Oracle Institute rejected in Virginia town

[Swatopluk]

Earth as hell and the body as soul trap* is essentially Gnostic heresy (favored by Platon btw).
St.Paul explicitly warns of this in connection with his condemnation of coerced** celibacy.

*Soma Sema (Greek: the body (is) a tomb)
**he was in favor of volontary celibacy though

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I've heard that they equate life with hell, actually. This seems tremendously tragic, as there is so much wonder in life.

Actually I do think that life on earth is a kind of hell for a significant portion of the population, and I think that is and argument against -not for- the general Xtian way of thinking; if many are in a living hell, where else can they go but up? The whole lake of fire, and eternal pain and suffering are just a hyperbole so that those who are living in pain and fear have something supposedly worse to fear.  The Xtian way of thinking ends up becoming a defender of the status quo: endure pseudo-hell now and you may be eligible for something better. The whole thing has been so easy to corrupt by those enjoying the status quo that I no longer see xtianity as a force for good, only tool for those in power to legitimize their position since the middle ages.

[pieces o nine]

The whole thing has been so easy to corrupt by those enjoying the status quo that I no longer see xtianity as a force for good, only tool for those in power to legitimize their position since the middle ages.

Despite all the good individuals self-identifying as Christian, I think you are right.   

[Opsa]

I've also noticed that not only some xtians upset when you mention any other religions, some are just as upset that you could possibly be happy in this world.

I know I've pissed some people off just be being happy.

This reminds me of a list of items someone sent me long ago (I wish i could find it!) that were sort of a joke about how "You May All Ready Be a Pagan"- and one of the items was "...And why are you so freakin' happy all the time?".

Happy people are harder to manipulate, it seems.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Many brands of Xtianity rely on guilt to do their thing (namely controlling the population). If you're not feeling guilty then there's something wrong with you*, besides it is completely unfair!

* there are perfectly valid reasons to feel levels of guilt (regardless of how healthy that is), but those are related to harm to others, not the regular Xtian way of dirty soul/original sin and related BS.