Imagine a man has a puppy. He's trying to potty train the dog, but the dog pees on the carpet again. So the man sets the dog on fire. If we heard about such a man, we'd say, "what a miserable excuse for a human being." Yet, we're supposed to believe that if we don't do exactly what God wants, he is also going to make us burn, FOR ALL ETERNITY. And yet, rather than say "Wow, what a miserable excuse for a deity", most people instead pretend he is a loving and wise lord. I don't get it.
2007-01-18 00:20:40 · 23 answers · asked by truth be told 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You Christians crack me up - "It's not all-loving, all-powerful God's fault that you burn forever. It's YOU that make the choice!" Sorry folks, but only a sadist says "Make the choice I want, or I'm going to see to it that you burn forever."
2007-01-18 00:43:39 · update #1
I don't pretend to respect or worship this god. In fact, I don't believe that a god exists.
2007-01-18 00:23:38 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
If you haven't got a body, and thus do not have a central nervous system, then fire and heat will have little impact on you.
This horrible story teaches people to stay on their knees and fear power and never question even the most irrational, dangerous authority figures. Why would you want kids to think they are so small and insignificant and powerless?
Why would God, the all knowing all powerful all good entity require so much worship and reassurance? Sounds much more like a human man's idea to me.
Save us from religion, the time has come.
2007-01-18 01:04:13 · answer #2 · answered by justagirl33552 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
With all the computer games out there I am sure this is feasible:
Make your own creature and give it free will. Make it a beautiful world and tell your creature to take care of it. Let it know that someday you will remove it from this world and give it a much better one. Your creation does what it wants and it finds other creations you made and kills them off, figuring with less creatures it will have more of what is in this world.
Then you think this won't do so you give it rules and boundaries.
But it decides it doesn't like your rules so it decides its a creator too; it mocks or destroys anything and anyone that reminds it you made it.
You tell me how pleased you would be with your own creation, what would you do?
2007-01-18 01:25:54 · answer #3 · answered by Tapestry6 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm a relatively new Christian so my theology may be wrong on this one, but you've asked a very interesting question and it has made me think. It was the LOVE of God which spoke to me, and I'm a Christian because I love God. I didn't become a Christian because I FEARED God - I'm not in it because of some idea of punishment or reward. My simple understanding is that if we die unreconciled to our creator then our soul spends eternity lost and apart from God's love. I don't go for the idea of literal flames. All I know is that to know God is to love him and it is God's desire that we all come to know and to love him. It's just that simple.
2007-01-20 02:33:58 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Its no longer a probability .My chum, there are consequences for each thing in existence. assume you're going finished % in a vehicle racing down a cliff: you've the determination of jumping out or staying interior the vehicle. once you die there's no waking up back( except interior the after existence). God has given us tens of millions of causes to love him and position self belief in him,why might want to we 2d wager Him? Are you somewhat waiting to take that chance? Even in Russian Roulette you've a million/2 a probability. Pray for preparation my chum and be kept. This existence isn't a movie, and that isn't any longer a do over in case you get it incorrect. all of us have questions of why this and why that, yet we ought to stay by technique of religion. "Now faith is the substance of factors became hoping for, the info of factors no longer seen". each thing is as God made it; no longer because it looks to us. we've the international a lot in our hearts, and so taken up with ideas and cares of worldly issues, that we've neither the time nor the spirit to make certain God's hand in them. " Be no longer deceived; God isn't mocked: for although a guy soweth, that shall he also acquire". God Bless you my chum, the alternative continues to be yours...
2016-10-15 09:49:41 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I, for one, would prefer eternal damnation over eternal servitude.
Thank you, I never looked at it that way.
There's two things that has always bothered me about God; 1. The one and only God=egotist. 2. Thou shalt have no other God before me. (is that an affirmation of other existing Gods?)=jealousy.
I believe in alot of Gods, the Christian God included. You are absolutely right, that is one God I do not respect or worship.
2007-01-18 00:39:31 · answer #6 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Mormons don't believe in hell. Mormons believe that our Earth lives are a testing/learning experience on a steady course of eternal progression. Mormons believe that everyone's after life will be better than their life here on earth.
