(April 14, 2015 at 11:48 pm)Iroscato Wrote: So let us for a moment imagine God is real, and a theist dies and goes to heaven. Now imagine 30 or so years later, the child of that theist, who ended up being an atheist, dies and gets sent to hell for his non-belief.
From now until the end of time your child, whom you cherished and adored from the moment they were born, whom you would literally give your own life for, will be tortured and tormented in ways that are incomprehensible to the mind. They will never escape, and God will never change his mind, so their suffering will be as eternal as your own afterlife. You will never see your own child again, and you know that every minute of every day, they are in indescribable agony.
My question is...what would theists think of the God who not only let this happen, but specifically planned it as part of his grand scheme for humanity? How would that effect your love for God and your trust in him? I am extremely curious to know.
Your scenario is non-biblical since no one goes to heaven but a lot of people could go to heaven. Even so, hell is just temporary and everyone will get out on Judgment Day. After that a person might get into the gaudy bejeweled golden cube called New Jerusalem if he can pass through one of the twelve gates dedicated to the twelve tribes of Israel. If not he won't get in and may be tossed into the lake of fire. There's nothing in the fairy tale about anyone being concerned about what's happening to former family members.
