Fridge Horror/Oral Tradition: Difference between revisions

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* The traditional understanding of [[Fire and Brimstone Hell|Hell]] is pretty much straight-up horror, often stated to be so horrible that what's actually in it [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|beggars all description]]. The real [[Fridge Horror]] comes in understanding the philosophy and theology that justifies this. Basically, Hell is [[Laser-Guided Karma]] for the entire human race. What we could have done to deserve this is not the right question; the [[All Crimes Are Equal|categories and consequences of the sins committed are irrelevant]]. What justifies Hell is [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|what we are]]. Infamous tyrants such as Hitler and Stalin, for all [[Complete Monster|their notoriety]], would have been relatively petty and unknown sinners had others not given them massive influence and power over the lives of millions and freed them from the majority of the adverse social consequences of their evil deeds.The vast majority of even the most benign and benevolent people you know, in the same position, would commit the very same kinds of atrocities they did. Given an eternity to develop human nature, we hypothetically might be able to develop a Hell all by ourselves.

* The thought of ''any'' eternity (even including Heaven) is [[Fridge Horror]] to some, as explained at length in many examinations of "[[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]" In eternity, this is no longer merely a hypothetical question. By many accounts, you cannot cease to exist there. If you had nothing you could think to do there, boredom by itself would be a terrible and inescapable torment. This has been the basis for not only many theological treatises, but many not-so-traditional depictions of Hell in fiction, such as the [[Ironic Hell]] and the [[Self-Inflicted Hell]].

** You could make the argument that if you were in actual heaven, it by nature will not allow or have room for one to become bored, and when I say "not allow" I don't mean unwillingly.

*** That only if you already assumed yout going to hell.[[Self-Inflicted Hell|Then you kind of brought it on yourself.]]

* Christians believe that the only way to get into heaven is through Jesus. That the one and ONLY way to get into heaven is by accepting Jesus into your life and following his teachings. What about the people who came before Jesus? Or the ones who've never even heard of him? What becomes of them? Poor Buddha!

*** Limbo is somewhat of a [[Nightmare Retardant]]. Hell [[Captain Obvious|is a bad place to go]], and Heaven [[Victory Is Boring|has]] [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|its]] [[Big Brother Is Watching|problems.]] Limbo is neither a place of torment or a [[Crap Saccharine World]], and you won't get bored from paradise.

*** Limbo was never a part of Catholic orthodoxy to begin with. While Paradise Lost was adapted by the papacy as [[Word of God]], the Divine Comedy, including Purgatorio(aka Limbo) was adapted as, [[Word of Dante|well]]...

*** Nope, Purgatory is a Catholic doctrine way earlier than Dante.

** In Romans 2, Paul writes about gentiles who were ignorant of the law but nonetheless were faithful to it through their actions. Many Christians believe this also applies to those ignorant of Christ, as in a person who does not intellectually know of Jesus, but nonetheless seeks God in his heart and seeks and does what is right will be shown mercy.

* Much of one's understanding of the above depends on how one interprets various parts of Scripture such as (particularly) Genesis and Revelation. How something should be interpreted depends on how it is written. History is history. Parable is parable. Vision is vision. Visions can be hard to understand, particularly on first glance. If, say, the apostle John saw the modern world in his vision, how on earth would he describe it? Most of what we have didn't even exist at the time in any way shape or form, and the future is only going to get weirder from his perspective.

*** For the first problem, sin exists apart from free will as [[Humans Are Flawed|human nature/instinct]]. The second problem is accurate, but shows a lack of understanding; God chose not to reverse sin immediately to prove that humans need him, and wasn't necessarily obligated to fix our ancestors' mistakes. The third problem is part inaccurate, part legitimate [[Fridge Horror]]. On one hand, Christians don't believe they'll be doing the same thing over and over. On the other hand, according to the Millenialist interpretation of Revelation, humans will join Satan and rebel against God after a thousand years of paradise. However, God would have no need to let inherited sin perpetuate itself a second time and would instead kill the rebels immediately; although that might relieve the unborn, it would make the [[Fridge Horror]] for the potential rebels arguably worse.

 

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