03-24-2010, 10:11 AM
A little history, The goddess Hell was a fierce competitor to the newcomer christianity in early Europe. Hell is a germanic word. It means bright shining or clear. And it's still in common use as a root for other words. We even have last names referring to it. Imagine a name like "John from Hell" this is a literal translation to English of a coworkers name...
Hell fire, originally Hell's fires... was the name used for the funeral rites, where the dead were cremated in fires.
So the Christian priests eager to increase their flocks and please Rome gave people the obvious choice: "Either burn in hells fire or go to heaven and live forever." At first it probably wasn't even antagonistic but a statement of perceived fact. Later on it became BS... A publicity stunt, used to keep the flock in line, mind control followers and stigmatize the opposition. The concept was linked back to their own versions of the land of the dead. Which were traditionally Hades Gehenna Tartarus or Sheol. Each of those has a history and mythology that is almost entirely but not completely unlike the hell we know today.
And that's how it goes. Big religions are essentially just like big corporations. They increase their customer base by spreading FUD about the oppositions products and evangelizing their own.
Oh... And hey guys... Good to see your noses again!
Hell fire, originally Hell's fires... was the name used for the funeral rites, where the dead were cremated in fires.
So the Christian priests eager to increase their flocks and please Rome gave people the obvious choice: "Either burn in hells fire or go to heaven and live forever." At first it probably wasn't even antagonistic but a statement of perceived fact. Later on it became BS... A publicity stunt, used to keep the flock in line, mind control followers and stigmatize the opposition. The concept was linked back to their own versions of the land of the dead. Which were traditionally Hades Gehenna Tartarus or Sheol. Each of those has a history and mythology that is almost entirely but not completely unlike the hell we know today.
And that's how it goes. Big religions are essentially just like big corporations. They increase their customer base by spreading FUD about the oppositions products and evangelizing their own.
Oh... And hey guys... Good to see your noses again!