(April 30, 2016 at 8:56 am)Shadow_Man Wrote: The proof is in the pudding. My statement remains true despite your protest. The world in general, and this message board in particular, stand as evidence to its veracity. 5 years of being here is long enough for you to have seen it with your own eyes. You can imagine no greater coercion, yet even that does not rob your companions of their free will and choice to reject Heaven and embrace hell.
Few people reject heaven and embrace hell. The majority simply believe the threat, heaven and hell, isn't real. You're conflating not believing with believing but rejecting. If I truly believed I was bound for hell, you can bet that would be a strong influence on my behavior. This isn't the carrot and stick of law but rather a terroristic threat designed to cow the believer into submission. And that I have seen in my five years. It's the very foundation of Pascal's wager. No matter how you try to minimize it, it still remains a powerful, behavior modifying threat to the believer. It's a form of duress, plain and simple.