Eternal punishment is pointless.

[Ryantology]

Punishment can take on two forms. There is the kind that a parent might administer to a naughty child in order to teach them right from wrong and help them grow into a better person, and the kind that a parent might administer to a naughty child mostly because they are stupid and brutal people who can only soothe their own crippling emotional flaws by physically beating people who are too small to fight back.

The Abrahamic religions seem to take the view that there is no such thing as an unjust punishment, because the person who makes the rules cannot, by definition, break any rules. That is why I am curious to get the opinion of a follower or two, what is the justice in eternal punishment? When a person is dead and goes into the afterlife, what is the material (or immaterial) gain of subjecting that person to an eternity of misery and horror in revenge for whatever acts that allegedly justify it?

If there is no good here, and it is just revenge for the sake of revenge, if God is inflicting pain and anguish just because he got pissed off, how can this possibly be justified as anything other than the most petty and brutal sort of revenge?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Good post.

The point of punishment MUST be to encourage correct behaviour. Otherwise, it isn't punishment, but simply vicarious cruelty. If an individual makes it to a supposed afterlife, punishment should cease, as there is no longer any point in correcting that person's behaviour.

Boru

[Brian37]

No kidding. There is noting "corrective" about it. It isn't even an act of mere containment. It is an act of revenge.

[vorlon13]

But God is INFINITELY Almighty !!

Failure to worship Him properly has to be INFINITELY vexing !!! So INFINITE punishment is appropriate because God is going to be MIGHTILY and RIGHTLY pissed off over every subatomic particle of disrespect for ETERNITY!!


Give me a PRAISE JESUS there !!!!!

[Brian37]

Um no, why should I praise a stalker who commits a fake suicide over something he/daddy/himself, didn't have to set up in the first place?

[vorlon13]

BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU !!!

Sheesh, did the nuns let you sleep thru ALL of catechism ??

[Ryantology]

That's probably the core of my unbelief in Christianity. There's no legitimate love or praise for their God going on. They want the rewards of praise and they want to avoid the consequences of not praising. Nobody is doing it just because. It's all phony.

A maximally-intelligent being cannot entice someone into loving them because they would be too smart to think it's genuine.

[abaris]

If you're a sociopath and find joy in the suffering of others. If you're out for ultimate control like any serial killer worth their money. In short, if you're an all intelligent being with all the empathy of Ted Bundy, all bets are off and eternal punishment seems like another day having some fun.

That's why I turned my back on christianity before I could even grasp the concept of sociopaths. I was simply a child not wanting to be afraid and not wanting such an evil bastard to real.

[Whateverist]

Yeah after the first couple of epochs or eons, seeing the damned suffer and writhe would surely lose all entertainment value.

[Heywood]

Good post.

The point of punishment MUST be to encourage correct behaviour. Otherwise, it isn't punishment, but simply vicarious cruelty. If an individual makes it to a supposed afterlife, punishment should cease, as there is no longer any point in correcting that person's behaviour.

Boru

Eternal punishment is a deterrent and thus does encourage correct behavior....just not in the person being punished.

Also it is logically possible for a finite amount of punishment to last for any length of time...including infinite lengths of time.