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No

Only Judeism

Only Islam

Yes to both Judeism and Islam

[TD1]

Revelations makes far more sense taken figuratively. It seems unlikely that Jesus is going to return with his tongue turned into a double edged sword, and such like.

Dwarfy, you know that hell is already a physical impossibility and that therefore adding such further impossibilties as never seeing anothe human again are entirely possible, right? Hell is, well, hell. There point is that there is no way for the damned to make it less hellish.

Add an impossibility on top of an impossibility, and you still get an impossibility.

As far as I know, hell is more a separation from God than a place of somehow-physical-torment-despite-the-fact-you're-spiritual. In which case, Hell is what we make of it, but it will be devoid of God.

[Bohandas]

The only verse I can find describing pearly gates is Revelation 21:21, and there are no fantastic creatures mentioned. It is in Revelation, though, so I'm sure there are some descriptions of trippy creatures in the surrounding chapters.

The angels with too many eyes (which I assume are what you're looking for, given the earlier conversation) are actually from the book of Ezekiel, not Revelation.

[Graknorke]

Ah, Ezekiel. The book with a majority of the fucked up stuff.

[Bohandas]

Ah, Ezekiel. The book with a majority of the fucked up stuff.

The majority of the trippy stuff you mean. It's significantly less -fucked up- than most of the first few books of the bible.

[Graknorke]

Ah, Ezekiel. The book with a majority of the fucked up stuff.

The majority of the trippy stuff you mean. It's significantly less -fucked up- than most of the first few books of the bible.

I meant weird fucked up rather than reprehensible fucked up.

[penguinofhonor]

The only verse I can find describing pearly gates is Revelation 21:21, and there are no fantastic creatures mentioned. It is in Revelation, though, so I'm sure there are some descriptions of trippy creatures in the surrounding chapters.

The angels with too many eyes (which I assume are what you're looking for, given the earlier conversation) are actually from the book of Ezekiel, not Revelation.

No, I was looking for the non-angel "strange creatures crazy critters" Cryxis is thinking of.

[smjjames]

And, interestingly enough, the bible apparently explicitly states the existence of Hades. What's up with that? Just shanghaiing another religion's word?

Or possibly co-opting another cultures version of hell. Although technically Hades was simply the land of the dead/the underworld and Tartarus is the hell part of hades and Elysium was the heaven or paradise part of hades.

[Rolan7]

Some people have claimed to me that all the descriptions of hell are figurative, and that it's actually just a mediocre place.  Kinda like the material world, except that everyone there is forever apart from God and salvation (and is finally allowed to know this fact outright).

Obviously there are problems with this, but to me it's a good example of how Christian doctrine constantly adapts to better survive.  Any time observed reality or advances in human decency threaten Christianity's spread, moderate worshipers reinterpret or ignore as much of the Bible as necessary.

Which results in all these tolerant, moderate Christians who do an amazing amount of charitable works (to spread their strain of Christianity, but still).  They're great people...  But tolerance isn't supported by the Bible.  Which is why there are still so many religious extremists preaching intolerance...  They're *correct*.  The Bible has messages of love, but many more messages of hate and intolerance - even in the New Testament, even in the accounts of the Apostles.

Most modern Christians base their faith upon love and tolerance, but the Christian Right is constantly trying to remind them of what the Bible *actually* says.

Just because the friendly soft sell is more popular than the sword these days, does not make Christianity any less dangerous.  Just deceptive.  It has a rotten core, which always rises to the surface in times of strife.  Because it was originally created to help one tribe defeat their enemies, then turned into a system for absorbing and neutralizing enemy cultures.  It will never *really* coexist with any other faith.

[TD1]

You attempt to demonise Christianity...but you hit the wrong mark. It is not the religion that causes these things. With or without Christianity, violence will happen, just under a different name.

