"You're going to hell." Common phrase and one that has been hurled at me many times for various reasons. My usually response is laughter because I don't believe in hell. Let me explain myself. There really isn't a biblical base for the concept of a place in another realm. What people have contrived as a place called hell, a fire pit, generally comes from Dante's book. Also there isn't really a biblical base for purgatory either. For me, from a theological stand point there's not room for hell - a place void of God and one that is full of endless pain and suffering. Genesis starts with a litany about how all things are created good. We then read throughout both testaments that God is good and all loving. So why would God, who is all loving and creates all things good create something that is bad and leave souls there to suffer. For me there are just too many inconsistencies in this idea of hell. If anything I believe that this concept of heaven/hell was created for humanity to have some sense of reward and punishment to fill a need within its self. It's an attempt to answer the question "what happens to people who do bad?" So please tell me to go to hell because to me you're telling to go to a place that doesn't exist and I'm okay with that. I like to play pretend too.
In a conversation with a more conservative Christian then me (take in mind I call myself a bed-wetting liberal and I’m also a big time Process Theologian) the person started rambling off scripture quotes (proof texting really) to make a point. I have never claimed to be a great memorizer of anything. And even though I have read the Bible many times and own many copies of the Bible, I am still not a person who can just pull out scripture references in mid conversation. I do have several verses that I turn to and love dearly but I can’t tell you word for word what John 2:5 or Ruth 1:4 says. This got me thinking, why do Christians really feel the need to qualify their faith based on the amount of scripture that they can recite from memory? While it may be very handy to be able to quote scripture in a variety of situations, I believe that this can be dangerous. Proof texting (pulling scripture, from any religion, to support an argument without careful and learned consideration for its cont
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