Should we reform religion so we can get rid of Irational and hysterical beliefs completly?

a reply to: metal5643

I would ask you if a person can turn to good or if a person can turn to evil. Is good and evil real.

An individual jumping on a grenade to save individuals is irrational. Why would anyone do that? To freely sacrifice themselves for others? Is that the kinda of irrationality you want to remove from the human spirit?

Or the scientifically irrational believe that somethings are just pure evil? Like genocide or slavery? Do you want to remove that kind of irrational thought?

a reply to: neutronflux

Oh. Is that what we have been discussing?

You are entitled to your own views. That doesn't mean I care to discuss them with you.

I suppose you are here to flood this thread then, after 6 pages of nonsense, complain about anyone that remains.

a reply to: narrator

And Christianity brought us the Crusades, etc etc etc. Religion as a whole has brought WAY more violence and murder upon humanity than Atheism has.

Actually the Crusades or Holy War (Jihad) was brought to you by Islam. The Islamic Crusades started at 630 Two years before Muhammad’s death of a fever, up until 1094 where in the year 1095 Pope Urban II preaches first Crusade and they capture Jerusalem in 1099.

So it is only after all of the Islamic aggressive invasions that western Christendom launches its first Crusades.

It could be argued that sometimes the Byzantine and western European leaders did not behave exemplarily, so a timeline on that subject could be developed. And sometimes the Muslims behaved exemplarily. Both are true. However, the goal of this timeline is to balance out the picture more clearly. Many people regard Islam as an innocent victim, and the Byzantines and Europeans as bullies. This hardly reflects historical reality as the multitude of aggressive Muslim military campaigns listed above show.

Moreover, we should take a step back and look at the big picture. If Islam had stayed in Arabia and had not waged wars of conquest, then no troubles would have erupted. But the truth is this: Islam moved aggressively during the Caliphates of Abu Bakr and Umar in the seventh century, with other Caliphs continuing well beyond that; only then did the western Europeans react substantively (see 1094).

Finally, it must be noted that Islamic expansion continues until well into the seventeenth century. For example, the Muslims Crusaders conquer Constantinople in 1453 and unsuccessfully besiege Vienna for the second time in 1683 (earlier in 1529). By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Islamic Crusades receded, due to western resistance. Since that time until the present, Islamic civilization has not advanced very far.

Timeline of the Islamic Crusades

ETA: Oh, I see what you mean. You mean that Raggedyman mentioned several atrocities committed by Atheists. My point was, those atrocities weren't committed because they were atheists. None of them said anything along the lines of "you believe in a god and I don't, so I must kill you all!"

Raggedyman probably refers to the Soviet Marxist-Leninism:

Soviet Marxist-Leninism policy consistently advocated the control, suppression, and ultimately, the elimination of religious beliefs, and actively encouraged atheism in the Soviet Union.[2]

The state advocated the destruction of religion, and it officially pronounced religious beliefs to be superstitious and backward.[3][4] The Communist Party destroyed churches, synagogues,[5] mosques and Buddhist temples, ridiculed, harassed, incarcerated and executed religious leaders, flooded the schools and media with anti-religious teachings, and it introduced a belief system called "scientific atheism," with its own rituals, promises and proselytizers.[6][7] Religious beliefs and practices persisted among the majority of the population,[6] in the domestic and private spheres but also in the scattered public spaces allowed by a state that recognized its failure to eradicate religion and the political dangers of an unrelenting culture war.[3][8]

Persecution of Christians in Soviet Union

Some additional sources :

1.Anti-religious campaign during teh Russian Civil War

During the Russian Civil War, the Red Army massacred large numbers of clergy and believers often on grounds of alleged support for the Whites; much of these killings were not officially instigated from the top, but were done on the initiative of local units of soldiers.[8] In later years, the church would declare that the excommunication was a misunderstanding based on the belief that these killings were officially instigated (however, they were never officially repudiated either).[9] However, later Soviet authors would claim central responsibility for these actions, including Yemelyan Yaroslavsky (who was a participant in these killings) who justified the campaign by claiming that the church was fighting against them.

