411314

I've often heard religious people insist, in response to someone pointing out the imorality of a God who sends people to Hell, that God doesn't send people to Hell. I read a comment on the net from someone who called this response "BS". Does anyone else think this is "BS" and if so, could they explain why? Did God supposedly create Hell (I'm not that familiar with Christian mythology).

Og

No. Hell is a state of mind. It's the absence of the divine in your life. When you die, you have no sensory experience, muscle control, memory, or anything like consciousness that you know in life. These are all demonstrably components of a physical body that fails on death.

Heaven and Hell are states of mind right now.

See the last verse of the Gospel of Thomas.

"The kingdom of heaven will NOT come by expectation. The kingdom of heaven is laid out upon the earth, it is only that men do not see it" (paraphrased).

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Jasen777

The whole picture is a bit confused because of the various names and indeed different beliefs of the after life presented in the Bible (the idea gradually developed throughout the Old Testament period through the inter-testament period). And the fact that the after life is spoken about symbolically. Also, in the Book of Revelation

Standard Christian belief is that God made hell as the place where Satan and the other fallen angels go. People who finally reject God's offer of salvation wind up there as well because God can't have sin in his presence in heaven.

The idea that God doesn't send people to hell stems from the doctrine of original sin, that people have inherited a fallen nature from Adam. Thus, people are destined to hell already, unless they accept God's offer of salvation. So it's really the person's fault if they go to hell because they didn't accept God's offer.

I would call that pretty much BS.

There's a Christian subset, called Reformed (mostly Calvinist) that believes that God has in fact predestined who would go to heaven. Although it would seem logical then that the converse would then also be true, that God then predestined who would go to hell, that belief is only held by the extreme Calvinists, termed hyper-Calvinists (by other Calvinists of course, hyper-Calvinists would consider themselves true Calvinists and thus true Christians).

AB517

yep, you are not understanding. What religion are you?

it is not an offer in the wat you seem to be using the word..

411314

But why? I'm not disagreeing, I'm just curious.

Jasen777

I am an ex-Christian who is very educated on the subject. My post accurately represents what the normal "just Christian" to conservative evangelicals to fundamentalists Christians in the United States believe. That is, the type of person that I assume the original question was referring to. Reading it again, I see that it could also be from a person who says there is no hell, the liberal evangelical to many mainstream (that is liberal denominations) Christian position, but I don't think so.

Because, according to orthodox Christian belief, God foresaw (or for some, preordained) what was going to happen. He created people, he created hell, and he did so knowing that the majority of people would wind up in hell. And presumably God is the one who "physically" places humans in hell.

411314

Not according to the people I'm referring to in my original post, at least if I understand them correctly.

romansh

411314
Can you tell us exactly why you care.
Then, perhaps, a better answer may be forthcoming?
all the best.

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411314

Just curiosity and a desire to start what I thought would be an interesting discussion. Those are the only reasons for most of my posts. Isn't that really the point of this forum?

Lecter

Depends on the religion. Everyone has different beliefs regarding the afterlife.

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