DEAR ATHEISTS, I Love Ya!

If you're an atheist, I adore you! You're one of the few on the planet who's had the courage to challenge the Father.

But can you challenge him like this? Look up to heaven and say, "God, put me in hell right now. I'm ready to go." (Since you don't believe in God or hell, this should be easy. Try it now. Before you read on) ....

... So, did you have to stop and think, first? Hesitate at all? Sweat a little?

Here's the thing: I suspect that many of us are still operating under some pretty nasty God-the-father precepts.

Did you know that "hell" is just one of scores of concepts that the early Christian fathers stole from pre-Christian religions, and then twisted 180 degrees into something bizarre? "Hel" was originally a pre-Christian volcano goddess, to whose warm womb we all returned after death.

"Though Christian theology gave its underworld the name of the Goddess Hel, it was quite a different place from her womb of regeneration. The ancients didn't view the underworld as primarily a place of punishment. It was dark, mysterious, and awesome, but not the vast torture chamber Christians made of it" (Barbara Walker, 1983, The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Harper & Row, p. 383).

Here's a site about the Godfather's hell.

Did you try the experiment? What happened?

Please comment. Leave your footprints in the sands of blogdom.