ETarte--My Letter to the Editor

[dingodavid]

Hell = Cruel and unusual punishment.

It appears to have no redemptive or remedial qualities or intentions whatsoever.

[ThSkBj]

The Norwegian State Church has abolished hell. :P I guess that the doctrine of hell didn't sit well with 80% of the members of the church. That's the percentage of the members who don't attend church regularly and I bet that a big portion of them are non-religious.

[untestableClaims]

Mr. Tarte is a fabulous philosopher and logician.

[TharosTheDragon]

I'm not so sure torture is immoral in cases where it's needed to extract information that saves people's lives. After all, the person could elect not to be tortured by simply giving up the information.

In the case of torture just as a punishment, yeah I would call that immoral.

Good video, Edward. You're very inspiring. And man do those Christians writing to the paper make me mad.

[yookayman]

I've never thought of this before: an infinite punishment for a finite crime. Very well argued.

[Snackar]

You have a set of brass one Mr Tarte! I'll pray for you. ;)

But seriously, great video and letter. Hope it makes some people stop and actually think about what they're saying for a change. Maybe they will see the absurdity of it all, maybe not. However, the big change can't happen until the little change happens.

[limpdogg]

I like the video, however, your choice of the word "extreme" should be replaced by the word "infinitely." ;)

[edwardtarte]

@limpdogg, I was trying to choose my words carefully in order to maximize my chances for the letter to be printed. In use 'infiinitely' in my videos.

[jaspikesu]

Bravo Mr. Tarte! Inspiring as usual. 666 views. Sweet!

[AmericanGayAtheist]

Ed, great video as always. Glad to see you fight the delusional believers. I can't imagine how difficult and uphill a climb you have but good luck. At least some of the individuals with reasoning power may see the truth!

[mythicalhell]

Rock on Edward!!

[truvelocity]

Very polite and logical. I really liked your response.

[DarthMocha]

Good work Mr. Tarte! Though I admit, I expected you to be a bit more vicious with the letter (because hell is a vicious insult to humanity), but I still think they'll get your point well enough.

[atdponch]

Is this in the observer? I would love to chime in.

[edwardtarte]

@atdponch, yes. Email to observereditor (at) hcnonline (dot) com.

[edwardtarte]

@atdponch, best chance: keep it short and to the point.

[edwardtarte]

@PitterPatty, thanks so much for your comment. i used to have a closeup picture of me celebrating my first Solemn Mass a few days after I was ordained a priest. But many years ago I looked at that picture and was so disgusted that I threw it away. I do not have any pictures of that part of my life.

[ishtarian]

Bravo, Mr. Tarte. I like the variety of approaches I have seen from the freethinking community here, and I admire your honesty and courage in taking such steps. Here's hoping this turns into a fruitful dialogue which gets some people actually THINKING about their beliefs. Best wishes to you in your endeavors, and by all means, keep the videos coming....

[youngn420]

Hell does exist, it exists on earth, many unfortunate people suffer in this life and their lives are a living hell. Unfortunately its not the doing of some god or devil its our own doing to ourselves. Other than that people who have had a near death experience sometimes experience a place in their mind and refer it to "hell" or "heaven" and even sometimes in between. Thats caused by the persons own consciousness and the brains release of a chemical known as N,N DMT. There is no real evidence

[thebigJ1er]

Unfortunately that poor woman has been indoctrinated. She "knows" Hell exists, and she "knows" God is loving. She also "knows" God created Hell. Therefore, in her mind, God created Hell out of love.

Sadly, it is easier for an indoctrinated person to believe an oxymoron like this is true, than to contemplate the idea that they may be wrong.

This part of human nature frightens me.

[WisdomVendor]

Edward, if you are headed to hell, then so am I, and I hope we get to hang out together some while we are there. :)

[SiriusMined]

Bravo, Edward.

Excellent work as always.

[farvision]

Ed: Excellent letter! Google:

"give me evidence" edward tarte

it's the first link of only two!

I suggest you put the link to it in the comments.

Also, you might consider an Atheists meetup meeting

at some point (just google for 'meetup').

[AssilemakaMelissa]

I imagine some sweet lil ol Grandmotherly type writing that with a sweet lil ol smile on her face and believing every word of it but if she were asked what she thought of a man who created a concentration camp that housed humans who did not agree with him and tortured them there untill they died...she would say he was pure evil. I always say how amazing it is that the mind can have totally opposing beliefs at once.

[AnUglyAmerican]

now that is some double think

[citizen762]

That was about the lamest explanation of hell I've ever came across. Its literally unbelievable that people can teach such idiocy with a straight face.

If eternal torment is the expression of god's compassion towards unbelievers, then he must have been oozing with unrestrained love while he was killing children in the bible.

[kaxitaksi]

Heaven or hell is a mindset.. nothing more.