Many monasteries were attacked. Holy Mountain Monastery near Kharkov was plundered very early in the civil war. In a nearby skete in the village of Gorokhova a monk named Izrail was murdered for refusing to hand over the keys to the skete cellars. In the same area, a religious procession was attacked on its way as it rested the night, and two priests, a deacon, the owner of the cottage where they were staying at as well as his daughter were all killed.[10]

2. USSR anti-religious campaign 1921-1928

The USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928) was a campaign of anti-religious persecution against churches and believers by the Soviet government following the initial anti-religious campaign during the Russian Civil War. The elimination of most religion and its replacement with deism, agnosticism and atheism supported with a materialist world view was a fundamental ideological goal of the state.[1][2]

3.USSR anti-religious campaign 1928-1941

The USSR anti-religious campaign of 1928–1941 was a new phase of anti-religious persecution in the Soviet Union following the anti-religious campaign of 1921–1928. The campaign began in 1929, with the drafting of new legislation that severely prohibited religious activities and called for a heightened attack on religion in order to further disseminate atheism. This had been preceded in 1928 at the fifteenth party congress, where Joseph Stalin criticized the party for failure to produce more active and persuasive anti-religious propaganda. This new phase coincided with the beginning of the forced mass collectivization of agriculture and the nationalization of the few remaining private enterprises

During those campaigns the League of Militant Atheistswas created in Russia.

The league embraced workers, peasants, students, and intelligentsia. It had its first affiliates at factories, plants, collective farms (kolkhozy), and educational institutions. By the beginning of 1941 it had about 3.5 million members from 100 nationalities. It had about 96,000 offices across the country. Guided by Bolshevik principles of communist propaganda and by the Party's orders with regards to religion, the League aimed at exterminating religion in all its manifestations and forming an anti-religious scientific mindset among the workers.[5][6] It propagated atheism and scientific achievements,[7] conducted "individual work" (a method of sending atheist tutors to meet with individual believers to convince them that gods do not exist);

Peace

originally posted by: neutronflux
a reply to: metal5643

I would ask you if a person can turn to good or if a person can turn to evil. Is good and evil real.

An individual jumping on a grenade to save individuals is irrational. Why would anyone do that? To freely sacrifice themselves for others? Is that the kinda of irrationality you want to remove from the human spirit?

Or the scientifically irrational believe that somethings are just pure evil? Like genocide or slavery? Do you want to remove that kind of irrational thought?

Does evil exist? , yes although keep in mind the environment plays a big role in shaping how people think and behave. 90% of all serial killers are also psychopaths and psychopathy is a neorological disorder that people are born with. Humans are also predatory animals, we have natural instincts to dominate to survive because nature is cruel.


The concept of sacrifice is something that I have thought about for a long time I actually wanted to make a post about it. You need to understand that animals can also sacrifice themselves to help others. And the reason for this is because all mammals have something special in common and that's the ability to feel empathy. The reason why we (and other animals) sacrifice ourselves is because we are vulnerable & can feel pain and we can relate that pain & vulnerability with others and do not wish to see them suffer.



But more importantly mammals can also feel strong emotions of revenge towards those who have done them wrong (ect wild animals tortured in a zoo).

This emotion of revenge for being treated unfairly that all mammals share could be the reason why we humans developed the idea of justice and the creation of laws.

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: neutronflux

Oh. Is that what we have been discussing?

You are entitled to your own views. That doesn't mean I care to discuss them with you.

I suppose you are here to flood this thread then, after 6 pages of nonsense, complain about anyone that remains.

This was your original statement

There are quite a range of opinions here. I don't really see much value looking for evidence of hell in the old testament. It is mostly a Christian belief. As far as I can tell, the idea of a soul that is separate from the physical body is completely absent from the first five books.

Then I postef actual cited sources that other religions believe in punishment of the soul, and the concept of a fiery hell might have came from ancient Egypt.

Angles? Were stationed when Adem and Eve were kicked out of the garden of Eden. So a spiritual plane is established early in the Bible.

Satan is introduce in the book ofJob. So Satan was placed in the Old Testament around 600 BC.

So, where would Satan have dwelled? Probably not in heaven.

en.m.wikipedia.org...