If not divisions over religion, people would divide over culture. It is humanity's way to join on a small scale, but never on a larger, global scale. Christianity is not a cause of this, just sometimes a tool of it, with other tools on the shelf that do the same job.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Hell is just the eternal punishment of god and the reason Satan wants people to go there is one of several reasons
He doesn't want more people to go to heaven
He hates humans with an unlimited passion
and a few probably many others that i forgot

Seriously, unless I missed a few verses when I checked through 'em, the only motivation for Satan that is explicitly stated in the bible was doing freaking YWHW's command in a couple of cases. That was it. Other than that, it deceived but its reason for deceiving was never stated.

And as for hell, it is magnificently ill described. There's some bits on fire, but the nature, extent, and so forth, insofar as I noticed, was unmentioned. There's also contradictory bits (like in that revelations bit -- 21 or 22 puts the sinners and whatnot outside the city, not in hell, alongside a couple other oddities.), parts that ascribe fire only to a specific group (sodom, gomorrah, and surrounding cities) or specifically to the rebellious angels and false prophets, with no mention made of others. I'm also seeing it alternately described as eternal darkness, plain destruction, or simple disconnection from YWHW's presence. It's a bit of a mess.

Also, no, there's no mention as to its size. Some mention of it actually being on earth, iirc.

And, interestingly enough, the bible apparently explicitly states the existence of Hades. What's up with that? Just shanghaiing another religion's word?

Its in interpretation for Satan's motives, most aren't put in there but its not hard to assume he hates us considering god loves us enough to give us free choice unlike the angels who were basically taken away any free will they had before the fall and were eternally stuck wherever they fell at that moment

[Il Palazzo]

You attempt to demonise Christianity...but you hit the wrong mark. It is not the religion that causes these things. With or without Christianity, violence will happen, just under a different name.

If not divisions over religion, people would divide over culture. It is humanity's way to join on a small scale, but never on a larger, global scale. Christianity is not a cause of this, just sometimes a tool of it, with other tools on the shelf that do the same job.

This is absurd. Not all ideas are equal, and not all are equally suited to be adapted to in/outgroup demarcation.
Replace "Christianity" and "religion" with "white supremacy" and "racism" in your post and tell me it makes sense.

[TD1]

Christianity is based upon interpretation: White supremacy is not. Christianity is essentially a reflection of whatever the person wants it to be.

[Il Palazzo]

I don't understand your point. What has it got to do with what I said?
If anything, it increases the propensity of religion to create in/outgroup mentality, as you can interpret the holy texts as divinely supportive of whatever your local set of cultural values is.

[Rolan7]

You attempt to demonise Christianity...but you hit the wrong mark. It is not the religion that causes these things. With or without Christianity, violence will happen, just under a different name.

If not divisions over religion, people would divide over culture. It is humanity's way to join on a small scale, but never on a larger, global scale. Christianity is not a cause of this, just sometimes a tool of it, with other tools on the shelf that do the same job.

Christianity demonizes all humanity as sinners who deserve Hell for the way we were created.  Everyone's going to Hell unless they're saved.

So the fact that Christian powers conquered and re-educated native people worldwide is a reasonable consequence.  As is the church hierarchy's crackdown on heretical ideas, and the current legislation of morality in America.  Christian doctrine says "spread me to others, or they will roast forever".

[Frumple]

Its in interpretation for Satan's motives, most aren't put in there but its not hard to assume he hates us considering god loves us enough to give us free choice unlike the angels who were basically taken away any free will they had before the fall and were eternally stuck wherever they fell at that moment

That last bit is explicitly inaccurate -- Satan, one of the fallen, is straight up noted to be wandering around the earth long after its fall.

As for the assumption bit, not only is it quite hard to assume satan hates humanity -- when by actual account, it is subservient to YWHW's will and no more likely to hate mankind than YWHW is -- stating that assumption is something I would probably say is incredibly dangerous for a mindful christian to do. Character defamation without actual evidence is almost certainly something that's going to trigger the whole "false witness" thing.

Seriously. Attribute to it what it does and what is said of it, and no more, y'know? Which isn't actually all that much.