by jam 154 Replies latest jw friends
Why is it everytime a Christian, muslim etc etc.. say something it will offend the athiests? - UBM101
I have never seen an atheist take offense at superstitions. We question whether they are rational, offer evidence to the contrary, examine how they measure up ethically or just ridicule them, but not take offense.
How do you justify hell ethically UBM101?
I wrote eternal hell but I did not state eternal torment! I doubt there such a thing as eternal torment in the bible!
I don't get it - So hell is a place of temporary torment? What happens in hell when the torment ends?
If only the delusion of hell was temporary. For some unfortunately it is apermanant fixture of their loving ? God .How sad
Here is George MacDonald's explanation of "hell fire", if anyone cares to see another point of view (this man courageously preached Universal salvation, and was driven out of his church as pastor in just four years):
http://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/unspoken-sermons/2/
"The kingdom he has given us cannot be moved, because it has nothing weak in it: it is of the eternal world, the world of being, of truth. We, therefore, must worship him with a fear pure as the kingdom is unshakeable. He will shake heaven and earth, that only the unshakeable may remain, (verse 27): he is a consuming fire, that only that which cannot be consumed may stand forth eternal. It is the nature of God, so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire, which demands like purity in our worship. He will have purity. It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; but that the fire will burn us until we worship thus; yea, will go on burning within us after all that is foreign to it has yielded to its force, no longer with pain and consuming, but as the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God. When evil, which alone is consumable, shall have passed away in his fire from the dwellers in the immovable kingdom, the nature of man shall look the nature of God in the face, and his fear shall then be pure; for an eternal, that is a holy fear, must spring from a knowledge of the nature, not from a sense of the power."
Also, Hell is simply the simply the absence of God, the Outside Darkness. Man finally left to waddle in his own folly and error, even into eternity - if his pride does not allow him to turn.
It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; but that the fire will burn us until we worship thus
Ah, so purgatory then. Got it.
Didn't realize there were so many Catholics here.
How do you justify hell ethically UBM101?
It is a belief, a ridiculous belief according to you Cofty. Ethical? Why? Did anyone that believe in hell fire actually burn anyone in hell?
I have never seen an atheist take offense at superstitions. We question whether they are rational, offer evidence to the contrary, examine how they measure up ethically or just ridicule them, but not take offense.
The root of the matter - the reasons for the questionings and ridicules. Only you know..
Did anyone that believe in hell fire actually burn anyone in hell?
People that believe in hell, worship and adore a moral monster who, they assert, burns people for eternity.
What does that say about their morality?
I think it makes them deeply flawed.
kass- your argument is that of the Eastern Orthodox, Protestants relished a literal Hell, now though it seems only the Fundamentalists do.
Eternal suffering is not the penalty for sin.
