RE: Simple mental exercise to show the irrationality of the Christian God.
August 26, 2012 at 9:12 pm
(January 18, 2012 at 7:33 pm)CoolBoy Wrote: This thread is nothing more than a very simple logic that has crossed my mind many time. Thought I would share.
The bible says God is all loving. The bible also says that 'sinners' and/or people who don't believe in Jesus as the saviour will end up in hell.
Simple exercise:
Think of the person in your life who is the most caring loving person you know. (For me it would be my Grandma who wouldn't hurt a fly). An all loving God would be more loving than the person you picked.
Ask yourself. Would the person you have picked send people to hell for eternity because they didn't believe in them (or their son) or because you broke a rule that they made.
If no, then why would an all loving God?
Hi!

Firstly, I have to say that I agree with you. If God is really all loving and wants to save all people, then he can not punish those who doesn't love him.
But, this logic has one problem: you can use it only against the believing that heel is a real place where God will send you if you do not perform his will.
The point what I'm trying to make is that this is not the only option. That's the way how western theologians understand this biblical and christian doctrine. But if you better look at the christian history and patristic theology, you'll find that a lot of holy fathers of the Christian Church (especially those in Bizantium) didn't accept this teaching.
According to them, hell and paradise are not places where you'll go after death and the Last Judgement, but rather a "mental state". They are ways how you experience loving communion that God offers to you. To be more clear let me give you an example:
Imagine a three men living at the same house. We'll call them A, B, C. And what is very important is that person B loves person A, while person C doesn't. For B who loves person A that would be a joy, while for C a hell.
That's exactly how those fathers understood existence of hell and paradise. It's not something that God makes, but people by their rejecting God's love.
So, when they speak about the Last Judgement, they understand it as a personal relationship and not as a real judgement. Therefore, there won't be a judgement in full sense of the word. God won't look at our lifes to see if we are good and religios people. There wont be sending to anywhere.
After the Second Coming God will be "all in all". It means that everything will be permeated by divine energies. For those who accept God and want to live forever in loving communion with him, it will be a paradise. For those who hate God, it will be a hell.