RE: Atheism liberated me from pointless thinking,and made my life enjoyable.
October 29, 2014 at 5:34 pm
(This post was last modified: October 29, 2014 at 5:34 pm by Lek.)
(October 29, 2014 at 5:20 pm)Esquilax Wrote: Why not just let us choose how we spend our afterlives for ourselves? If it's just a separation, if there's no punishment angle from our supposed judge, why force us into anything? Why do all those free will excuses you guys use as a shield disappear completely the moment we die?
Also, I find it telling that possibly the most important aspect of this, to an atheist, completely slipped your mind: what about our theist friends and family? Don't you think we'll miss them, or want to see them? Isn't that sufficient reason to be upset at the concept of hell?
Why is it that whenever the heaven question comes up, you theists only ever seem to think that the discussion is about god alone, and not any of the other concerns there are?
Let me clarify what I believe about hell, and this does come from scripture and is a view held by many christians, including some church fathers. The catholic church adopted the "eternal torment" view, and since they were the only christian church for over a thousand years, it became the predominantly accepted view among christians. I'm not a theologian, but I tend to believe that hell is a temporary state in which all eventually come to faith. It's not a nice place because it involves separation from God's protection. But as scripture says, "Christ died for all". At any rate, either you want to be with him or you don't. You wouldn't want him to force you to be with him. There just isn't a third option with God.
