inquisitive01

Nice try, but rather silly. I was referring to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how naming the day "Easter" does not disprove the existence of the Resurrection... just as naming a planet "Venus" does not disprove it's existence.




Unless this is somehow related to the Resurrection (if so, simply prove it), I'm not sure what your point is. :huh:

post tenebras lux

Possibily because certain people use the threat of "punishment for eternity in hell" to try and get other people to believe, or to continue to believe.

The fact that through the ages different theists and theistic organisations have held widely varying ideas as to what this "hell" is, does cause some to speculate as to whether the idea came from an infallable unchanging God (should be an unchanging idea surely) or from the minds of petty mortal men (would explain why the concept changes with the fashion) who were "Just making things up? :huh:".

Personally (and pending a good reason why God forgot to mention hell and damnation to Moses), I think they were just making it up.

Luxie

Magus55

No I don't believe you kill the soul for eternity. But you do end their mortal life for eternity, and possibly seal their eternal fate for them. If you murder someone who hasn't yet been saved, you've just sent them to hell for eternity. Thats a pretty big consequence of your actions if you ask me.

Magus55

Or it just shows that Hell is a big and controversial issue, and everyone has different opinions on it.

Mageth

Umm, how could I "send" anyone to Hell? I thought you were of the opinion that people "choose" to go to hell, choose to be separated by God for all eternity, something along those lines. IOW, the responsibility for their fate lies in their hands, not in God's hands or in anyone else's hands.

Heathen Dawn

This is my problem with those, religions like Christianity and Islam, that set up a dead(literally)line for salvation. “Tomorrow will be too late” is what we often hear on the radio—“we bring you this limited-time offer for free! Don’t delay, call today!” I cannot believe God, who took thousands of millions of years easily until His first worshippers finally evolved, could be of such limited patience as to terminate all mercy to people upon their death. No, this is “human, all too human.”—the marks of invention by human politicians are all too easy to see.

Jeremy Pallant

Why? I mean, all you have to do is ask your god and surely he'll sort out the controversy for you?

Magus55

Thats correct, but we don't know whether that person would have changed their mind, in which case by killing them, you prevented any chance of that happening.

Magus55

Don't you think it takes away the whole point of trust, faith and belief to be able to decide after death? Whats the point of Earth then? You think it makes sense for someone to be able to spend their entire Earthly life as a complete jerk, sinning every chance they get, not giving a crap about anyone else, saying what a monster God is and how they want nothing to do with Him - and then they die, stand before Him, and now they get to say, oh since I now know you're real, let me in Heaven cause I believe k?

There is no point in holding any value to our time on Earth if you can do any rotten crap you want without any inner change, and still get into Heaven after you know for a fact if you don't believe you go to Hell. I think that would be an absurd system. Put some thought into the implications of being able to choose your fate after being 100% positive of it, regardless of your actions on Earth and explain how that is a better system.

Jehanne

Case in point – the present Pope (John Paul II) is a universalist. He believes that hell exists but that it may be empty of human beings. Quite a contrast to the Popes (and theologians) of the Middle Ages who saw nearly everyone as ending-up in hell. Same is true of purgatory. During the Middle Ages, purgatory was viewed as being on the “outskirts� of hell, now it is viewed as being some cosmic “waiting room�. My point is that Western religion, in general, and Catholicism, in particular, is undergoing a “theological evolution� driven by the market forces of “supply and demand�. Its Catholics underlying beliefs that determine what the Catholic Church teaches and not some unchanging “Deposit of Faith� that Jesus gave to his friends. One might as well believe in little “pink unicorns�. :Cheeky: