Reply #57: exactly! When we were kids in Catholic School, the concepts

[tigereye]

of hell, purgatory, etc. were endlessly crammed down our throats and I think created a lot of fear and anxiety since we were young enough to take it all literally. But somehow I had evidently figured out later that it didn't make much sense and that people with different conceptions of god, or no conception, shouldn't deserve any punishment, enough to argue about it with a fundie-type peer. The concept of hell is a man-made one, and a very sad one. It's too bad that little kids or older kids are saddled with these concepts or never have them explained in a reasonable way- the New Testament Christ was intended to be a tolerant and accepting one, not the fire and brimstone one of the Old Testament or various Protestant churches.