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.
Biblical literalism doesn’t fit with what little I know about the Bible and with reality I’ve experienced. I imagine permanent separation from God entails much that would make it torturous, even if not the kind of tortures found in the Greek conception of the underworld echoed in the Bible.
And again, I’m not a part of a formal religion.
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.
Logically, it’s about disagreeing with God and with the order He has laid out. Necessarily, this creates exclusion. Some would like to reduce religion to something anodyne like “be a good person” but just because that feels nice doesn’t make it true.
It’s similar to chyron’s point that I agree with:
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.
To reemphasize, I’m coming from my own perspective. I don’t understand how it all works and though I’m told the Bible provides many definitive answers I’ve not been convinced in many respects.