Stuck Between Agnosticism and Christianity

[Learning]

I've just started college, an obvious major turning point in my life, and have spent some time evaluating my personal beliefs. I was raised in Christan home, but had my fights with religion from youth through today. I always felt as if something was being imposed on me, and am uneasy in churches or religious areas/gatherings in general. During highschool I read a lot of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Burtrand Russell, and agreed with the vast majority of things they had to say. I've spent a great many years as a "true" agnostic, rather than using it as a stepping stone from theism to atheism.

However, I've lately been extremely concerned about the existence of Hell and the implications of my agnosticism after my death, should I end up wrong. I've actually tired to believe in Christianity/Jesus, but my prior knowledge and opposing viewpoints shoot doubt through the entirety of the religion.

I'm actually having a fairly difficult time articulating the deeper sentiments here, so I'll get to the point. I'm terrified of hell, but would likely never have any level of faith that would be required to avoid it due to my many years as an agnostic. Is this situation common?

[MidGe]

[ QUOTE ]
I'll get to the point. I'm terrified of hell,

[/ QUOTE ]

Courage dude, it is an illusion, or you cannot do anything about it! No other possibilities! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Alex-db]

Wikipedia tells us that "hell" is described by all these religions:

2 Religious literature & views
2.1 Bahá'í Faith
2.2 Buddhism
2.3 Chinese religions
2.4 Christianity
2.5 Deism
2.6 Greek Mythology
2.7 Hinduism
2.8 Islam
2.9 Japanese religions
2.10 Judaism
2.11 Maya faith
2.12 Norse Mythology
2.13 Taoism
2.14 Unification Church
2.15 Zoroastrianism

So even if you could force yourself to believe in this Jesus character, you'd still be 14:1 against avoiding hell, on the unlikely (silly!) assumption that these are the only options.

The fact that you are living you life in this psychologically induced terror is a very good example against the claim that "moderate" religion is beneficial - evidently its more like child abuse.

[ChrisV]

I don't think the situation of wanting to believe but not being able to is that uncommon. I know several of the posters on this forum have been through it. I went through a period of fear of hell myself, but I was only a kid at the time. I suggest you reflect on the fact that the only reason your post isn't titled "Stuck Between Agnosticism and Islam" is your place of birth. If no amount of rational reflection fixes the problem, you might have underlying anxiety issues. There are therapists who specialise in fear of hell if it becomes a real problem. If there is a God and he is just and you live a moral life, there shouldn't be a problem anyway.

[Drag]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm terrified of hell, but would likely never have any level of faith that would be required to avoid it due to my many years as an agnostic. Is this situation common?

[/ QUOTE ]

Why should you be terrified of it? You'd get accustomed to it quite fast, as people can adjust to everything, then you'll start to cheat the diable, pretending that you suffer, while you relax =).

Seriously, though, you probably need to reconsider your childhood believes. Your situation is not common, I never was afraid by the perspective of the hell, more that of the perspective of the nothingness. I'd gladly exchange nothingness to the hell from any religion. And I attribute it to being raised in an atheistic family (in former Soviet Union).

As one of the posters noted, the choice is between intellectual honesty and lack of it. I would really like to believe, as it would make my life simpler. I just don't have any evidence of any superior being existence, and I can delude myself into the faith.

[Nielsio]

First off,

Hell is what you make of it..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZubVvvO914U


Second,

What utterly and totally evaporated any kind of superstition in my life was getting an understanding of the universe and of life. Once I understood how the universe has evolved and how life has evolved, then hearing religionists suggest any kind of their madness was just silly in a bizarre kind of way; it was as though they had no clue about what was going on and that their understanding of reality was extremely underdeveloped and corrupted.

Documentaries that changed my understanding of the universe and life forever are:

*David Attenborough - Life on Earth
*David Attenborough - Trials of Life
*Susan Greenfield - Brain Story

*BBC Space
*BBC The Planets
*Martin Rees - What we still don't know


The great thing about these things is that it gives you the *actual history* of us; which is ofcourse the greatest story ever told!

[Metric]

You might find it useful to simply go with the assumption that there is a God, and Christ was sacrificed for you etc. while acknowledging that there isn't as much firsthand rational evidence available to you as you would like (and which would ordinarily be enough to base belief on). If there is a God, a Christian God, then I doubt very much that He would demand you not be honest with yourself.

[Splendour]

Why not go back and re-read Matthew Chapters 4 through 7...The basic building block of Christianity is Jesus himself...these chapters are where he tells those that want to follow him specifically what to do in their daily actions in this world...Maybe you'll see that if people read this, understood this and worked on this then there would probably be minimal or no conflict in the world...but obviously not everybody is doing this...

I like to compare what Jesus is doing here to a human cell...Here the individual's heart is the cell and Jesus is telling you what to do keep out the cancer causing free radicals from eroding your heart...

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...&version=9

[Brad1970]

[ QUOTE ]
I've just started college, an obvious major turning point in my life, and have spent some time evaluating my personal beliefs. I was raised in Christan home, but had my fights with religion from youth through today. I always felt as if something was being imposed on me, and am uneasy in churches or religious areas/gatherings in general. During highschool I read a lot of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Burtrand Russell, and agreed with the vast majority of things they had to say. I've spent a great many years as a "true" agnostic, rather than using it as a stepping stone from theism to atheism.

However, I've lately been extremely concerned about the existence of Hell and the implications of my agnosticism after my death, should I end up wrong. I've actually tired to believe in Christianity/Jesus, but my prior knowledge and opposing viewpoints shoot doubt through the entirety of the religion.

I'm actually having a fairly difficult time articulating the deeper sentiments here, so I'll get to the point. I'm terrified of hell, but would likely never have any level of faith that would be required to avoid it due to my many years as an agnostic. Is this situation common?

[/ QUOTE ]

You should be terrified of hell. It is a real place & people will go there someday. Are you willing to be one of those for the sake of Harris, Dawkins, or anyone else?

It does not matter how many years you spent as an unbeliever, you can & will be forgiven if you repent & turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.

[Nielsio]

[ QUOTE ]
You should be terrified of hell. It is a real place & people will go there someday.

[/ QUOTE ]

lololol


Ok, let's do this:


Sir,

Q1. What is hell. Please define what it is and how it works.

Q2. How do you know?