Just ask your local missionaries for more information!
2007-01-18 11:18:01 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is sad that you have never experienced the love of the Lord. You see He is God and made everything. He even gave His only son to die for our sins, that is how mush He loves us and want us to live with Him for ever. But because Satan is stealing, lieing and killing He has to put an end to all evil.
God loves you to, just start loving Him and your life will never be the same.
2007-01-18 00:58:30 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
If I saw you standing at a cliff edge and you put one leg forward, would you accuse me of threatening you with a horrible death if I warned you of the existence of the unseeable force of gravity?
The ridiculous illustration you used is like the ones Jehovah's Witnesses use. They don't believe in hell either. Try working with accurate comparisons, please. Jesus gave one in the account of a poor guy dying then going to a heavenly reward beside Abraham. When the rich guy, at whose gate he used to sit begging, died, he found himself in torments. Not because he was rich (just as Lazarus didn't get in to heaven simply because he was poor). The rich guy pleaded with Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers who were still alive on earth, to warn them and so prevent them ending up in hell too. But he was told, No, the warnings were already written in the Hebrew scriptures. So the rich man said they WOULD listen and REPENT if someone rose from the dead. No, Abraham said, they won't be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.
Jesus is rarely accused of being an evil, scaremongering theologian. He has the enviable reputation of being the most loving person ever to walk this earth, prior to his death and resurrection. Now, do you 'get it'?
P.S. with ccttctl's comments in mind: A mocking illustration was used by the questioner. Jesus used one that squared exactly with his listeners' beliefs about the after-life. Jesus never mentioned being in torment for eternity, nor that "Abraham's bosom" meant heaven. He used the strongest, clearest language possible for his hearers so they would grasp something of the enormity of eternity. Yes, it was a parable, designed to expose what was in the listeners' hearts. Of course there's no communication between heaven and hell, nor would a drop of water help anyone in flaming torment - it would evaporate before getting near him! But there are truths to be learned from the words Jesus chose. Will we enter into Jesus' dialogue with him, to learn more, or will we accuse God of being an evil sadist, thereby hardening our hearts?
2007-01-18 00:45:09 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
If you can prove from the Bible that God is going to give immortality to those who reject Him or Christ so that they can spend eternity in flames, I will send you a money order for $200.00 dollars or more.
Just post your proof here or send me your email address and I will correspond with you to forward the money to your home address.
If you cannot show this to be true from the Bible, then it is merely someone's opinion and a misrepresentation of God's character.
It is not good to tell lies about God or the Bible.
God never promises the gift of immortality to those who reject His love and His offer to help them develop beautiful characters for heaven.
No where in the Bible does God promise to make unrighteous people immortal so that they can spend billions of milleniums in flames of fire.
Those who reject the love of God and His offer to transform their characters through faith in Jesus Christ will be punished in the lake of fire but not throughout the endless cycles of eternity.
Those who perish in the lake of fire described in Revelation will perish because of their unfitness for heaven.
The parable of Lazarus and the rich man is often used to support the false teaching of eternal damnation.
IT IS A PARABLE. Notice this verse concerning how Jesus related to the multitudes....
Matthew 13:34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
Mark 4:34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
Many people make the mistake of forming a teaching from one passage or one verse in the Bible. According to the rest of the Bible....
1. The righteous are not taken by angels to Abraham's bosom
after death while the wicked are buried
2. Heaven is not in Abraham's bosom.
3. A person in hell does not have communication with a person in
heaven.
4. The unrighteous are destroyed in the lake of fire along with the devil, death and hell itself.
Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
In order to be prepared to live in heaven a person must have a Christlike character.
A Christlike character is the only kind of character that can enjoy heaven and the only kind of character that can be trusted in heaven.
We can have this kind of character before we die by receiving God's grace through prayer each day of our lives and striving against the selfishness of our sinful nature as we keep our eyes fixed upon the beauty of Christ's character.
Show N Tell
2007-01-18 00:46:29 · answer #10 · answered by ccttct l 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