Reply #32: Thank you for this thread

[Der Blaue Engel]

I'm glad you brought this up. I am an atheistic pagan, and one of the reasons I stopped believing in God was the concept of hell. I actually had to decide that even if it was all true, I had to reject it, because no God who would be so cruel could be worth believing in.

My fundie childhood, however, has left me very scarred, with a constant fear of death and what might come after. It's absurd, because I don't believe in it with my rational mind, but it was so ingrained in me as a child, that it has been so far impossible to shake off the irrational fear. This thread gives me some hope, being reminded that there are people all along the spectrum of belief who have rejected this sadistic notion.