Sending atheists to Hell is Evil

[Morgan13]

Did you know that there are many Christian Universalists or believers in Universal Restoration (of all creation to God)? Not all Christians believe in everlasting punishment in hell. That is like saying: "God loves you with an everlasting love, and if you don't believe it, He will torture you in everlasting torment." That doesn't even make sense. I used to believe it because I thought the Bible taught it, but it never made sense to me. Then after reading the Bible about the 8th time I started seeing things that sounded like everything would be all right in the end. All creation would praise Him, and declare that He is Lord. Now I don't think God would have people praise Him in the end and then He would say, "Welp, it's too late for you. To hell with you." No, He is reconciling the world to Himself through Christ Jesus, not counting their sins against Him. There are MANY Bible passages that teach Christian Universalism. There are many websites that show the verses and explain why in the Greek the word for "eternal" punishment does not literally mean "forever". I believe in correction after death and then reconciliation with God. People that live in places in the world that have never heard of Jesus cannot be blamed, so God MUST give people a chance to hear the truth after death. He desires no man to remain in a perished or lost state. He is sovereign. He will do all He pleases. He made us for His good pleasure, not to torment most of mankind in an everlasting hell. Do some research on this topic and you will find relief, I pray. And I pray you find the loving God you want. Blessings to you.

 

[TheImmortalJellyfish]

*blinks*

 

[Golden Yak]

The problem with such POVs is that they presume that God is vengeful or fickle. There's no reason to think that of him. If we take that out of the equation, we are then freed from the temptation to think God might be "evil."

I don't know about fickle, but he is certainly depicted as vengeful and wrathful. And jealous. There's nothing about running the afterlife as I suggest that would make him fickle or vengeful, certainly.

But the idea is still viable that those who do not want to know the true God, having had the chance to be a believer in him, will go where they are at home. That would include Hitler and Gandhi. It would not be Heaven, for obvious reasons, and they would be unhappy there.

What about those who don't like being unhappy and change their minds? What about those who don't want or care about knowing God but still want to be good and kind to each-another, and do so during their lives? What about hell would then make them unhappy, and why should they be forced to endure it?

Why we would suppose that God does not force us to believe in him in this life but that he'd do so in the next life, is hard to make sense of. Yet, there are plenty of people for whom that's their basic answer.

Belief is such a ridiculous thing to judge someone on, and God obviously isn't consistent with it. He condemns angels who rebelled against him, who clearly knew and believed in his existence but still had free will and chose to do other than God's will. Why not judge people on what they choose with full knowledge rather than what people believed in their limited capacity as mortals? That just screws over plenty of good people who don't believe or who believe in the 'wrong' faith.

In my own mind, I have similar thoughts.

Cool.

 

[Colter]

Atheists are already dead spiritually, they just want to live out the short time they have left in peace.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Atheists are already dead spiritually, they just want to live out the short time they have left in peace.

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

It's obviously not the Urantia Book, but you might like it nonetheless.

 

[Morgan13]

"Why we would suppose that God does not force us to believe in him in this life but that he'd do so in the next life, is hard to make sense of. Yet, there are plenty of people for whom that's their basic answer."

I haven't figured out how to reply to posts yet, but my reply is to the above quote. God does not force us against our will to believe in Him. But He does influence us. How else are we to pray for unbelievers to get saved? We pray that God changes their heart. He can do the same after death, after He shows them their mistakes, or sins. Someone once asked, "How do you make a dog to let go of a big dirty bone he just dug up out of the backyard? You can't pull it out from between his snarling teeth. You simply offer him a big juicy steak. Then he lets go of the bone." or something like that. Well, God in His sovereign will, omnipotent knowledge, knows that He will reconcile all men unto Himself in the end. He does it by offering something better.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Did you know that there are many Christian Universalists or believers in Universal Restoration (of all creation to God)? Not all Christians believe in everlasting punishment in hell. That is like saying: "God loves you with an everlasting love, and if you don't believe it, He will torture you in everlasting torment." That doesn't even make sense. I used to believe it because I thought the Bible taught it, but it never made sense to me. Then after reading the Bible about the 8th time I started seeing things that sounded like everything would be all right in the end. All creation would praise Him, and declare that He is Lord. Now I don't think God would have people praise Him in the end and then He would say, "Welp, it's too late for you. To hell with you." No, He is reconciling the world to Himself through Christ Jesus, not counting their sins against Him. There are MANY Bible passages that teach Christian Universalism. There are many websites that show the verses and explain why in the Greek the word for "eternal" punishment does not literally mean "forever". I believe in correction after death and then reconciliation with God. People that live in places in the world that have never heard of Jesus cannot be blamed, so God MUST give people a chance to hear the truth after death. He desires no man to remain in a perished or lost state. He is sovereign. He will do all He pleases. He made us for His good pleasure, not to torment most of mankind in an everlasting hell. Do some research on this topic and you will find relief, I pray. And I pray you find the loving God you want. Blessings to you.

