Reflecting back on some of the things that lead to the end of my 30 year run of devout belief in the Bible and the Christian god, the idea of hell, especially as it pertains to a concept of justice and how it might impact my closest loved ones, was among the most corrosive problems for my faith-based belief.
Now, I know there are Christian groups who do not accept hell as a real place, or if it is, that it will not be used to punish people for eternity. There are many interpretations and variations on what hell is if it exists at all among people who self-identify as Christian. While I find some of those conceptions of hell or rejection of hell much more appealing and palatable than the concept of hell I was raised to believe in, as far as I can tell, the Christians who hold to a figurative or symbolic concept of hell or one that is not eternal don't have much ground to stand on from a biblical/textual perspective. It seems to me that they are simply disregarding the passages in the Bible that describe hell (see Rev 20:15 or Matt 25:46 for starters). As I read it, the Bible supports the idea of a real and eternal hell. And the only difference between people who suffer in the Christian hell for eternity and people who are sent to the Christian heaven is whether or not the person had the right beliefs. According to Romans 3:10, everyone deserves to burn in hell for eternity. The people who escape hell didn't do anything to deserve the pardon they received from that eternal punishment. They received Yahweh's unwarranted mercy in that they heard that he sacrificed his son to himself on their behalf, and he endowed them with the faith to believe that story and to accept the gift of the massacre of his son (who is also himself) on their behalf.
If you are a Christian and you reject the idea of an eternal hell or literal hell fire, that's fine. This post may not be for you. However, if you are a believer who does accept the idea of an eternal hell where unbelievers will be punished forever, please read on.
On to the topic at hand...
So it was probably close to 10 years ago now that I had an email exchange with my brother while I was still holding onto my religious beliefs. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my brother, who goes by the handle Turdle2080 and who I will refer to here simply as Turdle, had lost his faith years before I lost mine. In that email exchange, Turdle asked me what I believed about hell. I told him that I didn't know for sure. I said that the Bible seemed to teach that hell was a real place where those who did not accept Jesus as their savior were destined. I explained that I didn't know if my understanding of the passages that describe hell was correct and that I hoped my understanding was not accurate. But ultimately I deferred to the wisdom and sense of justice of the god I believed in.
The problem with that position is that it amounts to an admission that I didn't have any means to judge right from wrong. The act of burning a person in hell for eternity certainly seemed unjust, but I was willing to throw out my own sense of right and wrong in deference to a being that I thought was just. ...but if I lack the ability to evaluate the act carried out by the being, on what basis could I conclude that the being himself was just? I present a more thorough treatment of this problem in a post titled "A Broken Moral Compass". If my sense of justice comes from that god, why would that same sense of justice condemn his action in the afterlife?
I don't object to justice. And if there was some form of punishment for deeds that went unpunished in this life (setting aside the fact that there is no evidence for any kind of afterlife), I could get behind that, even if my family members or myself were the recipients of that punishment. But Christian hell is essentially a punishment for not believing. Unbelief is not a crime. Even if it was a crime, there is no crime that could possibly committed in a human lifetime that would warrant eternal torture.
The idea that Yahweh might torture Turdle for eternity did not sit well with me. But worse was the thought that I would be busy worshiping the deity who would be holding my brother in those conditions for eternity. The terror group, ISIS, has made a name for itself by publishing horrible acts of violence and torture on the internet. Here is a link to a Google search for videos that depict ISIS
burning people alive. Give one of them a watch. Imagine your loved one being put through that agony. How much gratitude and praise would you have for someone who was doing that to your loved one? What kind of moral character does a person have who would do something like burn a person to death? Yahweh will supposedly be subjecting the majority of humanity to this kind of torture for all of eternity because they didn't hear that he slaughtered his son, or if they did hear, they couldn't find purchase in those beliefs.
I plan to publish two or three more posts related to the Christian hell and some common apologetics I hear when I raise the issue of hell and justice. I hope you find them interesting and/or challenging.
Thank you for stopping by to read. Feel free to comment or message me. If you like my blog, please share and like it on social media.
Cheers,
Gavagai
Now, I know there are Christian groups who do not accept hell as a real place, or if it is, that it will not be used to punish people for eternity. There are many interpretations and variations on what hell is if it exists at all among people who self-identify as Christian. While I find some of those conceptions of hell or rejection of hell much more appealing and palatable than the concept of hell I was raised to believe in, as far as I can tell, the Christians who hold to a figurative or symbolic concept of hell or one that is not eternal don't have much ground to stand on from a biblical/textual perspective. It seems to me that they are simply disregarding the passages in the Bible that describe hell (see Rev 20:15 or Matt 25:46 for starters). As I read it, the Bible supports the idea of a real and eternal hell. And the only difference between people who suffer in the Christian hell for eternity and people who are sent to the Christian heaven is whether or not the person had the right beliefs. According to Romans 3:10, everyone deserves to burn in hell for eternity. The people who escape hell didn't do anything to deserve the pardon they received from that eternal punishment. They received Yahweh's unwarranted mercy in that they heard that he sacrificed his son to himself on their behalf, and he endowed them with the faith to believe that story and to accept the gift of the massacre of his son (who is also himself) on their behalf.
If you are a Christian and you reject the idea of an eternal hell or literal hell fire, that's fine. This post may not be for you. However, if you are a believer who does accept the idea of an eternal hell where unbelievers will be punished forever, please read on.
On to the topic at hand...
So it was probably close to 10 years ago now that I had an email exchange with my brother while I was still holding onto my religious beliefs. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my brother, who goes by the handle Turdle2080 and who I will refer to here simply as Turdle, had lost his faith years before I lost mine. In that email exchange, Turdle asked me what I believed about hell. I told him that I didn't know for sure. I said that the Bible seemed to teach that hell was a real place where those who did not accept Jesus as their savior were destined. I explained that I didn't know if my understanding of the passages that describe hell was correct and that I hoped my understanding was not accurate. But ultimately I deferred to the wisdom and sense of justice of the god I believed in.
The problem with that position is that it amounts to an admission that I didn't have any means to judge right from wrong. The act of burning a person in hell for eternity certainly seemed unjust, but I was willing to throw out my own sense of right and wrong in deference to a being that I thought was just. ...but if I lack the ability to evaluate the act carried out by the being, on what basis could I conclude that the being himself was just? I present a more thorough treatment of this problem in a post titled "A Broken Moral Compass". If my sense of justice comes from that god, why would that same sense of justice condemn his action in the afterlife?
I don't object to justice. And if there was some form of punishment for deeds that went unpunished in this life (setting aside the fact that there is no evidence for any kind of afterlife), I could get behind that, even if my family members or myself were the recipients of that punishment. But Christian hell is essentially a punishment for not believing. Unbelief is not a crime. Even if it was a crime, there is no crime that could possibly committed in a human lifetime that would warrant eternal torture.
I plan to publish two or three more posts related to the Christian hell and some common apologetics I hear when I raise the issue of hell and justice. I hope you find them interesting and/or challenging.
Thank you for stopping by to read. Feel free to comment or message me. If you like my blog, please share and like it on social media.
Cheers,
Gavagai
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