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My very rudimentary understanding of Buddhism is that the claim isn't that life "is" suffering, but that it inevitably entails suffering (perhaps unsatisfactoriness is a more accurate translation of the term, "dukkha"). And as such, the dharma (which apparently also can mean a lot of things, but...

I think the burden of proof is on those who claim that there is in fact something that could rightly be called a "self". It seems intuitive and obvious that it exists, yet you'd be hard pressed to define it, locate it or pinpoint it somehow. In my experience, when that belief is challenged, both...

I think Alex is right, and I think it's a little odd that Harris seems to be arguing (if I've understood him correctly) that any moral value can truly be objective. Sure, we can all agree on where to place action A or consequence B on a moral spectrum, but that of course doesn't make morality...

I have the impression that DUI is pretty socially accepted in the US, is that right? In Norway and I suspect most other European countries, it's very much frowned upon and I think most people who saw someone stumbling out of a bar and getting behind the wheel would call the cops right away.

Well you can pick parts that you like from the law given to Israel if you want, but you'd be hard pressed to argue for things like an eye for an eye or stoning people for adultery to be Christian values, even though there's no debate that they were indeed commanded by God according to the bible...

This is the same kind of reasoning that some cops will use to argue against decriminalization of drug use. Because when drugs are illegal, they get to search people, and when they search people they happen to find evidence of other crimes. With that kind of reasoning, we should criminalize (but...

What exactly is God punishing her for then? Maybe. What does that mean for preaching the gospel? I mean, if God gives people a fair chance regardless, what's even the point of trying to convert people? It seems strange to me that the bible wouldn't be abundantly clear about something as...

I stand corrected, but I think my point still stands. Anne Frank is a useful example because so many know about her and have seen her picture, but the point could be made with any child (or adult for that matter) that died at the hands of the Nazis, probably while crying out for God to save them.

That's a big part of it, yes. The fact that the denominations all seem to disagree or pretty important stuff, and the lack of coherence. It's hard to change one's mind from what you've been brought up to believe, and in that regard stepping outside of the faith altogether has been a blessing, no...

My point, of course, is that you can hardly say that she didn't deserve to be abducted, starved, and gassed to death, if she in fact deserves a punishment that is literally infinitely worse. Sure, you can say that it was unfair that the nazis did it, but if God did the exact same thing, it would...

Do you then agree with God that Anne Frank deserved the treatment she got in Auschwitz?

Good question. It's been a process that's taken years, and since I've already changed my mind about things, I try to keep it open, i.e. I'm not so sure what I'll believe in a year, five years, at the end of my life. I did lose faith in the classical view of salvation and particularly the idea of...

It absolutely does work better as it's compatible with God's omniscience and omnipotence, and straight up common sense for that matter. It means that what Paul says about salvation being by grace actually and literally true. Grace and nothing but grace. That's what I think the first Christians...

It doesn't get much more righteous by being torment as opposed to torture. Yeah, sure God decides what happens to them. The question is if they actually deserve it. Do you think they do?

The audacity! To think that they would go to heaven through no effort of their own, by nothing but grace, while the rest of us, uh... deserved it I guess?

The question is, if God judges someone righteously, i.e. gives them what they actually deserve, will anybody suffer eternal torture?

Glad we got that cleared up. I was under the impression you believed that Anne Frank and any other presumably unsaved soul were unsaved by their own choice.

I personally don't believe she or anybody else is in hell. I was responding to someone who seems to say that the unsaved (which would probably include the vast majority of the victims of the holocaust) are in hell because they:

People like Anne Frank, you mean?

Sure, there are several scriptures that seem to say that faith in Christ gives eternal life, while sin means eternal death. Death would be the default, so to speak. I'm pointing out the problems of the doctrine that some (or indeed, most) people are given eternal life in hell.