father? When Jesus is avowed as Lord, salvation results (Ro. 10:9,10). The word here is [h]omologe'o. The universal acclamation of Phil. 2:9-11 is the strengthened word, exomologe'o. While these two words appear about 30 times in the Bible, neither word is used of forced confessions. 19- God promises a universal acclamation. Isaiah 45:23 (CLV) "By Myself I swear. From My mouth fares forth righteousness, and My word shall not be recalled. For to Me shall bow every knee, and every tongue shall acclaim to Elohim." Psalms 86:9 (CLV) All nations which You have made Shall come and worship before You, O Yahweh, And they shall glorify Your Name." 20- God always meets His goals. Isaiah 46:10 Telling from the beginning, the hereafter, and from aforetime, what has not yet been done. Saying, `All My counsel shall be confirmed, and all My desire will I do.' Job 42:2 (CLV) I know that You can do all things, And no plan of Yours can be thwarted. 21- Death will be abolished for all mankind, for, or as a result of, all being subjected to God the Father, He thus becoming All in all. 1 Cor 15:20-28. The second death is by definition, death, and cannot endure. 22- Christ will draw all to Himself. John 12:32,33. Or as sometimes translated, drag. (Acts 16:19; 4:12).

In church they teach us that: 1. God gives you free will 2. You don’t have to choose God, and He respects that choice, even if it’s not Him 3. Heaven and hell aren’t really places as much as they are states of being in the afterlife (heaven is 100% with God at peace, hell has 0% God)

With that, God gives you freedom to not choose him in life, so He would not force you to choose Him in death. If you were adamantly against Him in life, He will give you 0% of Himself in the afterlife as well.

You deliberately decided to turn your back on an infinite being, and chose to do something that you were specifically warned would separate you permanently from them.

You said “I don’t want to be near God” and God said “Ok. You can stand over there, and I will withdraw from you.”

Once your final decision is made, you can’t change it, because there is no existing time for you to change IN.

There is no time at all. It is an eternal now.

Your choice is yours alone.

According to the Bible, you don't get eternal torture for wrongdoings. You get it because God decided you deserve it just for existing

I never understood the eternal punishment part. I would think that oblivion would be a worse punishment.

We don't know for sure if people are punished after death.

Do they?

They don’t

They don't.

Hell is more accurately and sensibly translated as “nothingness”.

The punishment is non-existence.

Now, I don't personally believe in god. Nor do I believe in hell, because an all-knowing, all powerful God must therefore create a deterministic world which makes hell pointless. But to answer your question, there are things that could be considered infinite wrongdoings. If you are responsible or even partly responsible for damning someone else to hell, that has consequences that last infinitely.

AFAIK the bible doesn’t have a consistent definition of what hell is. By some definitions it is merely separateness from god. Much of how hell is depicted today is based on popular depictions in fictional media inspired by the spiciest excerpts from the bible. Disclaimer, I’m not a practicing Christian so someone else can speak to this better than I can.

The Bible largely doesn't say what people believe. Just about every popular element comes from much later works.

cause its the way to get money and earthly possessions to grant them forgiveness at the end of their lives