My thoughts on Hell

I don't believe in Hell.
And like many other aspects of Christianity, I think that hell simply doesn't make sense.

For what purpose, would the creator of every living soul see fit to punish the majority of living souls that ever existed, eternally, for the crime of not believing in him.
Unless the creator of everything was the epitomy of evil.

Conversely, if hell does not exist, then why worship god?

I think if god did exist, and did condemn souls to eternal damnation... I believe the whole concept of eternal damnation is a test. Those who fall for Pascal's Wager and worship out of fear of punishment, will have shown themselves to be morally weak and be punished as a result. Those like myself who honestly don't believe through sheer lack of evidence, have committed no crime and will not be punished.

That is of course, assuming god exists, which I do not believe is so.

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[benf89]

Also if there was a god I doubt he would be such a hard ass that he would punish those who didn't believe in him, I imagine him to be more tolerant and forgiving then that. If he had of wanted complete devotion he could have made that as natural to us as breathing but instead we have the choice.

[sapperbloggs]

I think that if there was a god, he wouldn't give a shit in the slightest what we do. I honestly don't. When you consider how insignificant we are within our own galaxy, and how many galaxies exist, we are so infinitely insignificant that I doubt the entity that created all that would even be aware we existed, let alone care what we do.

If anything, we'd be something of interest for him to observe, kind of like growing bacteria in a dish.

[LovinLiving]

You're totally right, hell is not a punishment, it is simply a place away from God.

God gave us free will. We choose in this life weather or not we want to be with him using that free will. When we die God will know what we chose. if we want to be with him he'll let us go to him. If we don't want to be with him he won't force us to spend all of eternety with him.

God does not force us to do anything. We are called to love god but he wont make us. Forced love is not love at all.

[phalyard]

Don't smack any dog - do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Phillip

[1GOD1JESUS]

your one smart cookie, youve hit the nail on the head AGAIN!

[Logicbeatslies]

Get close to god - be an atheist. Jesus would be smiling.

[TheVeganicWitch]

I'm sure there is someone out there who can make all those paths compatible in their minds :-)

[sapperbloggs]

If god is omniscient, Pascal's wager fails. You can fake actions, but you can't fake thoughts.

Pascal's wager also fails as it assumes there is only one choice of religion. Given the vast number of religions both past and present, and the variations within these religions... which one does Pascal suggest we follow? To be safe, you'd have to worship them all.

I'd love to meet someone who was a Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, Hindu.

[TheVeganicWitch]

...to argue from faith. I wasn't, the argument just doesn't make sense against an omniscient God who can read your thoughts. It's fucking obvious! Stupid tutor, it obviously wasn't the essay he was looking for!

[TheVeganicWitch]

We're all going to Hell, Sapper, all that really means if you can go by the name is a hole in the ground, at the most mystical it would mean 'the underworld'. But even the underworld isn't somewhere to be that scared of. The catholic church has made a statement that there is no hell.

I made the same argument in a philosophy paper I wrote on pascals wager, showing references from the Bible proving that Yahweh wouldn't be fooled by such trickery. I got a low pass, and a comment telling me not ...

[TheVeganicWitch]

Right on Sapper! I couldn't agree more :-)

[benf89]

It would be funny if that was what they found out when they died.

Though I think more likely that if there is a god that it would either not really fuss over us (afterall he does have alot of creations to tend to) or he would be good. I just can't see why something evil would bother creating us in the first place, surely non-existence is the worst thing, just seems like unneeded effort really. Its more likely the Christian view of God is flawed than the idea that he is evil (if Gods exists)