ExMachina1 Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 This has bothered me and a comment today brought me over the edge. When I was Christian, I was plagued by the thought of my unsaved loved ones going to hell. But of course, it never of occurred to me what kind of loving God would even create a hell. Now, I am more content with nonexistence. But today I talked to a christian friend and asked them how they felt about their friends and family going to hell, and she replied with essentially "well, i warned them and god gives us free will so..". How can anyone live everyday knowing their loved ones are bound for a fate of unending torture? Like, if you saw your friend driving down a route that led to the end of a cliff, would you not frantically try to stop them even if they didn't believe you? And EVEN if you couldnt stop them, wouldnt it destroy you emotionally? So, to think your friend/family is going to ETERNAL TORTURE/SUFFERING, would it not pain you every day? How could you live with yourself? The response seriously pissed me off and all it shows me is that Christians have developed a perfect wall around the immoral elements of their own ideology. Furthermore, how can you figure God loves anyone with a supposed infinite degree of love if he's okay with sending people to hell? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 The end of life isn't usually on someone's immediate plate. It's kind of a distant thing. I think that may be the difference between your comparison of someone headed for a cliff. It's an immediate danger. Burning in hell is far away in the future. I'm not sure I really ever took hell seriously as a Christian, either. Who would want to think about Jesus torching your heathen family when you'll be up in heaven singing praises to him forever and ever? Christians even deny Jesus being a prick about hell by saying, "Jesus doesn't send you to hell, you choose it yourself." Major denial there. Thinking rationally isn't really promoted in Christian circles and thoughts that cause dissonance can always be squashed down by praying to the Jebus. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike D Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 Christians come up with all kinds of crazy rationalizations to live in peace thinking that family/friends will be burning like a charcoal briquette in the deepest caverns of hell for all eternity. My favorite is "God doesn't send anyone to hell, we choose to go there of our own free will by rejecting Jesus!!!11!1". Ummm right. And I suppose ISIS/Islamic Jihadists don't blow up anyone, we choose to blow ourselves up of our own free will by rejecting Islam. There's so many problems with the doctrine of hell, the least of which is that the only way to void it (supposedly) is the ability to believe that bronze age mythology is true because it says it is. The longer I am out of Christianity the more I see how absurd it is. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator TheRedneckProfessor Posted August 27, 2016 Super Moderator Share Posted August 27, 2016 Hell represents a false dichotomy for me. Not only because there could be more than just the two options of heaven and hell; but because heaven and hell are the same option. If I remain true to my intellect, which is the most powerful and valuable tool I have at my disposal, then I have to reject the idea of a risen savior. If I embrace my integrity, which is the most powerful and valuable character trait I possess, then I have to honestly admit that I cannot truthfully make the claim that jesus is lord. I could say the words; but they would carry no more conviction for me than would the christian who said "there is no god but allah and mohammed is his prophe I am therefore bound for hell for being true to the two qualities that essentially make me who I am--my intellect and my integrity. Contrariwise, I could betray who I am, claim that jesus is lord, and go to "heaven". But this would mean spending eternity with a god who would have cast me into hell for being true to myself. This would mean worshiping a god who demanded that I betray the things I hold most dear in this life, the things at the very core of my existence. This would mean bowing at the feet of someone who used emotional, and intellectual, blackmail to gain from me a "love" and "respect" which he did not earn. For me, this prospect would be hell, for I would not only betray myself, but also be forced into submission to the one who betrayed me into betraying myself. Let the christians justify it however they will; but I would rather choose eternity in hell with myself, than accept eternity in hell with jesus. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinas Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Christians, I suspect, can live with themselves with this attitude of "it's their responsibility if they go to hell" because they see their own reaction to their loved ones' doom as nothing more than another aspect of the suffering that god demands of them. That's not a justification. Neither is it particularly rational. But it is an explanation. As to how they will be happy in their heaven of bliss with their children screaming in hell - I've heard Christians say "that's in god's hands". Presumably they are expecting some sort of divinely ordained eternal Alzheimers to ease the agony of their memories... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilith666 Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 I often wonder this myself. How do Christians go on with their daily lives knowing that millions of people, let alone one person, are going to suffer eternally for believing the wrong things? Why aren't they praying frantically and spending every spare second of their lives trying to convert people? After death, they'll have eternity to do what they want, but they leisurely eat meals, watch television, and go to sports games like everyone else. I think they see Heaven and Hell as abstract concepts, invisible, untouchable in any way, and so they feel detached from the whole thing. As much as they insist they take it seriously and go to church and cry while praying and everything else, they don't really see it as a threat, or at least not something that affects them. I also think they're distracted by the immediacy and presence of the other things they can do. Put in terms of a real-world analogy, right now there's ISIS and other nutcases plotting to destroy the world, there are people starving to death in third-world countries, little girls are being sold into marriage to old men, and militant cry-babies are taking over the US with the new social hierarchy and demands for restrictions for some people and special protected status for others. But here I am on this forum, coolly acknowledging these problems and wondering if I should get a Reddit account. We care about what affects us in the tangible now, and anything we can't see in the moment and isn't causing an immediate issue for us is far away, less important. It's the same with Christians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geezer Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Religion is based on the simple promise of a reward for being obedient & severe punishment for disobedience. Neither the promised rewarded or the threatened punishment can be verified as being real. Anything that would even remotely qualify as real evidence validates that neither the promised reward or the horrorifying punishment could possibly be true or real. Both the reward & punishment must be believed by faith another invention of religion. Faith commonly defined a belief without evidence requires the suspension of reality, common sense, and one's cognitive abilities. It also requires the "believer's" mind to be trained & controlled by other people. All in all It would seem to be an impossible task task to make any reasonably intelligent human being believe any of the nonsense taught or claimed by religion, but the numbers indicate it is actually quite an easy thing to do. And that is damn scary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangitbobby83 Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 Christians come up with all kinds of crazy rationalizations to live in peace thinking that family/friends will be burning like a charcoal briquette in the deepest caverns of hell for all eternity. My favorite is "God doesn't send anyone to hell, we choose to go there of our own free will by rejecting Jesus!!!11!1". Good ole' victim blaming. It's not the rapist fault for raping you - you chose to be raped by wearing that slightly tight shirt and shorts which showed off too much skin. It's not the thief's fault for stealing your car - you left it unlocked and running, that was your choice. It's not the thug's fault for nearly beating you to death - you shouldn't have went to get gas at that time of night. That's Christian logic for you. There is no crime, no sin a human being can commit that would justify an eternity of torture. And yet a loving god will send the average person there simply because they were born into the wrong culture (God's fault) and missed the boat on the exact right set of beliefs (Which can't be verified or proven, again, who's fault is that?). *snort* right. I used to get angry at christians for this sort of stuff. Now I just pity them. Such a wasted life on fairy tales. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjn Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 "But God is not only Infinitely Loving but also Infinitely Just and Infinitely Holy and His Ways Are Mysterious and beyond the ways of man". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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