On Hell and Forgiveness

[Aroura]

Aurora, I really don't know. My best guess would be that perhaps since someone like that likely isn't actually an evil person (just a hurt person), that they would come around eventually.

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Some people are born without the ability to feel remorse. How does one account for that? We would call them sociopathic monsters, but it isn't a choice.

Do the mentally ill get a pass? 500 years ago we did not understand mental illness at all. Those people would have assumed the person schizophrenic person was simply chosing that, or maybe infested with demons. How do we know that all people who qualify for hell aren't damaged or suffering from mental illness?

This is one thing that makes no sense to me. It's very unequal. Some people are literally tortured in life, others are relatively safe and healthy, yet in the end must all pass the same emotional test of accepting love?

Also an interesting question and I've thought about this before too. Again, I don't know. If you put a gun to my head and told me to take a guess, I'd say since sociopathy is a disorder and since only our souls are left after we die (not our bodies), any disorder or illness we have is no longer present. Perhaps the sociopath would then have the ability to experience remorse and empathy like a normal human. From there it would be up to them how they react.

I do appreciate your candidness. : Do you ever wonder if there is no such thing as evil, only various states of damage?  

I remember when I was a teen (or maybe a tween?), and there was this story on TV my mom and I watched.  It really shook up my mom.  It was about a guy who was this great family man, and he'd been in some sort of accident with a head injury, and had become violent.  Like, murderously violent. Doctors doing a brain scan saw what part of his brain had suffered injury, and were able to give him medication (or was it surgery?  It was along time ago, I cannot remember all the details), but the point is there was some treatment that actually cured his violence and allowed him to go back to his normal, family life.

We were talking about it afterwards and she started to wonder, if we are our brains this way, then who is to say why anyone is violent?  I know it bothers her to this day, though she's never changed her views (she's still fully Catholic and embraces...90% or so of the teachings.  But she did stop going to church when I was about 15.  I want to ask her why but now that she's had a stroke, I'm afraid to broach this subject, because it seems really inappropriate), but I started thinking about it young enough that it really changed my view of the world.  In time.  I'm just wondering if it bothers you at all that when we look at....well...anyone, it turns out there is a physical thing going on.  What we eat, how we are treated, and everything that happens to us literally changes our brain structure.  Our DNA sets things to begin with, things completely outside our control, and then parts grow, other parts shrivel from disuse, chemical compositions are altered, etc.  At what point is it evil, and at what point is it just a result of how a persons brain literally is?

It is one of the questions I found the most intriguing and difficult to come to terms with in my life.  It's interesting to see how others deal with it.

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So, let's say there is a child that is raped and tortured. That child develops the inability to trust. Even if they are lucky enough to get treatment and they recover enough to work and not be labeled "mentally ill", they still suffer through their entire life the effects of being heavily abused as a child.

Let's say that person grows up unable to accept love, because their idea of love was twisted so badly at a young age that they never recover.

Do they go to hell when they reject God? Do they get to suffer eternal separation?  Can you not see how this is the worst kind of punishing a victim?

This is a real question(s), and I want answers from one of the theists in this thread.

Your question is predicated on a person being unable to respond to God's love. First, it is far from clear whether God's love could not reach such as person. I have to imagine that if there was any healing that can happen, it is in relationship with God--who can satisfy the emotional and spiritual needs of a person better than any other. Second, I have always held that God judges based on your response to the information he has revealed to you. If a person is indeed broken, it is entirely the case God will judge them on what responses were possible--with no one knowing what responses were possible except God.

Thank you also for you very honest and candid response.  I find the issue I have is what I have highlighted.

If everything can change as soon as we die, what does your belief and my disbelief matter at all, right now, today?  If it all gets reset to 0 and we get the same exact chance after death, then I'm exactly as close to God as you are.

Also, if God takes your experiences away from you or alters you (or them) after death, are you you anymore?