Saturday, April 17, 2021

The Horrifying History of Hell

I don't share this with many people because I don't want to create conflict over religion.

From what I can tell from my studies more than 40 years ago, the Bible hardly mentions Hell.  There is a parable by Jesus, and a brief reference in the Book of Revelations to the Lake of Fire saying that the Devil will be cast into it.  The concept of Hell doesn't seem to be part of the Old Testament religion, and the Bible never refers to it as Hell nor does it say that people will go there for all eternity.  The belief in Hell is more due to tradition, and many concepts found in Abrahamic religions seem to have been influenced by their Middle Eastern neighbors, like the Egyptians, the Persians, and the Babylonians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNh6UWTG5YY

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Amish Facts: These Amazing Facts Will Teach You More About Their Culture

https://definition.org/amazing-facts-amish-will-make-appreciate-culture/22/

According to this article, the Amish population in the United States has increased rather dramatically to about 300,000.  I find this number surprising because it means that roughly one in a thousand people in the United States is of the Amish faith.  

There is or was a community of Amish people living somewhere between Scottsburg and Salem, Indiana.  I was born in Salem.  When I lived in Scottsburg back in the 1980s, I saw some of them in a buggy while driving to Salem, even though I didn't take that trip very often.  I would on rare occasion see a few of them in Scottsburg, and I met and talked with an Amish young man in the mid-1980s.   My impression of him was not very favorable.  He seemed to me to be remarkably ignorant, but I assume that his faith does not encourage knowledge beyond what he needs for life in his community.  Because of this, I feel like his faith is repressive, although he no doubt chooses that lifestyle.