Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by scLovely on February 27, 2011 at 10:20pm

Yes. Christians use hell to scare you into belief. They do this when you are young because children are more likely to believe such things. Rational adults do not. As a child, my biggest fear was of demons. They were used in speach a lot in the Church of God and Pentecostal sects that I grew up in. Another huge fear for me was angels. It scared the fuck out of me as a child to think that angels watched over me at all times. I would cry to my mom about it and she would tell me that angels were "good" and wouldn't hurt me. Then I would ask about the demons and she said the angels were there to help keep me safe from them. So in my mind, there was an all out war between good and bad being faught in the darkness of my bedroom. The demons were trying to "get me" and the angels were trying to protect me. That is all I could think about when I what I needed to do was go to sleep. This is terrible! Why would adults torture the minds of children like this? I believe it is child abuse. In child psychology classes they tell you to never tell a child the "boogeyman" is going to get them if they misbehave, but then they turn around and tell children that the devil is REAL. People are such idiots sometimes.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nicholas Dennis on May 9, 2011 at 8:39pm

 /agree on all points

I'd also like to add that I believe the concept of hell itself was created as a fear tactic to scare everyone into believing. After all, common people in the dark ages were as gullible as children nowadays (for the most part).

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by James on February 27, 2011 at 10:33pm

When I went to CCD school, they would talk about hell. But my memories are a bit blurry to say to what degree it affected me. I do remember having worries about going to hell though. Worried I didn't pray enough, worried that was somehow lacking or broken. But I don't recall a crippling fear. We never watched any movies on hell though.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Isaac on February 28, 2011 at 2:00am

I don't, but that's probably because I was raised Jewish.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nate on February 28, 2011 at 2:19am

oh man definetely, all the way up til about 12 i genuinly believed in the supernatural, satan, demons, possessions, exorcisms, my family and religion had me freaked, so whenever i decided to watch movies related to any of that i would not get much sleep for days, just thinking about all that, feeling like demons were gonna come after me or possess me, i can kinda laugh at it now but it really is messed up to think how much it affected me and knowing that it has the same effects on other kids and children then and now, as far as hell goes, the religious were on my dads side of the family and they were all(and still are)hardcore jehovah's witnesses, they didnt teach me that there was a hell, just that there was gonna be Armageddon where every living thing that wasn't in "the truth" and part of the jehovahs witnesses were gonna be destroyed and not have a chance to live in paradise earth, i never worried about that though because i just could never wrap my head around the thought that god would kill every man, woman, child and elderly person for simply not being a jehovahs witnesses, i just had the hardest time believing that, perhaps that where my original doubts about the religion began and when i started to question more

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hope on February 28, 2011 at 3:03am

When I was in high school they were given us lectures about hell, torment of the grave, day of judgement, bridge of hell....

I remember the teachers and the school principal crying... I saw them crying and I cried because I was saddened to them not because I was afraid of Hell..

 

Also, I remember last time I had a debate and a crazy muslim that I argued with him he doesn't have anything to say but hell, repent, hell, repent...

and because this was my first debate..

I felt like he hit me on my head with a hammer. >I was like what ? where am I ?

suddenly my friends supported me and they said to him, hey you don't terrify her with hell.. 

Last thing he said to me, you are crazy and should go to psychiatrist or otherwise, you will go to hell and forever ..

Here is the Hell and the bridge of Hell of the merciful cute terrorist Allah.

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by natanael on February 28, 2011 at 8:57am

is really frustrating to know that this is happening to kids right now

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Becca on February 28, 2011 at 10:37am

I was never afraid of hell because as far back as I can remember I didn't really believe in any of it god, religion, heaven or hell. I always had my doubts and questions... tons of questions. Also my family was Catholic so there was this nifty thing called purgatory which I though of as a giant waiting room for people who committed more minor sins like disobeying their parents. I was pretty sure that if the hell thing was real I or my family weren't going to go there because none of us ever did anything bad enough. When I was really young (5 and 6) I was just confused about religion in general and annoyed family members with my questions in church. I couldn't figure out why god, religion and all those Bible stories which I was sure couldn't real were so important to everyone around me. I couldn't figure out why they all took religion and the bible so seriously when the bible read like a Brothers Grim fairy tale (gory, entertaining, and completely made up). For a while I felt like there was something wrong with with me because I just didn't get the whole god and religion thing. I think that was worse than being afraid of hell for me. Ultimately I gave up on the whole god/religion thing at about 9 years old. I just stopped caring about any of it and stopped thinking about it. Thankfully by that time my family no longer lived near the more religious part of my family so not going to church wasn't a big deal. In fact I found out around that age that the only reason my mom went to church and took us kids along with her was because her mom had always tried to make her feel guilty if we didn't go to church or skipped a weekend and my dad, he never went to church so far as I can remember.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kirk Holden on February 28, 2011 at 11:03am

I never believed in the supernatural. Religion was a social and political construct but I couldn't put that into words at age 6.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Daria Black on February 28, 2011 at 8:27pm

Yes. When I was in grade school, they showed us a movie about the devil around Halloween. I walked home so freaked out that I kept expecting the devil to suddenly appear out of no where and drag me to hell.

 

Another time, I was in church and a woman suddenly felt the "spirit" and started screaming and convulsing. People circled her, not to help her but to pray over her. I couldn't take it anymore and ran out of the church. I think that was the beginning of the end for me.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on February 28, 2011 at 10:08pm

My parents were catholic, I went to catholic school for seven years, I was an alter boy because my father insisted.  But, I never, that I can remember, bought into any of that crap.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Vrinelly on February 28, 2011 at 10:57pm

i was raised in the catholic church too! but i, nor my cousins and friends, never saw a movie about hell or anything like it! 

as paranoid as i am, and was, i would have never been able to sleep all by my self :S 

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page