The mere belief in Hell makes you a more evil person.

[Cello Man]

...On the other hand, my mother cooked pork chops for Passover. Oy.

Less kosher = More tasty.

 

[e-sabbath]

Exactly my point about cheeseburgers above.

 

[PBTree]

It's a proper name. How else would you refer to the being? And I'm _certainly_ not Christian. However, referring to a certain being as the Lord is one of those nagging guilty rituals. On the other hand, my mother cooked pork chops for Passover. Oy.

What about plain old Jesus, or even 'Haysoos' if you are mexican/spanish. Lets not put this chap on too high a pedestal until we get a bit of proof that he is anything more than just 'regular folk'.

Pork, hmm. Had some myself just the other night. Marinated in beer, oh yea.

 

[Dragoonster]

What crime merits eternal torment?

Nothing imo.

So if I am a sadistic serial killer by preference, but I refrain from sadistic serial killing due to fear of eternal pain, would that make me a good person, worthy of eternal reward?

I can't answer. If God exists, he'd have to answer. Or not, we'd just have to accept his dogma or reject it and risk his punishment.

I'm having a hard time figuring out which premises this argument is being held under though. If the premise is that God doesn't exist, then the God in the Bible is definitely evil according to most non-Godbelievers' morality. Hell would be one example, or the flood, or killing children. He's a psychopath. If he does exist though, he would have to be good, and hell would have to be at least a good um, idea? Punishment meted with good intentions?

So...the notion that Hell is evil seems entirely dependent on whether God exists or not. Perhaps I devil-advocated myself into confusion.

 

[Dragoonster]

What about plain old Jesus, or even 'Haysoos' if you are mexican/spanish. Lets not put this chap on too high a pedestal until we get a bit of proof that he is anything more than just 'regular folk'.

Pork, hmm. Had some myself just the other night. Marinated in beer, oh yea.

All theism arguments aside, Jesus seemed cool even as a regular folk, I can imagine a nice BBQ with him. Maybe some light break-dancing. Until his downer dad showed up and started condeming people to eternal torment.

 

[e-sabbath]

Jesus is certainly not the person being discussed. He's a good boy, but not what Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have in common. The Lord is the _Father_, not the Son. Though there is that whole trinity issue, I don't think it applies in this matter.

 

[Scott Haley]

Destruction

It isn't forever. There is a second death in the lake of fire, that's the end of your existence. So for those people who don't believe in God, no point in bothering with him if you don't want to live forever, because you will cease to exist someday.

The idea that people are destroyed in hell has been regarded as a heresy by most Christian churches for most of the history of the church. It seems to me that some Bible verses support the idea, but the mainstream theologians do not agree. Some minority groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in this.