Believing in hell is bad for your mental health

@divegeester said
Anyway I will ask you yet again… are you permitted to teach in your local church?

@fmf said
This form of "knowing someone" here in the lives we live is totally different from the "knowing someone" [i.e. Jesus] that occurs with faith. This makes your analogy a dud ~ and borderline sophistry, in fact, to my way of thinking.

@divegeester said
As I said you are free you exercise your “old wineskin” attitude and not read anything which challenges your handed down dogmas.

@kellyjay said
What is a dogma?

@kellyjay said
Do you have any truth in your life that is always true, or is everything subject to change with you no matter what?

@divegeester said
The two opinions you give in your post are “leading” and don’t provide me with the spectrum of options I would like to reply to. Perhaps a yes of no question might help.

Obsession is unhealthy to the mental health of anyone.

Have there been anyone OBSESSED to the point of mental imbalance by the concept of hell? Yes.

There have also been some OBSESSED with the thought that Mary was a virgin mother of Jesus.

There have also been some OBSESSED with the thought that thy should be screaming in the streets about hell with random inconsiderate sense of duty.

Obsession is not mentally healthy.

The same New Testament that speaks of hell also speaks of the need for a Christian to have "a sober mind."

@kellyjay said
Well, I think we found your problem.

@fmf said
Here is your weak analogy:

If you and I were friends who lived next to one another 20 years ago, and today I deny I ever knew you 20 years ago, as a true statement! Would I be telling the truth?

Let's unpack this.

Allow me to interchange a few elements of the analogy to bring it closer to something related to what we are talking about:

If [I believed in J ...[text shortened]... in Jesus] 20 years ago, as a true statement! Would I be telling the truth?

My answer: No.

@fmf said
My problem is that your analogy is deceitful. The question is, are you being deceitful on purpose or are you being a bit feeble-minded? Not being sure which it is is my "problem" at this juncture.

@kellyjay said
I don't think so at all; if you knew the Lord, you could say I didn't find Him appealing, or something along those lines; what you could not say is He isn't real and never has been; that is a contradiction you could never have walked with someone who isn't real, if there is deceit here it's yours. If you say I thought I was but wasn't walking with Him, that is admitting you never did, again, contradiction, and if there is deceit, it's yours.

@fmf said
This form of "knowing someone" here in the lives we live is totally different from the "knowing someone" [i.e. Jesus] that occurs with faith.

@fmf said
Intellectually speaking, do you or do you not understand the words above, KellyJay?

@kellyjay said
I don't think so at all; if you knew the Lord, you could say I didn't find Him appealing, or something along those lines; what you could not say is He isn't real and never has been; that is a contradiction you could never have walked with someone who isn't real, if there is deceit here it's yours. If you say I thought I was but wasn't walking with Him, that is admitting you never did, again, contradiction, and if there is deceit, it's yours.

How real and decisive and defining and influential - in very real terms - my faith was in the past is not altered by the fact that I lost that faith at a later stage in my life, KellyJay.

You cannot just reach through your computer screen and change what I believed to be true and real in the past. Maybe your faith is making you think you can.