Many scholars of Jewish mysticism, particularly of the Kabbalah, make mention of seven "compartments" or "habitations" of Hell, just as there are seven divisions of Heaven. These divisions go by many different names, and the most frequently mentioned are as follows:[30]

Sheol (Hebrew: שְׁאוֹל — "underworld", "Hades"; "grave")
Abaddon (Hebrew: אֲבַדּוֹן — "doom", "perdition")
Be'er Shachat (Hebrew: בְּאֵר שַׁחַת, Be'er Shachath — "pit of corruption")
Tit ha-Yaven (Hebrew: טִיט הַיָוֵן — "clinging mud")
Sha'are Mavet (Hebrew: שַׁעֲרֵי מָוֶת, Sha'arei Maveth — "gates of death")
Tzalmavet (Hebrew: צַלמָוֶת, Tsalmaveth — "shadow of death")
Gehinnom (Hebrew: גֵיהִנוֹם, Gehinnom — "valley of Hinnom"; "Tartarus", "Purgatory")

Besides those mentioned above, there also exist additional terms that have been often used to either refer to Hell in general or to some region of the underworld:

Azazel (Hebrew: עֲזָאזֵל, compd. of ez עֵז: "goat" + azal אָזַל: "to go away" — "goat of departure", "scapegoat"; "entire removal", "damnation")
Dudael (Hebrew: דּוּדָאֵל — lit. "cauldron of God")
Tehom (Hebrew: תְהוֹם — "abyss"; "sea", "deep ocean")[31]
Tophet (Hebrew: תֹּפֶת or תוֹפֶת, Topheth — "fire-place", "place of burning", "place to be spit upon"; "inferno")[32][33]
Tzoah Rotachat (Hebrew: צוֹאָה רוֹתֵחַת, Tsoah Rothachath — "boiling excrement")[34]
Mashchit (Hebrew: מַשְׁחִית, Mashchith — "destruction", "ruin")
Dumah (Hebrew: דוּמָה — "silence")
Neshiyyah (Hebrew: נְשִׁיָּה — "oblivion", "Limbo")
Bor Shaon (Hebrew: בּוֹר שָׁאוֹן — "cistern of sound")
Eretz Tachtit (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ תַּחְתִּית, Erets Tachtith — "lowest earth").[35][36]
Masak Mavdil (Hebrew: מָסָך מַבְדִּ֔יל, Masak Mabdil — "dividing curtain")
Haguel (Ethiopic: ሀጉለ — "(place of) destruction", "loss", "waste")[37]
Ikisat (Ethiopic: አክይስት — "serpents", "dragons"; "place of future punishment")[38][39]
For more information, see Qliphoth.

a reply to: metal5643

If there is no source of morality such as from God, there is no good or evil.

The concept of a social contract is an illusion. People break laws and social graces all the time, and are rewarded for their behavior.

a reply to: toms54



elijah taken to heaven

Vs you

As far as I can tell, the idea of a soul that is separate from the physical body is completely absent from the first five books.

originally posted by: neutronflux
a reply to: toms54



elijah taken to heaven

Vs you

As far as I can tell, the idea of a soul that is separate from the physical body is completely absent from the first five books.

Bro the stories of the Bible is just based on earlier Mesopotamian myths. The creation & flood story in genisis can be found literally in every single culture around the world. The Israelites just like every ancient culture were Polytheists they believed in multiple gods.



The Greeks, the Hindus and the Mesopotamians all wrote about the story of Noah long before the Hebrews wrote about him in the Torah (600bc). When the Hebrew priests were captured in babylon they copied some of the stories and added it to their own writings.

a reply to: metal5643

What does that have to do with:
One, replying to

There are quite a range of opinions here. I don't really see much value looking for evidence of hell in the old testament. It is mostly a Christian belief. As far as I can tell, the idea of a soul that is separate from the physical body is completely absent from the first five books.

Two:
The Old Testament never denied there are other spiritual beings. Your “believed” in other gods is a gross over simplification of the truth. For example. Under King David the state religion was one True God. King Solomon tolerated other lesser gods, and his kingdom suffered for it. Turning from the one true God is a theme repeated in the Old Testament.

Three:
As far as copied themes in the Bible? Are they copied, or repeated truths. Another example, how many cultures have their own version of Romeo and Juliet. Cultures that have the basic story of a tragedy stemming from a powerful mans daughter dating someone not approved of by the powerful man? Cultures that have similar stories with out any knowledge of Shakespeare. Or how many cultures have their lover’s leap.

