(April 4, 2013 at 12:47 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Atheists always say,"Yes but I can be good without God." But these same people, generally, are not good because they love God or their neighbor as themselves. Their good is self-referential and not true good. They are good only to secure their own benefit, i.e. tit for tat, and are motivated only by preserving earthly goods. They love themselves and the things of this world, like reputation, material gain, and hedonistic pleasures.
Evidence? Methinks you are judging people without sufficient knowledge. There is a word for that.
I mean, I'm all for hedonistic pleasures, but as far as loving them, they're very far down the list of things that are important to me like my family and being nice to others.
(April 4, 2013 at 12:47 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Hell is hell, in part because the good refuse to define their lives by love of self and the world. People in Hell choose to go and remain there because they continue to pursue what they believe are the highest goods. They believe falsities are truths and evils are goods because they do not believe in God. And if asked, they would say they like it there because they get to pursue all the things they loved in life, even though they fail to attain them, since it places them in constant conflict with the other residents of Hell.
In other words, they're in hell because they don't believe as I do and place importance where I do. I do like the fact, however, that you are appalled enough by the idea of hell that you feel the need to lay the responsibility for people being stuck there on those people themselves. But let's not kid ourselves. You could be the greatest person to walk the earth short of your savior himself and god would still send you to hell for not believing in him, or are you saying that a good person that loves others as he/she should would not go to hell despite not believing?
(April 4, 2013 at 12:47 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Despite this, God's mercy extends even into the depths of Hell. First, he does not take away free-will or intellect, since these are what make us human. Secondly, He prevents people in Hell from totally destroying each other from their need to control and use each other in the pursuit of what the mistakenly believe is good and true.
Your need to paint your god as merciful despite all the evidence to the contrary is telling.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
