The Evil One

The doctrine of hell is bizarre because there is absolutely no logical reason to punish dead people like this. Human society allot punishments to crime in an attempt to (a) prevent reoffending and (b) deter others from crime. But in Hell, the punishment can't prevent reoffending (because everyone there is dead) and can't deter others (because Hell is imperceptible to the living). So it seems like God is inflicting punishment without any of the justifications that human beings have for inflicting punishment. That constitutes sadism.

EarlOfLade

How about everything related to Hell?

It's a biblical fantasy and not a real place and nobody ends up there when they die. Death is final.

Gooch's dad

non_existence, your entire response to MadMez was a non-sequitur. You berate him for supposedly claiming that his distaste for the concept of hell is somehow evidence that hell doesn't exist.

Nowhere did he claim that. Nor did the OP ask whether hell exists or not, simply what people object to, regarding the concept of hell. And MadMez responded to that very question.

My main objection to the concept of hell is that it posits an eternal and therefore infinite punishment for a finite "sin" of unbelief, if it can even be called a sin. When combined with the doctrine of divine hiddenness, it is especially ludicrous.

Then there are the practical objections--how can someone punish a dead person? There is no evidence whatsoever that any consciousness survives the death of the body, and a huge body ( ) of evidence that consciousness cannot survive the death of the body.

So there's nothing left to torture.

WishboneDawn

Obviously you're someone who's never had to sit through Enterprise reruns with your husband.

EarlOfLade

And this is in line with you comment in my poker thread I see. You are pretty good at what you accuse me of.

fromdownunder

My essential objection is that God has totally refused to clearly explain the rules, has changed them over time and has not given everybody who ever lived an equal opportunity to accept, reject or even know what His rules are.

So, with only 33% of the world being Christian, and this percentage broken up into well over 30,000 different sects of Christianity alone, he is not an equal opportunity god.

A totally arbitrary condemnation to Hell, based on time and place of birth, lifespan, lifestyle, and (perhaps) last second conversion or refutation strikes me as a pretty poor decision making process from an immortal omnipotent being.

Norm

Jabu Khan

Personally I think eternl life period would be evil.

purple_kathryn

I'm baffled that my friend has managed to justify the existance of hell (in her beliefs) by saying that god is "beyond human understanding" and to find hell replusive is me "putting human emotions on something that isn't human" - but then why is he/she/it punishing people for doing "wrong" in the first place?!

Then her mother doesn't believe in the existance of hell but still thinks I should believe "just in case". Just in case of what?!

Unbeatable

I don't see the "beyond human understanding" argument as a justification. It's more like a fancy way to say that you shouldn't really think about it and should just accept what you're told.

EarlOfLade

If it is "beyond human understanding" how can she say anything at all about it? Isn't that a pretty clear contradiction?