Thankfulness

Hey, what else could I be feeling?  I get into frequent conversations with religious folks, and one of the issues that frequently comes up is Hell: does it exist and, if so, why?  And the responses have been, as you might imagine, varied.

At one extreme, Hell not only didn't exist but was against orthodoxy.
At the other, not only did Hell exist, but only a very few people could avoid it.

In between was the belief that Hell was the extermination of consciousness; the waiting room for Heaven, but without God's presence; the last effort by God to convert unbelievers; and most popularly, an eternity of torment a la Dante.

Unsurprisingly, the milder versions have been promoted by people who I was talking to in person, while more extreme versions has been pushed by folks online, that have little chance of meeting me.  This is the same tactic most trolls take, which gives one pause to think about the potential validity of their views.

So call me thankful for a documentary made by Christian Kevin Miller called Hellbound? (that includes the question mark).  It is a study of what Hell means to various people around the world, but sticking to the Christian theology.  Obviously, he is pushing his own point of view, but it is an idea that stirs up a LOT of negative commentary from the hard core evangelicals, if not from the hard core metal heads.

This should be fun!