text: is this an american thing? i have been lucky enough to live and experience different cultures, i have lived in germany, italy, france, spain, holland and united states. while living in europe i have never meet anyone,not even religious people,   telling me if i did not believe or practice christianity i would  burn in hell .please do not take this as an offence, i am very serious, while here in the states i keep hearing , especially looking at so many posts on yahoo, that if you are not christian you will burn in hell for the eternity. i have hard time understanding, is this an american thing? i can  assure you when i did mention this to my european friends they were laughing about it. i am not trying to offend anyone i am being very honest. i also do not think using threats of hell is very productive, if your intent is to show love to another human being saying to convert or end up in hell does not seem very loving to me. in any case, i am puzzled by the fact that while living in europe no one has ever said that to me. i cannot comprehend why do people say such a thing in the  states. i suppose it comes from our "puritan" roots.  the first pilgrims to come here (european, mainly english anyway) came with the intent of setting up religious communities.  that is where we get the idea of freedom of religion- because they were escaping persecution in europe- but in reality their rules were every bit as (if not more so) religiously tyrannical than where they came from.  i guess that rather than dying out through the years, the idea that "our way is the only way and you can go to hell if you don't follow us" has continued and in some ways grown.