God, Christianity, Control, & Fear

[WingedFoe]

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So, yeah, the Bible mentions a place of fire and brimstone, says that God has the power to send you there, and says that it's a place reserved for those who sin and rebel against Him. I bolded "dead bodies" because those "dead" bodies are being tortured, so apparently "death" in the Bible means eternal torment

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Revelation does settle that huh? I guess eternal torment is fair if a soul is set on being eternally sinful and rebellious. You do understand that eternal sin and rebellion means endless evil (which deserves endless punishment)? On earth you may only do a finite amount of evil deeds, but you have the attitude to do such deeds forever, perhaps?

People aren't one-dimensional characters, only capable of "evil." Given an eternity, the same "bad soul" who commits "endless evil" will commit "endless good" as well. By your logic, don't those deeds deserve endless reward?

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Meh, Christians are always saying that he committed the ultimate sacrifice, but is it really a sacrifice if all he did was suffer for a few hours before living for an eternity in paradise? A true sacrifice, I think, would be to share the punishment he reserves for the unbelievers... eternal damnation.

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You act like getting spat on, beaten, and killed when you don't deserve it is easy. He had to do it all through faith too, I think.
Sending Jesus to eternal damnation would only be sadistic, just what we'd expect you to want.

And everyone who isn't Christian deserves eternal torture? If Jesus is God, and God sent millions of souls to be tortured eternally, then by His own laws of morality (an eye for an eye) He deserves the same.

If Jesus really existed and his whole story (minus all the mumbo-jumbo) is true, then he didn't deserve any of it, I agree. But innocent people experience worse every day; that doesn't mean they should be worshiped.

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I can't speak for Caecilian, but I can give you my opinion on the matter. Christians themselves are not sick, evil, and twisted (well, most of them anyway), but a lot of the religion's teachings are. Christians generally take the good stuff and ignore the bad, but if you pick up the Bible you'll notice a lot of bad, like the concept of hell. A being who is willing to dole out eternal punishments for any crime, no matter how grave, is certainly not benevolent. I would even call such a being malevolent.

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You're crazy, Hell isn't 'bad'. God doles out eternal punishments for eternally rebellious/evil subjects. That's perfectly fair and just. It's just what we'd expect of a purely good God.

And what constitutes "eternal sin and rebellion," anyway? The Bible lists many "sins," like eating shellfish, working on the sabbath, and including yeast in one's animal offerings. The big one that most Christians worry about, however, is not believing their fairy tale. So a person could live a good life, donate all of their disposable income to charities, devote all of their free time to helping those in need, save the lives of millions of starving children, and sincerely want to do all of these things. But if that person is a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, or atheist then he's going to hell. Conversely, a man who murders and rapes hundreds of women could convert and repent at the last minute, and go to heaven. How is that system fair?