Heaven, hell, and the afterlife

[revots33]

Thanks very much for the thoughtful reply bunny. I think one of my problems with heaven/hell is that it seems such a fundamental concept of my Catholic upbringing (Jesus died to give us eternal life etc.) - yet even priests and religious experts can't seem to agree on what they are like. Some agree, like you, that hell is just "not God". Others believe it is a place of genuine eternal torture. Ideas of heaven seem to differ too, depending on who you talk to.

My problem is, why do we seem to believe so much in something that even our own church experts seem to be interpreting on the fly, in whatever way they want? It seems a pretty reasonable argument to me that, even if God does exist, ideas of heaven and hell may have been created by man. Heaven to counter fears of death and our longing to be reuinited with dead loved ones, and hell to keep people in line with church teachings by threat of eternal torture.

For example, if a man was about to jump off a tall building, but was convinced God would catch him inches before he hit the ground, you'd call him insane. And yet, otherwise rational people are CONVINCED (and I realize bunny that you leave room for doubt, but many do not) that they will somehow be resurrected after they die. There is simply no more proof for one than the other.