Re: Do belief systems evolve?

On 25 Nov 2003, [EMAIL PROTECTED] screwed up his face, groaned, pushed 
hard, and farted out the following message in 
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]:

> Steve Knight <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>>
>> Another evolution is the concept of Hell. Hell started out as a
>> place of eternal punishment and torture. Now it's being downplayed
>> as a place 'where god isn't'.
> 
> Actually, there is no such concept in scripture: eternal torture (as
> if God was insatiably sadistic) was borrowed from Greek thought in
> later centuries.
> 
> The sheol of the OT was simply a covered place--a literal reference to
> the grave, where, according to scripture, the dead neither praise nor
> remember. The gehenna of the NT was literally the garbage dump outside
> Jerusalem, a figurative reference to the destruction of the
> wicked. The punishment of the wicked, clearly taught throughout
> scripture, is to observe the righteous entering into glory, and then
> to die.

Ah.  I see.  So, the "Lake of Fire" (the Bible's exact words in 
reference to a place where Satan, his angels, and all those whose names 
are not "written in the Book of Life" go) isn't *really* a lake of fire.  
It's just, you know, a figurative term for something that, well, we're 
not sure exactly what it is but we know it's not a lake of fire.  That 
about it?

>> As if that's punishment enough.
> 
> Apparently, whether or not you believe that God is sadistic, *you*
> certainly are.
> 
> Regards,
> Len.
> 
> 



-- 
Mekkala, Atheist #2148
"When did I realize I was God?  Well, I was praying and I suddenly 
realized I was talking to myself!"
--Peter O'Toole.