The concept of Hell discourages belief

[Drich]

If my son wants to leave, he can leave. But at least his decision will come from experiencing something, and then deciding that you want something else.

Which again is why we have been given this life?

If my Son wanted to walk out of my house, but I knew for certain that there was immediate life threatening danger awaiting him on the other side of the door, yes, I would make him stay. If it means saving his life, absolutely.

For how long an eternity? How many days before a openly rebellious son is ready to kill his father if his father is keeping him locked up?

But, I would also explain to him and show him why I did what I did. I wouldn't have to force him. I could show him. The way that I would show him wouldn't be cryptic or abstract or open to interpretation. I would use words and logic. I would communicate to him using methods he is equipped to understand.

Let's talk again when one of your boys falls in love with a party girl. The Heart wants what the heart wants. If your heart does not belong to God then no amount of talking will reason you into giving it to Him. Or if you perfer if your son has given his heart to that party girl then nothing you can say or do will carry any weight. Even if it means his life.

You are suggesting that in order for us to have free will, there must be a preordained consequence to choosing something different. The old expression "My way or the highway" is not bad. If you don't like the way someone does things, you are free to leave. What if it were "My way or eternal torture"? Keeping in mind that God can change any of these "necessary variables" in this game.

What if it was being apart of God and Creation or being eternally seperated from both? What if Hell was not a place designed for torture, but a voidcompletely devoid of God or anything He has created. What if the torture was part and partial of a member of creation being seperated from it?

If God is the Creator of all things and is Omnipresent in all that He has created, how can you be placed in a non void/hell enviorment and still be seperated from God? Any provision God would make for you would place you in his presents would it not? (as that provision would indeed be apart of creation) So how can one be seperated from God if he is not placed in the absents of creation?

Why has a compassionate God setup such a cruel game made up of choosing mysteries behind doors?

The doors are only closed because you have not Asked, Sought, or Knocked as outlined in Luke 11.

Why not show us what we need to see.

Because unless you A/S/K to See what God has to show you it would force you to choose God even if you really did not want to, as a matter of self perservation. That is why we have been given this life so we can freely choose how to spend our eternity without the weight of eternity bearing down on what we decide.

Convey directly using methods we are equipped to comprehend. Even if God himself were standing in Times Square performing miracles left and right, bringing folks back from the dead, and handing out t-shirts, and someone still didn't believe...IT STILL WOULDN'T BE OKAY TO TORTURE THEM!

Again what makes you think God id the one torturing them? Can't the pain of eternal seperation be torture enough?

Not on that criteria! In fact, the possibility that such pain and suffering is possible when an alternative way could have been designed is cruel. They are playing the hand they were dealt. Not everyone thinks the same way. You are a perfect example of this. If someone doesn't believe in even those circumstances, it would be because the tools they depended on to think, the very ones they were given, were not meant to arrive at the same conclusion. It's not grounds for torture.

I would argue it is however legitmate grounds for segergation. If one half of the populice thinks ABC and the other thinks XYZ, then it is only a matter of time before one party is discontent and makes the other align themselves to the way they think.. What is eternity but time?

I can't think of any circumstance that would warrant such punishment for anything so silly as not believing something is real and not devoting their life to worshiping it.

Because for you every thing has a start middle and end. So everything is at best temperary. Nothing warrants eternal punishment because nothing you know of is eternal. However if you cared to step back and view all of us from an eternal stand point then something must be done with those who do not or will not be apart of God's soceity. Otherwise they will plague and be torture for God and all of those who worship Him. Why should everyone suffer because some of 'us' do not like the options they have been given?

Do you garden? what do you do with the weeds? do you pull them up or allow them to weaken and kill your desired plants?

But God isn't standing on the street handing out t-shirts and performing miracles or bringing folks back to life. He is a character being interpreted a million different ways and marketed as a champion for clarity, charity and goodwill with an undying thirst for praise and frightening threats of torture if one were so bold as to not worship Him how He sees fit. There are thousands of supposed Gods in circulation, and you don't believe in most of them. There isn't anything any of the followers of any of the other religions could do to change your mind yet you find it hard to comprehend how I and all of us could believe in just one less God than you. I would really question the concepts you are defending right now. Challenge everything you are justifying and keep in mind...ALL POWERFUL, UNLIMITED POTENTIAL, NOTHING IS OUTSIDE HIS ABILITIES. If there is one other possible way of doing things that saves one more "SOUL" from pain of any kind, why not set things up that way? Don't you see the error in this logic.

No I only see the grace. In that we haven't been only given one way to worship. I told you this the first time through. The parable of the talents tells us we are only responsiable for what we have been given. I don't know what your exposure is to the bible outside of a church setting (If you have read it on your own or not) But know this God did not give Christianity one set of rules to follow. Now ask why.

Because Christianity is not about a method of worship. It is unlike every other religion on the planet. Christianity, Biblical Christianity is based on freedom found away from the law of God. This means we are allowed to Worship Christ any way we think best serves Him.

Of course it makes sense that if I refuse God he shouldn't make me love him, but the sick part you are failing to recognize is the consequence to the alternative! He is allowing the terrible consequence! It's in his power to change it. But, wants it this way. You somehow think this makes sense? This seems ok to you? This seems like the perfect scheme of things?

Absolutely yes. For if you read what I experienced in my trip to Hell, even though the torment and pain I knew I chose my own fate, and even though I was being consumed by my desision to be seperated from God, I did find the 'punishment' to be a fair one.

God is the supposed perfect being. If he designed a chain of events, based on free will, that ultimately results in the torturing of anyone for anything so trivial as a disagreement in how much worship He deserves, its sick.

I'm sorry for spelling errors. I didn't have time to revise!

Which is why we have been given this life. To decide whether or not we want to spend an eternity with the God of the bible and not the God you have created in your own mind.

And know I am the last person you need to appologise for spelling. (to be honest I did not even notice.)