I’m not a churchgoer nor otherwise part of a formal religion. But I believe there is a separation from God, as it is often described.
The Bible certainly doesn’t describe it as that. That’s a very sanitized version of Hell. Jesus Christ himself is constantly yelling at people about how they’ll burn eternally and be eaten by worms in hell.
To mfm’s point, I think the traditional Christian view has become shamed into near oblivion since it is seen as intolerant of others’s beliefs. And that also goes to an idea that religion defining a certain path to salvation is incompatible with a modern pluralistic society.
I think it is a pretty intolerant belief to preach that everyone who disagrees with you on theology will burn eternally.
I did not answer because I was not here. But yes, I do believe that Hell exists. Simply put, believe so because the Bible says it does, in particular because testimony about Jesus Himself says that Jesus says it does.
Well, of course he did. That’s where our idea of hell comes from.
And also there reportedly are people in our current society who have had near-death experiences who also confirm that it exists.
And all of those near-death experiences contradict each other. I had a near-death experience once. I saw my parents standing over my body. They weren’t actually there, it was just a hallucination.
It’s not something I prefer to focus on,
Why not? If you believe that people are going to go to hell forever, shouldn’t you be up in arms about warning them?
and I can understand the argument people try to make that a loving God wouldn’t allow for such a place. But I don’t like the idea of putting God into a box as though He isn’t a certain way just because people don’t want Him to be since it makes them uncomfortable to accept it.
Everyone should understand the argument that sending otherwise decent people to an eternity in suffering for simply not believing in the right religion (especially if they didn’t even know about Christianity’s existence) is a despicable act. You’re right that such evil actions wouldn’t necessarily disprove the existence of God, though it surely would make him far more villainous than any of humanity’s most evil of men if such a God did exist.