Zeal Ex Nihilo
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Originally posted by Storm
Religion spends a lot of time reacting out of apparent fear. Rather than simply and confidently laying out a positive program of beliefs, too often religion is more concerned with raising an alarm over alleged dangers lying in wait all around us.Not all religions use threats, divine or otherwise, in their attempts to enforce particular moral codes but it’ s certainly a common phenomenon. Shouldn’ t religion focus on the ideals of adhering to moral codes out of a sense of decency and love, rather than out of a fear of hell? Fortunately some do adopt this strategy, many others though don’ t seem to recognize the problem.
Perhaps threats and fear must be attractive to some people because otherwise, these religious groups would disappear.
I was actually going to make a thread on this, so you saved me the trouble. I don't mean to derail the thread, but here's my take on it:
A lot of people accuse Christianity of using hell as a "fear tactic" to manipulate people into becoming Christian. The only problem with this is that hell really isn't described. All we know about hell is that it's very dark and burning hot--and people might have an unquenchable thirst.
Now, if I were going to invent something to scare people, I'd make hell just a tad more descriptive. Personally, I'd include the following:
--Being flayed alive.
--Being branded with hot pokers.
--Being raped; being sodomized with large, spikey instruments.
--Having one's bones broken.
--Having ants continually gnaw on one's skin; having them crawl up into the body and eating it from the inside out; having them flood into one's mouth and nose and then having them eat the eyes.
--Being vivisected.
--Being subjected to medieval torture devices (such as the breast ripper).
--Having salt, lemon juice, and excrement poured on one's wounds.
--Continually dying of thirst, starvation, and suffocation all at once.
--Having one's fingernails and toenails ripped out with pliers.
--Being forced to eat feces and dirt.
--Reliving the worst moment's of one's life (traumatic, humiliating, etc.).
--Having white-hot spikes jammed into one's soles.
--Being dismembered.
--Being forced into sexual encounters with someone revolting, finding it pleasurable, and then experiencing the shame following it.
--Etc.
And that all would happen at once, forever and ever, hallelujah.
Now, doesn't the Christian hell sound tame in comparison? "Uh...it's dark and hot."
So, yeah. Hell fails as a sufficient scare tactic.