Origins of hell

[mererdog]

I gave up trying to understand Native religions when I saw an exhibit on "Chiefing" in Cherokee, North Carolina. As a white guy, it seems silly to think that I can sort the real from the fake, the authentic from the bastardized. Frankly, I'm not even sure anyone can. Memories are short, so many were killed, and so much was burned and tilled under. So many small assimilations were made in the name of survival. And so many found easy money selling pretty stories and pictures to ignorant tourists.

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

25 minutes ago, mererdog said:

I gave up trying to understand Native religions when I saw an exhibit on "Chiefing" in Cherokee, North Carolina. As a white guy, it seems silly to think that I can sort the real from the fake, the authentic from the bastardized. Frankly, I'm not even sure anyone can. Memories are short, so many were killed, and so much was burned and tilled under. So many small assimilations were made in the name of survival. And so many found easy money selling pretty stories and pictures to ignorant tourists.

 

I'm inclined to agree.  People who have a real connection to the culture, might be able to tell the difference.  The parts available to outsiders, stinks of New Age and fraud.  

 

Maybe you remember the fad, back in the seventies, Westerners going to India to find themselves?  History repeats.  

[RevBates]

In the Hebrew Bible Sheol (he'll) is considered the grave. Jew's believe that all people will go to sheol until judgement day. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek the Hebrew word was translated into the Greek word hades which also means the grave. 

[RevBates]

On 1/6/2018 at 8:54 PM, Jonathan H. B. Lobl said:

 

 

I have only done a little reading of the Koran.  Hell is a prominent feature.  In particular, for the unbeliever.  

 

On 1/11/2018 at 11:32 AM, Pastor Dave said:

Thought I'd add this. I'm not well versed in other religions so I did a quick search and found this on other versions of "hell".

 

Islam

The Muslim belief in jahannam (an Arabic transliteration of the Hebrew ge-hinnom) resembles that of other Abrahamic religions. In the Quran, the holy book of Islam, there are literal descriptions of the condemned in a fiery Hell, as contrasted to the garden-like Paradise enjoyed by righteous believers.

 

Chinese and Japanese religions

The structure of Hell is remarkably complex in many Chinese and Japanese religions. The ruler of Hell has to deal with politics, just as human rulers do. Hell is the subject of many folk stories and manga. In many such stories, people in hell are able to die again, but no one seems to care about the apparent contradiction. (Note: the strong influence of Buddhism (see below) on Chinese and Japanese Hells means that this is not necessarily a contradiction.)

See Feng Du for more information on Chinese Hell.

 

Other religions

Buddhism acknowledges several hells, which are places of great suffering for evildoers. Like all the different realms within cyclic existence, an existence in hell is temporary for inhabitants. Those with sufficiently negative karma are reborn there, where they stay until their specific negative karma has been used up, at which point they are reborn in another realm, like humans, hungry ghosts, animals, demi-gods or gods - all according to their karma.

Bahá'ís do not accept Hell as a place, but rather as a state of being. "Heaven is nearness to Me and Hell is separation from Me." – Bahá'u'llah

Taoism has a slightly nebulous version of Hell. Some claim it has no Hell at all, but - particularly in its home country China - popular belief endows Taoist Hell with many deities and spirits who punish sin in a variety of horrible ways. (See Feng Du.)

As far as Buddhism there's different sects and a small presentage of them are religious. The Buddha never considered himself as a god and Christian's like myself practice Buddhism.