Finally, I don’t care what you think. I believe in light and darkness. In good and evil. Believe in angles and demons. All because of a spiritual moral authority that radiates into this physical world. If there is only this plane of existence, this physical plane, then survival of the fittest is the only reality. If there is only this, then my nutty professor that believed robots are the next stage of evolution is totally justified. And then you will have your world based on nothing but pure logic.

a reply to: neutronflux

This was your original statement

There are quite a range of opinions here. I don't really see much value looking for evidence of hell in the old testament. It is mostly a Christian belief. As far as I can tell, the idea of a soul that is separate from the physical body is completely absent from the first five books.

Yes. That is the only part of your comment that is true. The rest of what you wrote is your usual nonsense that has nothing at all to do with the quote. It does not demonstrate evidence of hell in the old testament or the idea of a soul that is separate from the physical body.

a reply to: neutronflux

Elijah was taken to heaven bodily. Another fail.

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: neutronflux

Elijah was taken to heaven bodily. Another fail.

How is it a fail. Is haven a spiritual place? Is God a physical Being? I would argue that the spiritual righteousness of Elijah made it possible, and the ascension into haven was also an act of purification where his spiritual being was refined from his physical body. Prove I am wrong.

a reply to: toms54

Or his physical being was washed from his spiritual being.

I would argue that the spiritual righteousness of Elijah made it possible, and the ascension into haven was also an act of purification where his spiritual being was refined from his physical body. Prove I am wrong.

So Elijah was able to escape the matrix because he was the chosen one , makes sense.

a reply to: metal5643

So, everyone that died escaped the matrix.

Really......

originally posted by: Raggedyman
a reply to: Woodcarver

So what?
What do you want?

People have different opinions and understandings, it's right across every philosophy and faith
You would be whinging we are all sheep if we all agreed on the same thing

I guess as an atheist you think Stalin was a great man, Mao was wonderful, how they carried out their beliefs, what no?
You atheists argue over your beliefs and philosophy as well

Hypocrit

You’re like a broken record with this stalin thing. You think all atheists are exactly like pol pot.

Look around man, you’re surrounded by atheists every day. You are the one acting like an ass on these threads. The loud mouthed christian dude telling all the other Christians that they are doing it wrong. Get a clue

a reply to: Woodcarver

No I don't think all atheists are despot dictators
I was referencing how you think all Christians are crusaders

Maybe you just arnt as clever as I supposed
I will dumb things down a bit 😁

a reply to: Raggedyman

Please don't If you dumb things down even more I might lose some brain cells.

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: neutronflux

I don't really see much value looking for evidence of hell in the old testament. It is mostly a Christian belief. As far as I can tell, the idea of a soul that is separate from the physical body is completely absent from the first five books.

Yes. That is the only part of your comment that is true. The rest of what you wrote is your usual nonsense that has nothing at all to do with the quote. It does not demonstrate evidence of hell in the old testament or the idea of a soul that is separate from the physical body.

Myth 1: The Soul Is Immortal

What is the origin of the myth?

“The early Christian philosophers adopted the Greek concept of the soul’s immortality and thought of the soul as being created by God and infused into the body at conception.”​—The New Encyclopædia Britannica (1988), Volume 11, page 25.

What does the Bible say?

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”​—Ezekiel 18:4, King James Version.

Regarding the creation of the first human soul, the Bible says: “Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul [Hebrew, neʹphesh].”​—Genesis 2:7.

The Hebrew word neʹphesh, translated “soul,” means ‘a creature that breathes.’ When God created the first man, Adam, He did not infuse into him an immortal soul but the life force that is maintained by breathing. Therefore, “soul” in the Biblical sense refers to the entire living being. If separated from the life force originally given by God, the soul dies.​—Genesis 3:19; Ezekiel 18:20.

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul raised questions: Where do souls go after death? What happens to the souls of the wicked? When nominal Christians adopted the myth of the immortal soul, this led them to accept another myth​—the teaching of hellfire.