[urz14me]

Great job Mr. Tarte! Your forthright approach is amazingly refreshing and an inspiration. The mental gymnastics that some religious people go through is simply amazing, a total suspension of reality.

[ScaryGuy255]

That was a well written response. I hope you find a few others in your community who identify with you through your actions.

[gamutman]

I also write letters to the editor on various topics (not all of them religious.) Just last week I wrote one correcting the pope's comments about secularism and atheism, blaming Hitler's imagined godless goals for the holocaust. It does spur conversations.

[lukeism2]

nice work ed

[SuperAtheist]

I'm surprised they let you plug your youtube channel.

[akikarvonen]

You have ridiculously too few subscribers!

[photodube]

I love that your letter is reasoned and factual. Fundies never know how to respond to that. 

[Azurerosa]

...What is that lady smoking?! Whatever it is it seems to completely shut down brain function.

[SuperTwit]

Ed you're very brave, you may lose students and friends but you know this already, cheers and keep up the brave fight.

[thefusilier1000]

Well done.

[Noisegator]

Good work, Edward. It is important to engage theist prejudice, threats and nonsense at every turn. I find it hard to believe that there are still communities, even states, where atheism is a bar to serving in elected office.

[gskowal]

Christians that spew illogical nonsense like this lady are just purely dumb.

[jpc08109]

I would place money that the person who wrote the letter you are refereing to knows nothing about the religion she follows, as the recent Pew report mentioned atheists and agnostics know more about religion than the followers of the faith, blindly following what is heard from the preachers at the pulpit

[cmxcmx]

Good luck Edward, I'm sure you'll enjoy most of the debate :)

[STFUNOWlol]

Get 'em, Tarte!

[fractal420]

AWESOME!

[PinkYui16]

Very nice job Edward. Amazing that you got it published.

[kleenex3000]

Greetings from Germany.

From an apostate (since just 1.5 Y) former Roman-Catholic.

I submit my highest Compliments to you:

Best presentation of EVIDENCE ever through APPLYING a RATIONAL mind.

As indicated earlier - inspired by YOUR statement about the NUMBER of G-Ds:

There might be 1000s of heavenly Fathers and Mothers.

SCRIPTURE describes the fantasies of medieval people ABOUT one G-D exploiting the principle of HOPE and FEAR - rather than detailing any property of a creator GENIUS.

[simsi1616]

I really admire all the proactive methods you are employing in order to reach out to your community. Good for you Edward, more atheists should follow in your footsteps.

What really strikes me about that lady's letter on hell was how much it resembled some of the things that satiric Pastor Cody said about babies going to hell....I swear sometimes it's impossible to distinguish satire from what these religious folk really believe.

[ablanchi]

good on ya mate!

[bowlsallbroken]

Congrats on getting your letter published.

I suggest that if anyone steps up to further argue for Hell's supposed creation being an act of compassion that you point out that horrible, tortuous punishment done outside of the context of rehabilitation, such as in the case of a dead person who will never be alive again and therefor will be able to commit neither good *nor* evil acts again, is petty, cruel, and entirely unfitting for an omnibenevolent being.

[iversonmatthew]

Congratz Mr. Tarte. You have a message that is worthy of publication! WTG!

[Spahrep]

Thanks for all your hard work trying to bring us truly into the age of enlightenment!

[MindAndMarzipan]

You made my day, Edward. Thank you for your work.

[mistre2me]

Congrats on getting your letter put in the paper. Hope there isn't the backlash that you predict..

[pilgrimpater]

Edward, i was obliged to respond to my local paper when a Creationist (yes we are plagued in the UK as well) wrote a letter at the time of 150th anniversary of the Orgin of species. I had to reply because the writer made so many untruthsabout evolution that the lettere had to be addressed. I am still in dialgue via the letters page but it is not a good medium. Due to space constraints letters are not always included and when they are they can be heavily edited.

[Diasanti]

Good for you. I wish I had in intestinal fortitude to do such a thing.

[WarmWeatherGuy]

They want us to respect their belief that we will burn in hell forever, and that we deserve it. I don't see that happening any time soon.

[DLandonCole]

Well said.

[Nhurm]

Giv'em Hell Edward...

[mythicalhell]

@Nhurm Love your play on words lol

[melonade1972]

Awesome!! Thank you so much for making people notice.

[gronkar66]

Congrats and well done :-)

[govcolin]

well done edward, way to open up a dialogue.

[paleosmoker]

Way to go Edward!

[tecnoblix]

You continue to give me hope that others like yourself will have the strength to stand their ground and call bull shit where ever they see it. Well done!

[rage4reason]

I think having the conversation in a public forum is great. If I had encountered the arguments of atheists and agnostics I may have come out of religion sooner. Good job!