It's the same phenomenon between believers who hold diametrically opposed beliefs. Mainstream religion has turned into nothing but a chain of abusive people. I was talking with my brother last night and he told me he was in a public bathroom and started reading some readily available religious literature that had been put there. He said the first paragraph was about how the reader was on a path straight to eternal torture in hell. What this is going to do is start a fight with people who don't believe in hellfire or don't believe it's so easy to "be on that path to hell."
The Judgment of Satan
Revelation 20 - 7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth —Gog and Magog —and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
The Judgment of the Dead
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
In Revelation 20 we have this scene where the forces of righteousness have won the Last Battle and get to vanquish evil. The Beast and the False Prophet are immediately thrown into the lake of the fire to be tortured forever, there is no hope for them. However after that the entirety of humanity is judged according to their deeds. If they have too many bad deeds, likely of a similar vein to the Beast and False Prophet (who were just cast into the fire), their name will not be located in the Book of Life and therefore cast into the fire too. This implies that your name starts in the Book and then can be taken out upon too many bad deeds. It's a Manifest of Righteousness.
For reasons of an arrogant and presumptuous nature many churches tell people that they are NOT in the Book of Life, as if they have information that isn't available to the public about how to tell. Even though being in the Book of Life or not is attached to deeds which cannot be known with human limitations. The dead cannot have more deeds so they are either in or they are out. However the living have not committed all their deeds yet so for any church to create literature for strangers to read should not judge them at all. However most of them do and that is probably the type of deed that is in line with the False Prophet of Revelation 20. So, threatening hellfire to someone who has not had the chance that Revelation alots to them is abusive. This kind of abuse is passing away with time and the atheists are helping a great deal with this.
Atheists, however, need to recognize the clear distinction between abusive and non abusive believers. If a believer wants to assert that hellfire is real then they also need to realize that it's attached to deeds of which they are incapable of fully knowing for any individual. Abusive language and emotional break down are not a fraction as bad as teaching that no matter what you are going to burn forever unless you listen to a religious spiel.
-Sab
