On Apr 7, 2009 7:27am, helen/zhebee wrote:
>
>
> Hello again
>
> I hope for your sake that you are right about hell
> but what if you are not right ......then what?
>
> Helen


If I am "not right" about hell?

Well, there are literally billions of possibilities that are very different or slightly different than my idea that there is no place where God designated for people who Don't Love Him to be tortured.

However, if it comes to that One Remotest of Possibilities, I would have to conclude that there is a God, and He is the worst possible being to have ever existed. I would have to conclude that some people worship this horrible monster, knowing that It made a rule that when people don't love It, that they would be forced to roil in non-consuming flames for eternity, which is just as far from 100,000 billion years as one year is.

I'd have a couple choices as a moral human being.

1. Drop to my knees and worship this monster, because of the threat.
2. Fight, no matter how useless that fight would be.

Those who drop to their knees and worship would be justified, since it's not really a moral choice anyway. If someone has a loaded gun pulled on you, whatever you do is not your fault anymore. It's self-defense, pure and simple. But it's the cruelest thing any being could do, save for, I guess, threatening to torture one's children forever.

Those who fight are those who have nothing left to lose against such a horrible, alien being. But hey, at least they retained their dignity at the last moment before the eternal torture commences. Those in heaven get to live for eternity thinking that the ones being tortured forever, perhaps family members, people they loved more than their own lives, "deserved it."

I cannot help but wonder what kind of terrible "heaven" it would be, knowing one was chosen by this bloodthirsty monster, and knowing that one's beloveds are screaming in pain. Some I've talked to told me they would be allowed to watch while people like me were screaming and crying for water, or relief from their wounds. What kind of person thinks this, Helen. Would he be a good christian, in your judgment? Would he deserve the kind of heaven you imagine?

Thing is, Helen, most people deny God's omnipotence at this point and pretend that He has no power to stop this horror from happening; that somehow it's Not His Fault, His Hands are Tied. What kind of God is that? He made Hell, according to the bible, and of course, being God who created EVERYTHING, created the rule (terrible threat) that everyone who does not love him must go there. So, really, if He denies any responsibility, he's more immoral than I thought before.

Some try to mitigate this Horror by pretending that Hell is "only" eternal separation from God. I ask, is this okay? "no!" I ask, "is it tolerable?" "NO!" I ask, "Is it the worst thing to ever happen to someone?" They say "YES!"

So, then, how is this not torture? It's worse than what the Vietkong did to people, right? Of course right, because it's the worse punishment imaginable, this Twilight-Zone-type hell.

So, Helen, if I am "wrong about Hell," you might very well be a terrible person for worshiping your God. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume you're a good person who just never really thought about the implications of a God who allows eternal torment. But now that you've read this, I hope you think about it the next time you point your finger at someone like me and assume that I deserve this kind of torture. After all, if I deserve it "after I'm dead," then it logically follows that they might as well put me in a torture camp right now, for being an unbeliever.

Is that really the kind of person you are, Helen?