That's a positive vision for the future.

I think if there's anything to the law of attraction or positive thinking, and "as within so without, as above so below" is true (our religious conceptions and spirituality affect our lives and ideals etc), then religious narratives share in the long traem poetry poeisis: bringing forth) of ages.

 

[Golden Yak]

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

It's obviously not the Urantia Book, but you might like it nonetheless.

That is a much nicer reply than the one that leapt to my mind, certainly...

 

[Davian]

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

It's obviously not the Urantia Book, but you might like it nonetheless.

The first paragraph in Chapter 1 made me lol.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Atheists are already dead spiritually, they just want to live out the short time they have left in peace.

Tell that to all the atheist Buddists. Atheism is only the lack of belief in deities, it doesn't mean you can't be spiritual in other ways.

 

[Colter]

Tell that to all the atheist Buddists. Atheism is only the lack of belief in deities, it doesn't mean you can't be spiritual in other ways.

Ok, dear Buddhist, you managed to create a religion without a God.

"Sin must be redefined as deliberate disloyalty to Deity. There are degrees of disloyalty:

* the partial loyalty of indecision

* the divided loyalty of confliction

* the dying loyalty of indifference

* and the death of loyalty exhibited in devotion to godless ideals."​

Sarah, I like you, to me you seem more in the undecided/conflicted category, NOT dedicated to Godless ideals.

Some of the other nasty Atheist here are dedicated to Godlessness. But some are nice and Godless. Some had faith but left it, now they have returned to make fun of Christians and promote a Godless life.

Some people like me live a decided life, but get bord at work so we post on the net.

UB 1955

 

[bhsmte]

Ok, dear Buddhist, you managed to create a religion without a God.

"Sin must be redefined as deliberate disloyalty to Deity. There are degrees of disloyalty:

* the partial loyalty of indecision

* the divided loyalty of confliction

* the dying loyalty of indifference

* and the death of loyalty exhibited in devotion to godless ideals."​

Sarah, I like you, to me you seem more in the undecided/conflicted category, NOT dedicated to Godless ideals.

Some of the other nasty Atheist here are dedicated to Godlessness. But some are nice and Godless. Some had faith but left it, now they have returned to make fun of Christians and promote a Godless life.

Some people like me live a decided life, but get bord at work so we post on the net.

UB 1955

I understand why you need to feel that way.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Ok, dear Buddhist, you managed to create a religion without a God.

"Sin must be redefined as deliberate disloyalty to Deity. There are degrees of disloyalty:

* the partial loyalty of indecision

* the divided loyalty of confliction

* the dying loyalty of indifference

* and the death of loyalty exhibited in devotion to godless ideals."​

Sarah, I like you, to me you seem more in the undecided/conflicted category, NOT dedicated to Godless ideals.

Some of the other nasty Atheist here are dedicated to Godlessness. But some are nice and Godless. Some had faith but left it, now they have returned to make fun of Christians and promote a Godless life.

Some people like me live a decided life, but get bord at work so we post on the net.

UB 1955

There actually is a specific term for atheists who are explicitly against the belief in deities, and that would be antitheist. There are fewer than 5 people on here that explicitly claim to be so or express ideas that clearly could mean they must feel that way. Some atheists on here are just ornery in general, don't take it personally. Just because they tend towards rudeness doesn't mean they are necessarily close-minded. Most atheists are agnostic, as far as those who identify as atheist goes.

The thing is, the fact that most atheists are so uninvested in religion overall makes the ones who are all shouty and arrogant stand out

I narrowly avoided turning antitheist myself though