(November 16, 2014 at 5:36 pm)Heywood Wrote: Eternal punishment is a deterrent and thus does encourage correct behavior....just not in the person being punished.

Also it is logically possible for a finite amount of punishment to last for any length of time...including infinite lengths of time.

As with any deterrent, it doesn't work with an ever increasing amount of people.

Personally, I happily do what I usually do in the bathroom on the prospect of eternal punishment. In the loudest possible manner to be precise.

(November 16, 2014 at 5:36 pm)Heywood Wrote: Eternal punishment is a deterrent and thus does encourage correct behavior....just not in the person being punished.

So, you agree, actually carrying out such a threat is pointless brutality.

(November 16, 2014 at 5:36 pm)Heywood Wrote:

(November 16, 2014 at 3:29 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Good post.

The point of punishment MUST be to encourage correct behaviour. Otherwise, it isn't punishment, but simply vicarious cruelty. If an individual makes it to a supposed afterlife, punishment should cease, as there is no longer any point in correcting that person's behaviour.

Boru

Eternal punishment is a deterrent and thus does encourage correct behavior....just not in the person being punished.

Also it is logically possible for a finite amount of punishment to last for any length of time...including infinite lengths of time.

While the threat of eternal punishment may act as a deterrent (although I remain unconvinced that it does), the act of eternally punishing someone for a finite transgression remains the province of psychopathy - there is no conceivable human crime for which an eternity of punishment is justifiable.

If a finite amount of punishment lasts for an infinite length of time, it is an infinite punishment, and all the ontological word-contortions that can be mustered won't alter it.

Boru

It's all beside the point, of course. It all boils down to "it's okay if my god does it".

I don't know about any of you, but I don't agree with the premise that a certain level of knowledge grants automatic justification for any action, but you hear that a lot from the same people who insist that there is any such thing as objective morality.

(November 16, 2014 at 5:13 pm)whateverist Wrote: Yeah after the first couple of epochs or eons, seeing the damned suffer and writhe would surely lose all entertainment value.

Even Mariah Carey?

(November 16, 2014 at 5:36 pm)Heywood Wrote: Eternal punishment is a deterrent and thus does encourage correct behavior....just not in the person being punished.

Oh come on. Do you seriously expect me to believe this Jehova guy doesn't rub one out every now and then while enjoying the spectacle of hell? Give me a break.

(November 16, 2014 at 7:23 pm)whateverist Wrote: Oh come on. Do you seriously expect me to believe this Jehova guy doesn't rub one out every now and then while enjoying the spectacle of hell? Give me a break.

The more disturbing image is him pumping off when watching. Guys like that do that over their victims, you know.

Silly me. We actually mean the same thing. Goes to show, I'm not a native speaker.

Quote:They say that when god was in Jerusalem he forgave his murderers, but now he will not forgive an honest man for differing with him on the subject of the Trinity. They say that God says to me, "Forgive your enemies." I say, "I do;" but he says, "I will damn mine." God should be consistent. If he wants me to forgive my enemies he should forgive his. I am asked to forgive enemies who can hurt me. God is only asked to forgive enemies who cannot hurt him. He certainly ought to be as generous as he asks us to be. -

Robert Green Ingersoll

(November 16, 2014 at 7:23 pm)whateverist Wrote:

(November 16, 2014 at 5:36 pm)Heywood Wrote: Eternal punishment is a deterrent and thus does encourage correct behavior....just not in the person being punished.

Oh come on. Do you seriously expect me to believe this Jehova guy doesn't rub one out every now and then while enjoying the spectacle of hell? Give me a break.

I don't know what Jehova does.

I think it is silly to claim eternal punishment does nothing to encourage correct behavior when clearly it is the point of eternal punishment to encourage people to behave correctly. How many of you....when you were theists did not jackoff in fear of going to hell(or blind)? The whole point of hell is to manipulate people into behaving a certain way while they are alive.

That is a very loving and caring theistic ideal. Love me and worship me or burn in hell forever!