[NGTM-1R]

If there is a hell, it's listening to the religious people.

On a more serious note -- Jesus came to save the world, but whosoever does not believe stands condemned already. A lot of people don't know that. That is to say, people trump John 3:16 as proof that the bible isn't seeking to condemn people, yet in 3:18, that is exactly what it says. This, by the way, is the verse that the Phelps use to justify that the world is doomed.

Phelps' eschatology is for **** by any standard, even those of primitive Baptists. If you're taking his word for anything, on any subject, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your crotch for being a total nitwit.

The existence of Hell actually rests on a very small number of biblical passages, the most prominent of which is the whole "depart from me ye cursed into the lake of fire prepared for Satan" blahblah. A fairly sound case can be made that the second covenant removes Hell from the equation (possibly entirely), although making that case is not popular.

Assuming you buy into this stuff.

[Nuke]

Maybe our lives on Earth are punishment for transgressions in previous lives.

No one will burn, hell is like a super-bogeyman, its "existence" is merely for putting people into good behavior.

This I guess...
It makes sense if it is purely invented, if I may says so, just to scare people into believing.

when you consider the time in which christianity was hammered out into a mainstream religion, and the bible was canonized, what you see is a collapsing civilization (rome) trying to preserve whats left of its self, and attempting to use much more simplified religion (face it paganism was a very complex religion) as a glue to keep itself together. so many pro-imperial concepts were emphasized. hell being one of them, because you couldn't make people want to do the "right" thing on faith alone, so you threaten their soul with torture after death to motivate them into the "correct" actions. so i consider hell part of the religious institution and really having nothing to do with faith itself.

[blackhole]

Philosophical problem: I am most happy when I contribute to mankind. If I'm dead and in heaven, I can't contribute to mankind anymore, and therefore I cannot be happy in heaven, and therefore whether or not hell or heaven exists is totally irrelevant because no matter where I go, it will suck ass for the rest of eternity.

Therefore, your question is meaningless

[General Battuta]

Philosophical problem: I am most happy when I contribute to mankind. If I'm dead and in heaven, I can't contribute to mankind anymore, and therefore I cannot be happy in heaven, and therefore whether or not hell or heaven exists is totally irrelevant because no matter where I go, it will suck ass for the rest of eternity.

Therefore, your question is meaningless

You could be a badass angel and fight Nazis

[LHN91]

Philosophical problem: I am most happy when I contribute to mankind. If I'm dead and in heaven, I can't contribute to mankind anymore, and therefore I cannot be happy in heaven, and therefore whether or not hell or heaven exists is totally irrelevant because no matter where I go, it will suck ass for the rest of eternity.

Therefore, your question is meaningless

You could be a badass angel and fight Nazis

^win.

also, definitely at least similar to my view on all of this. Regardless of whether or not there is or is not a Heaven or a Hell, the only thing we can objectively measure as we are as a being is our contribution to our fellow beings. Even without the added motivation of any religion, the inherent good feelings that come from doing good things for mankind should be motivation enough.

At least that's my penny's worth.

[Luis Dias]

Being good is extremely overrated.

[Titan]

I decided a while ago to not get involved with a religion. I have enough to worry about. Whatever happens when I die (if anything) should reflect what I've done here. If I get cast into 'hell' for no good reason, then the powers that be that decided so don't really deserve my time anyways. 

[Pred the Penguin]

Being good is extremely overrated.

Nah... I don't think you'd say that if you lived where I do.

[Grizzly]

Being good is extremely overrated.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

[Mars]

Being good is extremely overrated.

Why do you say that?

[Topgun]

Being good is extremely overrated.

Why do you say that?

no good deed goes unpunished.

[Luis Dias]

I decided a while ago to not get involved with a religion. I have enough to worry about. Whatever happens when I die (if anything) should reflect what I've done here. If I get cast into 'hell' for no good reason, then the powers that be that decided so don't really deserve my time anyways. 

This is the kind of "worry" that I really fret. Early indoctrinated people will always bear that psychological mark of slight scare of the red glow boogeyman inside the volcano, who will bring you down to eternal punishment. It may not be a common daily thing, but it is burning quietly in the back of the mind. This is psychological abuse by a terrible theological tradition.

Why do you say that?

Contrary to widespread mythology and hollywood brainwashing, the girls always prefer the naughty ones.

[Mars]

Girls don't really lead to feelings of happiness and fulfillment the way people seem to think, however.

There's always the idea that something you don't have will make you happy. Flossies who enjoy being belittled are one of those things.  Sex is fun, sadistic sex is funner, but in the end you're left with a smell on your pillow and still no reason for contentment.

EDIT:

One of the most depressing things you can do is to go against yourself to get laid.

[Topgun]

I can see you are all in very healthy relationships.....

[Retsof]

Disclaimer: In general, I try not to get into religious discussions online, as it's hard to not come off as nuts, so I'll make this short.

Hell, as the popular image of eternal fire and torment, does not exist. The word translated as "hell" is Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek. In the Bible, it's just the condition of being dead, or the grave. The torment part was a concept adapted from the Greek and Roman religions by the church long after the death of Jesus, and from misinterpreting a few verses in Revelation.

Example:
1) Job asked to be concealed in Sheol, to avoid the torment of living. Did he want to be tormented?
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2014:13&version=NASB
2) Jesus, for the three days he was dead, was considered to be in Hades.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%202:27&version=NASB

This

[Scotty]

+1

[Mars]

I can see you are all in very healthy relationships.....

I don't agree with him on those grounds as well, but I figured it was easier to disagree with the premise ( access to vagina = happy ) than with his cynicism of women.

[Luis Dias]

Girls don't really lead to feelings of happiness and fulfillment the way people seem to think, however.

And you take life way too seriously. As evidence, your seriousness regarding my comment.

There's always the idea that something you don't have will make you happy. Flossies who enjoy being belittled are one of those things.  Sex is fun, sadistic sex is funner, but in the end you're left with a smell on your pillow and still no reason for contentment.

In the end we are all dead. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts .

One of the most depressing things you can do is to go against yourself to get laid.

So is pessimism. Lighten up.

[Luis Dias]

The whole passage of Job is one of the most atheistic passages of the old testament. I like it .

[Nuke]

Being good is extremely overrated.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

which is exactly why i do nothing, unless of course the thing i do is evil.