When I was a child, the idea of hell just gnawed away at me as absurd, just as many of the old testament writings did. As I continued studying and growing in faith – the faith of love as taught by Jesus, Buddha and many others, I began to see the hand of man (or hands of men) as instrumental in developing the book known by many as the word of God.
Why does one believe that the Bible is the word of God?
If you think about it, they only believe it because it is what they were taught. Too much authority has been handed over to preachers and evangelists, instead of each one taking control of their own knowledge, wisdom, faith and thought processes.
Why does one believe that a loving God, more capable of love than any human, would choose to torture and torment his creation? Many say that it is the person’s choice, not God’s, but that is not logical either. For God would have had to created such a place of condemnation, and my view of God, is not one of a creator of chaos and pain.
Zoroastrianism is older than Judaism and Christianity. Their description of hell is atrocious, just as many continue to describe it today.
Studying world religions and anthropology courses in college simply confirmed what I already knew deep inside. I wrote against the belief in hell and the apocalypse many years ago. I believe the Bible is based on metaphors and parables. There is a deeper meaning hidden in its verses, that far too many people are neglecting.
We each have seeds of goodness and evil inside of us – the seeds we nurture will determine our future.
Live in the light.
Scholars of Zoroastrianism find that in earlier texts,
Symbol of Zoroastrianism, white and golden version. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
the souls would be subjected to everlasting punishment in hell, later the belief was that they would be destroyed in the molten metal of the Apocalypse, and even later belief holds that the molten metal will actually purify everything, allowing even the wicked to proceed to heaven. However, the ultimate fate of the wicked is not conclusively explained in any of the hell texts themselves.
via Eileen Gardiner, editor; Hell-On-Line: Zoroastrian Hell.
Related articles
Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity
