I'd hope we'd all be mature enough to share, respect and not tear others to pieces:
there's enough of that going on already.....

We are all "free" to believe ,share opinions,thoughts,dreams,ideas.....it doesn't bother me one bit if someone doesn't believe as I do....it's ok,really!

As long as it's kept respectful and not hurting others...

Hello, I voted for answer three and just allow me to say that I am a Christian, hiowever I am highly interested in learning about all the other religions so I can be more knowledgeable and more open to others. I do not want to debate about what religion is better, but rather gain insight. I hope that you do not mind me posting this.

Exactly.

General Religion- In this forum, ANYONE of any belief system (or lack there of) can post and begin threads freely. It is observable to all. The assumption that is made here is that anything that you post or any threads that you begin can and will become the subject of debate, civil and controlled argument or confrontation. Christians will NOT be permitted to begin threads for the sole purpose of proselytizing or with the assumption that "Christianity is the only path".

Christian forum-In this forum Christians are allowed to post WHATEVER they want. They can proselytize until the cows come home. It’s a forum for Christian views and beliefs. The assumption that a Christian can make is when they post in this forum it will be observable to other Christians and Catholics.

The two SHALL not meet. This addresses your concern that you do not want to feel preached to or attacked by Evangelicals. They CAN NOT do that in the General Religion forum and any threads that are made to "praise the lord" or anything that assumes Christianity is the "one true path" will be moved back over to the Christian forum where it needs to stay. That poster will be warned also. They are only allowed to do that once before suspensions start happening.

I do not fit into the mainstream anymore. A lot of people are stuck being a drone following a man on a pulpit instead of the the actual word, and ancient teachings. Too bad they are missing out on deep and mystical things.

That really stands out among the posts....

Ty fer lettin me post...

just lookin...

Privileged because i can post anywhere, and chosen because, well i just am.

Privileged? On this site it's all about what label you choose, personally I wouldn't consider that a 'privilege'.

And chosen for what?

Thank you freshprincess, I love to hear of the divers ways of expressing spirituality, and one of my favorite types of expression comes from Santeria, have been blessed in attending,
dancing in, and feeling totally accepted as a potential Yahvo, or initiate to become a priestess, love the music and dancing and the evidence of infilling of spirit!

acting_out being the typical fundie arsehole

And what of the countless masses who lived and died before Jesus? Are they banished to Hell for the egregious "sin" of not being alive at the proper time?!

Where did the Christian concept of hell come from?

A number of distinct words and concepts in the original Hebrew and Greek that the Bible was written in were all translated into the single English word hell, from the Teutonic word ‘hel’ which meant ‘to cover’ and later was the name of the Norse goddess of the underworld and later of the underworld itself. In Middle English the word “hell” meant merely to cover or conceal and was thus a fitting translation for what was called Hades in Greek and Sheol in Hebrew. It only came to refer exclusively to a place of eternal torment in the English language later.

Sheol
This is the word in the original Hebrew that is sometimes translated as hell. Judaism did not originally have an idea of an immortal soul that survived death—this was a pagan concept. The original Jewish belief was one of “ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” Although Sheol later evolved into a type of shadowy afterlife in some circles influenced by Greek spirituality, originally the term Sheol meant merely the grave. The good and bad alike go here. The King James Version of the Bible translates the “Old Testament” word Sheol 31 times as hell, 31 times as grave, and 3 times as pit. While it evolved to serve different purposes, in its original context the word refers to the state of nonexistence in death.

Hades
Whereas the “Old Testament”—the Jewish Bible—was written in Hebrew, the “New Testament” was written in Greek, and Hades is the Greek word used for Sheol—the grave. This word, which means “unseen” (the Greek god of the underworld, Hades, had a helmet that made him invisible), again describes the state of being dead and in the ground—although by the time of the “New Testament” the Greek shadowy underworld concept had become more accepted in certain segments of the Jewish culture. (http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/Lazarus-byHuie.htm).

Tartaros
In 2 Pet. 2:4 this word is used to describe a place where angels, not human beings, that have sinned are temporarily imprisoned. This is a reference to certain apocryphal works that describe “watcher angels” rebelling and being chastised. In Greek mythology Tartaros is the place where the titans are kept after they lose the battle with the gods.

Gehenna
This word is used by Jesus to reference a physical (not ethereal) and specific (not abstract) garbage dump in the southwest of Jerusalem where the physical bodies (not ethereal spirits) of criminals were disposed of and cremated in flames instead of being given an honorable burial (since the Jews didn’t believe in a soul separate from the physical body, this was the equivalent of destroying the soul, since without a corpse the individual could not be resurrected). When Jesus says hell in contexts such as "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33) Gehenna is the word actually used.

You know I really appreciate that because I'm sorry I just wanted to nip in the bud what I feel would eventually come from that, but I check profiles and I'm sure the person I responded too, is a wonderful person but on the other hand, that's not the point, the point is, I have many times simply lurked too afraid to say what I need to cuz I feel I will be pounced upon , and the whole point of the subject of this thread, is should Christians be allowed to post in here, case in point, so where do I go???? To avoid that Daniel? I'll say it again, when I go into the smoking lounge I sure don't even risk the threat of that in there.I really don't want to be exclusive as Jesus himself was all inclusive, but this is not where it was at, then.if ( and it seems crazy to me as Jesus is the man, one of the many acended ones, was not enoch as well,who were said to be transported directly to God?and I'm calling others those Christians, when even tho I'm very universal, probably lean toward gnostisim,and who thinks this Jesus is not important to me, who says the way I express my spirituality is wrong, they do, every chance they get to evangelize me. Other religions is supposed to be a place for me, free of that, and it's not! I don't care about going in their thread, why should they care so much to come in here knowing it's gonna cause conflict.

Yeah, that's more and more where I'm leaning lately. I thought we could all be civil and there are still a few cool Christians who post here, but damn the preaching in every single thread is getting irritating! If they need to express their faith, that's what the Christian group is for.

I know that some of them intentionally want to disrupt our threads. When I was a Christian I knew several so-called "Christians" who did exactly things like that.


Oh well, again, there's nothing we can do about it but keep saying we want our own group.