[jimktrains2]

Is it nicer than the alternative? Many people are perfectly ok with death being the end. Many people don't need some affirmation of themselves or others to believe in.

Also, wishing for the unending torture for someone who's slighted you is a very non-christian, non-most-religeons way of thinking.

[SlowRobotAhead]

>Also, wishing for the unending torture for someone who's slighted you is a very non-christian, non-most-religeons way of thinking.

You know it’s pretty much a key tenant of Christianity to pray for the souls of those that have harmed you or others right?

[logfromblammo]

Is it necessary to observe the tenets of Christianity to call oneself a Christian? Anecdotally, I find little evidence for it. People mostly use their religion to validate their pre-existing lifestyles, not to redesign them.

Imagining a torment for someone who has wronged you is a rather effective method of ablating away the desire to enact revenge physically. It also leaves more room for ironic and humorous punishments.

"Dear theological construct, please take mercy on this guy who cut me off in traffic after driving on the hard shoulder to pass a bunch of stopped cars, and do not send him to a punishment in Hell wherein other cars are freely zooming around on the highway, while his is perpetually boxed in by semis and garbage trucks. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Amen."

[jimktrains2]

My understanding is that that's only Catholics and, only for those in purgatory. However, it's never been clear to my why the petitions help the person.

[dragonwriter]

> My understanding is that that's only Catholics

No, it mostly just some subset of Protestants that reject it (the practice is common, as well as in Roman Catholicism and some Protestant communities, in the Eastern and Oriental [despite etymological similarity, these are not synonyms] Orthodox Churches, and, apparently, the Assyrian Church of the East.)

> and, only for those in purgatory.

It's true that in the Catholic tradition, there is a special connection between prayers for the dead and purgatory (arguably, purgatory as a doctrine is a Catholic explanation for the ancient Christian practice of prayers for the dead.)