As I leaf through dozens of miserable pages of discussions, I see some atheists go so far as to challenge the Almighty God and declare that they are prepared to go to Hell, that they would rather go to hell than -according to these weirdos- worship an unjust deity.
Hell is one of those concepts that the human mind can't really understand when it's defined generically. So here is a really down to earth example:
[Warning: if you're eating something while reading this, stop now]
Try to imagine the chilling moment when your bowels are about to explode with diarrhea. You're not home, you look around and notice a restaurant nearby, you're running as fast as you can in its direction, as intestinal colic became unbearable. You come in and the restaurant hosts try to greet you but you don't give a damn, you finally reach the bathroom door, and then bang: The bathroom door is locked, so you stand there and try to force the lock, but nothing works! So you decide to give it a few kicks to break in.
But, of course, your noisy kicks are annoying a lot of guests. So they decide to report you to the restaurant's owner who, in a fit of rage, instructs the hosts to lock the restaurant from the inside and force you to pay for the damages you caused. It turns out the owner is a psychopathic bastard who also owns a gun, and he warns you that if you try to empty your bowels anywhere besides the bathroom, he'll literally shoot you in the head.
So you repeatedly try to kick down the bathroom door in desperation, while agonizing in pain, but to no avail. Some 20 minutes later, your intestines are perforated and fecal matter has reached critical organs of your body. You finally collapse and die, while the evil hosts are congratulating each other because you've been hit with cosmic karma in a spectactular fashion, and the restaurant is finally re-opened so that everybody can get out, as they can no longer withstand the stench of your corpse.
Imagine if we were to extend this hellish scenario for, say, 4 hours. Imagine four hours of going through this nightmare. Wouldn't you give anything in the world to avoid going through such a horrific experience?
Wouldn't you be prepared to give away all your money and possessions to avoid, say, 4 lengthy days, of constant, gut-wrenching, instestinal colic ?
Now imagine a place where you go through all that for 4 months, 4 damn months !!!!!!!!! nonstop, unimaginable pain of explosive diarrhea. Just take as much time as you need to really imagine what it would be like?
Now, if we redefine hell as : "a much worse, much longer experience than what you just read", the concept of hell becomes much more relatable! I doubt many atheists really think hell through. I mean, that's why they are atheists.
Hell is one of those concepts that the human mind can't really understand when it's defined generically. So here is a really down to earth example:
[Warning: if you're eating something while reading this, stop now]
Try to imagine the chilling moment when your bowels are about to explode with diarrhea. You're not home, you look around and notice a restaurant nearby, you're running as fast as you can in its direction, as intestinal colic became unbearable. You come in and the restaurant hosts try to greet you but you don't give a damn, you finally reach the bathroom door, and then bang: The bathroom door is locked, so you stand there and try to force the lock, but nothing works! So you decide to give it a few kicks to break in.
But, of course, your noisy kicks are annoying a lot of guests. So they decide to report you to the restaurant's owner who, in a fit of rage, instructs the hosts to lock the restaurant from the inside and force you to pay for the damages you caused. It turns out the owner is a psychopathic bastard who also owns a gun, and he warns you that if you try to empty your bowels anywhere besides the bathroom, he'll literally shoot you in the head.
So you repeatedly try to kick down the bathroom door in desperation, while agonizing in pain, but to no avail. Some 20 minutes later, your intestines are perforated and fecal matter has reached critical organs of your body. You finally collapse and die, while the evil hosts are congratulating each other because you've been hit with cosmic karma in a spectactular fashion, and the restaurant is finally re-opened so that everybody can get out, as they can no longer withstand the stench of your corpse.
Imagine if we were to extend this hellish scenario for, say, 4 hours. Imagine four hours of going through this nightmare. Wouldn't you give anything in the world to avoid going through such a horrific experience?
Wouldn't you be prepared to give away all your money and possessions to avoid, say, 4 lengthy days, of constant, gut-wrenching, instestinal colic ?
Now imagine a place where you go through all that for 4 months, 4 damn months !!!!!!!!! nonstop, unimaginable pain of explosive diarrhea. Just take as much time as you need to really imagine what it would be like?
Now, if we redefine hell as : "a much worse, much longer experience than what you just read", the concept of hell becomes much more relatable! I doubt many atheists really think hell through. I mean, that's why they are atheists.
