https://www.totse.com/en/religion/christianity/whyhellisnotne201281.html



Hell is commonly thought of as a "bad" place for "bad" people. (http://totse.com/en/religion/christianity/whyhellisnotne201281.html) Let us have a quick look into why we think that's the case. (http://totse.com/en/religion/christianity/whyhellisnotne201281.html)
Where do religious people get their information about Heaven and Hell? From God, indirectly or, as some people claim, directly (the Holy Writings, Messiahs and prayers, visionaries accordingly).
Basically, they only get one point of view about the matter, and that point of view is the God's one. (http://totse.com/en/religion/christianity/whyhellisnotne201281.html)
God essentially has a monopoly on religious mass media. Of course, he's going to say that he is always right, he is the best, his rules are not to be questioned, Heaven is the place to be, Lucifer is a baddie and was kicked out of Heaven justly, and that Hell (which provides some form of competition to God's Heaven) is a complete dump, full of pain and suffering, and absolutely unbearable. (http://totse.com/en/religion/christianity/whyhellisnotne201281.html) Given such a monopoly, who wouldn't?
What about Lucifer's point of view? We don't have it. Because, according to the sources that claim to be related to God, God doesn't want us to have that point of view because it's supposedly "evil".
As such, we can make out what God stands for:
1) He is against the Freedom of Speech (at least against the freedom of speech for anyone He doesn't like)
2) He is for monopolization of power and mass media.
I believe that the Truth can only be found in a fair discussion, in which all the willing parties are allowed to take part irregardless of the popularity of their views (and I hope you do too).
Unless I see a fair debate between, at the very least, God and Lucifer, I cannot really say anything about Heaven or Hell, because until then I am not in possession of the relevant information.
As you see, any information we have about Heaven and Hell is one-sided and biased, and thus can't be trusted.
Therefore, Hell may or may not be a much more pleasant and fun place to be than Heaven.
In this article I tried to show how people that generally believe in the importance of Freedom of Speech can so easily accept the biased information they get from a source they see as an authority, and how they never even think of questioning that information.
I believe it is important for people to understand that in no cases can biased information from one source be considered to be true. (http://totse.com/en/religion/christianity/whyhellisnotne201281.html) If they make an exception in their minds for religion, there is no reason why they won't one day make such an exception for real-life politics - and that can have very serious consequences for the world we live in.


Thoughts/comments?

That would make Lucifer an anarchist.

And oh, how beautiful anarchy is.

That would make Lucifer an anarchist.

And oh, how beautiful anarchy is.

No it won't. It would make him "Opposition".

E.g.: When Adam and Eve were in the gardens of Eden, God's policy was to deny them of knowledge. Satan, however, believed that knowledge and information is a good thing. And because God had no democratic institutes created, where they could have a proper debate on the topic, Satan had to act against the law and do his own thing.

Same with Adam and Eve. He made a rule, but didn't explain why it was made. That made it a given that the rule was eventually broken.

Hell by definition is bad. If there is any aspect of hell that you find good, then it's not hell.

This sounds a lot like Anton LeVey in The Satanist's Bible.

He basically said because God founded the Catholic Church (or something, I'm paraphrasing pretty widely) that HE is the father of all lies, not Satan. And so he looked at his gospel with the possibility in mind that God could be full of shit, and came to the conclusion Satan was the good guy.

Eh, switch the names of the two places and who goes where, same thing.

Here's a question: what if you knew this was true? And to get into "heaven" and avoid "hell" you'd have to do the opposite of what your current zeitgeist considers 'morally correct', Ie, cheat, lie, steal, kill, inflict pain, etc etc constantly. Would you do it?

Eh, switch the names of the two places and who goes where, same thing.

Here's a question: what if you knew this was true? And to get into "heaven" and avoid "hell" you'd have to do the opposite of what your current zeitgeist considers 'morally correct', Ie, cheat, lie, steal, kill, inflict pain, etc etc constantly. Would you do it?

I'm not religious, so I don't really care about what anyone says about the afterlife or lack thereof. They're all just speculating anyway.

So none of this affects my everyday life.

And mind you, in this article I didn't come to a conclusion that Hell is good and Heaven is bad, that Satan is the good guy or that Satan is the bad guy. That wasn't really the point.

The reason I wrote this is because I find it weird how some people, who are all for democracy, freedom of speech and pluralism would have an authority, and believe anything that authority says, without questioning it - be it the God of their religion, their news channel, their president or even their neighbour that spreads rumours.

I'm not religious, so I don't really care about what anyone says about the afterlife or lack thereof. They're all just speculating anyway.

So none of this affects my everyday life.

And mind you, in this article I didn't come to a conclusion that Hell is good and Heaven is bad, that Satan is the good guy or that Satan is the bad guy. That wasn't really the point.

The reason I wrote this is because I find it weird how some people, who are all for democracy, freedom of speech and pluralism would have an authority, and believe anything that authority says, without questioning it - be it the God of their religion, their news channel, their president or even their neighbour that spreads rumours.

Agree with your last point.

My thought experiment was really based off Defect's point. But, in my thought experiment I'm having you assume that (magically!) heaven and hell are proven to exist.

Hell is a myth--at best it can be a useful metaphor.

Likewise, Lucifer is a mythical being.

Any discussion of them is therefore meaningless.

But I suppose, in the immortal words of Heinlein, it beats the hell out of playing cards.

Agree with your last point.

My thought experiment was really based off Defect's point. But, in my thought experiment I'm having you assume that (magically!) heaven and hell are proven to exist.

If I knew that was true, I'd just commit suicide (that's a sin as well, so I'd go to "heaven").
If suicide wasn't an option, and I had to live a full long life.. yes, that's where it becomes interesting.