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Apr. 10th, 2011 10:46 amSo, let be tell you, O Intarwebs, of an experience I had on Friday while doing the grocery shopping. As I stood there, contemplating cleaning products, a woman approached me offering a letter her neighbour had written. (She offered another to the other person in the aisle with me, I don't know if they took it or not) Why not, I thought, could be good for some amusement, since I saw written in small letters in the upper left corner the word "hellfire". Now, I'll note, I've been told that I'm going to hell before, and likely will be told that again at some point in my oft frustrating and confusing life. (and considering the list of those who are hellbound, most of my friends will be there anyway. woo, party.)
Anyway, I go home and open the envelope. Contained within are three handwritten (front only), in cursive no less, loose-leaf pages. Well, if someone went to the trouble to write it, I might as well give it a skim. Surprisingly, it wasn't doom and gloom and hellfire and damnation. More of a moderate, hey we're all sinners and god's pretty ok with that, just try to do good, mmmkay? A pleasant change from the usual stuff that gets around. Mind you, I'd say that I'm Agnostic with leanings toward Secular Humanism, so I'm pretty ambivalent on the whole eternal damnation thing anyway. I don't think we need a "burning, eternal punishment" as incentive to be decent people, we should...just be decent for the sake of being decent.
Under the cut is the letter I got, spelling errors, format and punctuation are as they appear in the original. (As I do not own a bible, I don't know if the quotes are actually from the listed books and chapters)
( Supermarket letter of Doom! (well not really) )
The letter, I noticed, seemed to waver between the idea of we go to nothing when we die, and hints that there is something afterward, though not necessarily hell. Though it makes no allowance for what is to happen to one who is truly unrepentant. If hell, by this reasoning, does not exist (which is pretty much my thought anyway. Hell is a human construct from what I've been able to determine) then what become of those people? Another go 'round on the wheel of life? Snuffing out into the void eternal?
What say you, oh internets?
dragons:
Anyway, I go home and open the envelope. Contained within are three handwritten (front only), in cursive no less, loose-leaf pages. Well, if someone went to the trouble to write it, I might as well give it a skim. Surprisingly, it wasn't doom and gloom and hellfire and damnation. More of a moderate, hey we're all sinners and god's pretty ok with that, just try to do good, mmmkay? A pleasant change from the usual stuff that gets around. Mind you, I'd say that I'm Agnostic with leanings toward Secular Humanism, so I'm pretty ambivalent on the whole eternal damnation thing anyway. I don't think we need a "burning, eternal punishment" as incentive to be decent people, we should...just be decent for the sake of being decent.
Under the cut is the letter I got, spelling errors, format and punctuation are as they appear in the original. (As I do not own a bible, I don't know if the quotes are actually from the listed books and chapters)
( Supermarket letter of Doom! (well not really) )
The letter, I noticed, seemed to waver between the idea of we go to nothing when we die, and hints that there is something afterward, though not necessarily hell. Though it makes no allowance for what is to happen to one who is truly unrepentant. If hell, by this reasoning, does not exist (which is pretty much my thought anyway. Hell is a human construct from what I've been able to determine) then what become of those people? Another go 'round on the wheel of life? Snuffing out into the void eternal?
What say you, oh internets?
dragons:
