By Christianagnostic ~ More on the terrors of Hell visited upon my 8 year old imagination... S o there I was, mortally convinced that my destiny was Hell, with most nights of my vacation at the beach spent sleepless, and wondering if the devil was really red…. After our return from the beach, the fears of my future fate would drift to the background. I continued attending church, no further threats were made, and I graduated to a new Sunday School class with a teacher that was pretty fun (and no warts-at least none that he was willing to tell or show us). I began to figure that maybe, just maybe God knew that I was joking and that he would forgive me for my foolish utterance. Later that year, fall began to set in, nightfall started earlier….and I began to retreat to my room to listen to top 40 radio and read the Bible. I came across a verse in which Jesus says that many sins will be forgiven, but that those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit would never be forgiven. The unpardon...

By Christian Agnostic ~ I was raised in an Evangelical Presbyterian Church in the Northeast. At age 8, my Sunday School teacher (who was a very sweet grandmotherly type) told us all about heaven. How wonderful it was, how we would never get hurt or die again (pretty good news for someone who regularly skinned their knees at recess) and that God loved us and wanted us all to be there when we died. She told us in a sweet loving tone, that all we needed to do was accept God's gift, his son Jesus, and the fact that Jesus had died on a cross so that all my sins would be forgiven (like the time I threw rocks at passing cars-that is until we threw some at a cop car-oh and the other time my cousin and I decided to stand on the corner and moon people-yeah-I had a lot to be forgiven for...). Next she quietly sealed the deal by telling us to repeat a prayer that would let God know that we wanted this gift and to have eternal life. I quietly repeated every word of that prayer, and meant i...