Compare these Bible verses: Ecclesiastes 3:19; Matthew 10:28; Acts 3:23

FACT:

At death a person ceases to exist

Ezekiel 18:20

20 The soul* [Or “person.”] who sins is the one who will die. A son will bear no guilt because of the error of his father, and a father will bear no guilt because of the error of his son. The righteousness of the righteous one will be accounted to him alone, and the wickedness of the wicked one will be accounted to him alone.

Myth 2: The Wicked Suffer in Hell

What is the origin of the myth?

“Of all classical Greek philosophers, the one who has had the greatest influence on traditional views of Hell is Plato.”​—Histoire des enfers (The History of Hell), by Georges Minois, page 50.

“From the middle of the 2nd century AD Christians who had some training in Greek philosophy began to feel the need to express their faith in its terms . . . The philosophy that suited them best was Platonism [the teachings of Plato].”​—The New Encyclopædia Britannica (1988), Volume 25, page 890.

“The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal fire.’ The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God.”​—Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994 edition, page 270.

What does the Bible say?

“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, . . . for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”​—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, Revised Standard Version.

The Hebrew word Sheol, which referred to the “abode of the dead,” is translated “hell” in some versions of the Bible. What does this passage reveal about the condition of the dead? Do they suffer in Sheol in order to atone for their errors? No, for they “know nothing.” That is why the patriarch Job, when suffering terribly because of a severe illness, begged God: “Protect me in hell [Hebrew, Sheol].” (Job 14:13; Douay-Rheims Version) What meaning would his request have had if Sheol was a place of eternal torment? Hell, in the Biblical sense, is simply the common grave of mankind, where all activity has ceased.

Is not this definition of hell more logical and in harmony with Scripture? What crime, however horrible, could cause a God of love to torture a person endlessly? (1 John 4:8)

Compare these Bible verses: Psalm 146:3, 4; Acts 2:25-27; Romans 6:7, 23

FACT:

God does not punish people in hell

What is the origin of the teaching of hellfire?

In ancient Babylonian and Assyrian beliefs the “nether world . . . is pictured as a place full of horrors, and is presided over by gods and demons of great strength and fierceness.” (The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston, 1898, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 581) Early evidence of the fiery aspect of Christendom’s hell is found in the religion of ancient Egypt. (The Book of the Dead, New Hyde Park, N.Y., 1960, with introduction by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 144, 149, 151, 153, 161) Buddhism, which dates back to the 6th century B.C.E., in time came to feature both hot and cold hells. (The Encyclopedia Americana, 1977, Vol. 14, p. 68) Depictions of hell portrayed in Catholic churches in Italy have been traced to Etruscan roots.—La civiltà etrusca (Milan, 1979), Werner Keller, p. 389.

But the real roots of this God-dishonoring doctrine go much deeper. The fiendish concepts associated with a hell of torment slander God and originate with the chief slanderer of God (the Devil, which name means “Slanderer”), the one whom Jesus Christ called “the father of the lie.”—John 8:44.

The ancient Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul, and they had their own concept of the afterworld. The New Encyclopædia Britannica states: “Egyptian funerary texts depict the way to the next world as beset by awful perils: fearsome monsters, lakes of fire, gates that cannot be passed except by the use of magical formulas, and a sinister ferryman whose evil intent must be thwarted by magic.”

The Indo-Iranian religions developed various beliefs on punishment after death. Concerning Hinduism, the French Encyclopædia Universalis (Universal Encyclopedia) states: “There are innumerable descriptions of the 21 hells imagined by the Hindus. Sinners are devoured by wild beasts and by snakes, laboriously roasted, sawed into parts, tormented by thirst and hunger, boiled in oil, or ground to powder in iron or stone vessels.”

Jainism and Buddhism both have their versions of hell, where impenitent sinners are tormented. Zoroastrianism, founded in Iran, or Persia, also has a hell​—a cold, ill-smelling place where the souls of sinners are tormented.

Christendom’s doctrine of punishment in hell originated with the early Babylonians. Ancient Babylonian religious concepts and practices are found in religions worldwide.

“Egypt, Persia, and Greece felt the influence of the Babylonian religion . . . The strong admixture of Semitic elements both in early Greek mythology and in Grecian cults is now so generally admitted by scholars as to require no further comment. These Semitic elements are to a large extent more specifically Babylonian.”—The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, 1898), M. Jastrow, Jr., pp. 699, 700.

Babylon the Great: The World Empire of False Religion

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: neutronflux

It is mostly a Christian belief.

To sum up my previous comment, it's not very Christian (the way the concept of "hell" is taught by most Churches who claim to be Christian).

Here are some of the verses quoted previously but this time from The New World Translation (NW) and other translations.

Does the Bible indicate whether the dead experience pain?

Eccl. 9:5, 10: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol,* the place to which you are going.” (If they are conscious of nothing, they obviously feel no pain.) (*“Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB; “the grave,” KJ, Kx; “hell,” Dy; “the world of the dead,” TEV.)

Ps. 146:4: “His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts* do perish.” (*“Thoughts,” KJ, 145:4 in Dy; “schemes,” JB; “plans,” RS, TEV.)

Does the Bible indicate that the soul survives the death of the body?

Ezek. 18:4: “The soul* that is sinning—it itself will die.” (*“Soul,” KJ, Dy, RS, NE, Kx; “the man,” JB; “the person,” TEV.)

“The concept of ‘soul,’ meaning a purely spiritual, immaterial reality, separate from the ‘body,’ . . . does not exist in the Bible.”—La Parole de Dieu (Paris, 1960), Georges Auzou, professor of Sacred Scripture, Rouen Seminary, France, p. 128.

“Although the Hebrew word nefesh [in the Hebrew Scriptures] is frequently translated as ‘soul,’ it would be inaccurate to read into it a Greek meaning. Nefesh . . . is never conceived of as operating separately from the body. In the New Testament the Greek word psyche is often translated as ‘soul’ but again should not be readily understood to have the meaning the word had for the Greek philosophers. It usually means ‘life,’ or ‘vitality,’ or, at times, ‘the self.’”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1977), Vol. 25, p. 236.

What sort of people go to the Bible hell?

Does the Bible say that the wicked go to hell?

Ps. 9:17, KJ: “The wicked shall be turned into hell,* and all the nations that forget God.” (*“Hell,” 9:18 in Dy; “death,” TEV; “the place of death,” Kx; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB, NW.)

Does the Bible also say that upright people go to hell?

Job 14:13, Dy: “[Job prayed:] Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell,* and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?” (God himself said that Job was “a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad.”—Job 1:8.) (*“The grave,” KJ; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB, NW.)

Acts 2:25-27, KJ: “David speaketh concerning him [Jesus Christ], . . . Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,* neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (The fact that God did not “leave” Jesus in hell implies that Jesus was in hell, or Hades, at least for a time, does it not?) (*“Hell,” Dy; “death,” NE; “the place of death,” Kx; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Hades,” AS, RS, JB, NW.)

Does anyone ever get out of the Bible hell?

Rev. 20:13, 14, KJ: “The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell* delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” (So the dead will be delivered from hell. Notice also that hell is not the same as the lake of fire but will be cast into the lake of fire.) (*“Hell,” Dy, Kx; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Hades,” NE, AS, RS, JB, NW.)

Why is there confusion as to what the Bible says about hell?

“Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades and Gehenna by the word hell. The simple transliteration of these words by the translators of the revised editions of the Bible has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this confusion and misconception.”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1942), Vol. XIV, p. 81.

Translators have allowed their personal beliefs to color their work instead of being consistent in their rendering of the original-language words. For example: (1) The King James Version rendered she’ohlʹ as “hell,” “the grave,” and “the pit”; haiʹdes is therein rendered both “hell” and “grave”; geʹen·na is also translated “hell.” (2) Today’s English Version transliterates haiʹdes as “Hades” and also renders it as “hell” and “the world of the dead.” But besides rendering “hell” from haiʹdes it uses that same translation for geʹen·na. (3) The Jerusalem Bible transliterates haiʹdes six times, but in other passages it translates it as “hell” and as “the underworld.” It also translates geʹen·na as “hell,” as it does haiʹdes in two instances. Thus the exact meanings of the original-language words have been obscured.

Now since there are always those who twist Scripture to make them appear that they support their doctrines that originate out of Pagan teachings and philosophies, one could cover each one of them by explaining how they do not support their ideas and beliefs, but I'll just use one example to save some time:

The Rich Man and Lazarus 1 of 2

The preceding video in that playlist is actually an appropiate introduction (especially the ending).