By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
richardhutnik on 25 June 2010
Edit Thread
FaRmLaNd said:
richardhutnik said:
FaRmLaNd said:

The concept that someone will have eternal punishment for finite limited sin is morally bankrupt.

Any God that supports eccessive punishment is worthy of contempt.

And why is this the only way to understand what the Christian faith is about?  Is not the concept of there being eternal consequences for certain actions not appropriate?  Say that eventually all those who reject will be annihilated and no longer exist.  Does that fit as more just?  Or do you place the people who reject in a spot for all eternity that say is dark and like a trash heap?  Or, do you have individuals, no matter what, end up wandering around and being in front of God forever?

Answering my question with a question is not really answering my question at all.

I do not think its acceptable, or moral, or just to be tortured eternally for finite sin. I would rather non-existence. If hell was non-existence (and I've heard some interpretations that it is) I wouldn't mind.

Well, maybe it is that.  Fires do consume, and it is presumptive to believe that humans can be immortal on their own without help (and if Hell is something that is separation from God, then how does the mortal being remain sustained?).  The need for Hell to be a place of suffering forever comes out of Western Christian thought and what is seen as "just".  Beyond that though, I think there is a need to go through cognitively what is here.   God has every right to do any with He likes (I use He there, because we are talking Christian context here), because all belongs to God.  If it be suffering, or whatever, that is what it is.  One doesn't even have to know or understand this, it either is or is not.

By the way, not minding non-existence is worth pondering over.  Make the not-existing a reality in your mind and make it personal.  I am not sure that it is an "I wouldn't mind".  It might be preferable to suffering forever, but I don't really see it as an "I wouldn't mind" state either.