Considering how many other of your posts are about God, I'll just take a wild shot in the dark to guess what this post is trying to say...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You seem to NW posts just because they talk about religion.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

If a person spends wants to live their life without God, why would they want to spend eternity with him? That would be tortuous for them. Unfortunately, the only other option is a terrible place.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You are correct. I would hate to spend eternity with an egotistical, unforgiving God. I could never enjoy eternal life knowing that my God is torturing billions for eternity. That's irrelevant to the post, though. It's pinpointing a disconnect in Christian logic. If I put the post into the situational context of Hitler and the Holocaust, every single sane person would agree to it. When put in the context of God and Hell, however, many Christians would disagree...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Before I write my response to this, I just want you to know that I have no intention of trying to convert you. I love talking about subjects like this, but I hate coming across as a bible-thumping Christian. The difference between Hell and the Holocaust is that the victims of the Holocaust did not choose to be tortured in concentration camps. Those who are in hell, however, did choose to be there in one form or another. God offers two options for admittance to heaven: live a life free from sin or accept him as the one true God who sent his son Jesus to ... that's it. Now, many of the people in Hell thought that they were good enough to get into Heaven based off works alone, but they had all committed sin in one form or another and were subsequently denied the joys of heaven. In thinking that they were righteous enough to get into heaven, they committed another sin of arrogance. Now, this begs the question, what about the people who were alive before Jesus? That is what Judaism was for. I can go on about the intricacies of sacrifice, but that might get a tad preachy. Another question raised: What about distant tribes in Brazil who haven't heard anything about Christianity or G...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

*god? I do not claim to know everything about Theology and the answers I have heard to that question raise many more questions than answers, so I can not bring myself to give a mediocre answer to this question .

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I appreciate that notion. Nor shall I try to convert you. I am not interested in debating existence and non-existence, only righteousness and unrighteousness. About the idea that people choose their eternal destiny: God created His justice system, the Devil, Hell, and everyone who goes there, knowing they would suffer. He can change or eliminate all of that at any moment, but chooses not to. Why? Most Christians would say "because He gave us free will." This is true, however, God can change His system of divine justice without interfering with free will. He can allow us to do whatever we want and have a more lenient judgment -- one that would be expected from a supposedly omnibenevolent being. Summarized: yes, we choose our eternal fate, but our eternal fate is determined unfairly and God refuses to make it fair.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That is a seemingly fair system of justice; however, God's nature cannot allow it. God is perfect and sin cannot be in his presence. Now, those who have accepted Jesus' as their high priest would be considered washed clean while those who haven't would still stained with sin and could not be in God's presence (Heaven). God does not delight in sending people to hell, but the only way to keep everyone from hell would be to eliminate free will. As to the point about leniency... Hell can take a number of terrible forms. Everyone there can be punished equally or it could be like Dante's version of hell. No one can answer this question and we can only theorize. I personally think of Hell as something like Dante's version. Why? Because, since everyone in hell thought that they could get into heaven via works, the severity of their punishment will be determined by how righteous they were in their earthly lives. But this is just one man's theory.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It is not fair and here's why: it is an infinite penalty for a finite crime. If that's divine justice, then Morgan Freeman is a little girl playing hopscotch. And, no, eliminating free will is not the only way to keep everyone from hell. He could, you know, absolve everyone... since He's all-loving and all-forgiving. But how will anyone learn?! Fine, then create a fair penalty... maybe force someone to endure all the wrongdoing they have done to others in their life before they can enter Heaven.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm voting all this shit up because I enjoyed reading this conversation.

by Anonymous 12 years ago