Better reasons to quit Christianity

[Mister Agenda]

Agreed. Suffering has no meaning if it never ends. But if there is an eternity, then the suffering would seem (once there) but a blink of the eye. Reminds me of my sons crying when I took them to to get their first vaccinations. I told them it would sting, but it would be over soon. I didn't like seeing them cry, but I knew the moment of pain would save them a lifetime of pain should they contract the disease against which the vaccine would otherwise protect them. If there is a heaven, then it will be worth it, no matter how severe and prolonged the suffering in time.

Do you believe in an eternal hell?

True. For them I would expect (if there is a God who is both just and loving) that the momentary suffering would be worth it once in eternity.

So a very short life of unusual suffering qualifies you for an eternal reward?

Yes, that would be true if the omniscient one existed in time and was waiting for the future, but it would not be true is the omniscient one existed outside of time and was already there in the future. God might look at us like one might look at a timeline in an open book. He might already see what we are going to do, but he would not already see what he is going to do, because he would have already done it. God isn't waiting for the future, he is already there.

The God you're describing can't change anything, because it's already done everything its ever going to do. If the concept of doing something doesn't contract the nature of something outside of time, since time is the only context in which doing something makes sense.

I don't believe there is such as thing as unlimited quantity of power.

I agree, which is why 'omnipotence' is a word with no referent in reality. Seriously, you're arguing for the most unlikely conceivable God, just a pile of omni-attributes that was the culmination of generations of people claiming my God is bigger/better/wiser/more powerful than yours.

Not if the word die has a different meaning than the one you are attributing to it.

That's exactly what I meant by cognitive acrobatics. If you have to say 'die' doesn't mean 'die' in the usual sense in order to keep believing what you already believe, you don't hesitate.

Actually, it depends on what omnipotent is. I'd say it can be the freedom to choose to do anything, but it cannot possibly be the freedom to do everything. Should I explain my meaning?

No. I know that taking omnipotent to mean what it says is ridiculous, but you don't want to give up the word, so you will seek a new meaning for it that doesn't mean 'all-powerful' so you can continue saying the word that means 'all-powerful' while actually meaning something else. Then you will go through life having to explain what you mean by 'omnipotent' to people who insist on thinking it means what omnipotent means: all-powerful.

Note that the KJV never uses the word 'omnipotent'.