If mental illness can remove free will, should insane murderers go to hell?

Answer 1

Mental illness does not remove free will from a medical stand point, or a legal stand point, I believe. Mental illness and insanity are two different things. Insanity does not justify murder in my opinion. As for going to hell, well that's a debatable religious topic.

Answer 2

I m amazed at all the answers here which said Yes. These people are clarly not familiar with some of the more debilitating illnesses, such as paranoid schizophrenia. What if someone is having paranoid hallucinations? Then if he commits murder, it is possible that in his mind, it was all for self defense. Is it correct to send this person to jail and hell? I would say this is a really tough issue, but it does not seem morally justfied to do so.
PS. I dont think anyone has free will actually. Attitudes, opinions, and tastes are remarkably consistent in identical twins, even when they have been reared separately. And since we base our actions on attitudes, and opinions, our actions are not really free, but simply the result of a genetic cause.
Depressing, no?
This is my take on this anyways. I could be very wrong.

Answer 3

I answered your other question on this topic and I almost added this to it.One of God's greatest attributes is His mercy.His arm is not short and can save the lost from Hell at any given time so He choose to do so.We look at what the murderer has done but God looks into the heart and intentions that the murderer my have had. He also knows why the person is the way they are.He is a just God who has all the evidence.It would be good of you to pray for this person,I will.The prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Answer 4

It may be that we become mentally ill by how we react to our suffering. Sometimes suffering or being abused brings one closer to god but others reject god as having abandoned them and choose evil as a way of getting back.

Evil is a first a choice between good and evil.

Commit or fantasize about enough evil then your nature will truly become demonic in nature even though your form may not change that much physically in this world.

It is possible that that this is how hell's demons are created

In hell or the lower astral plane your form is determined by the vibration or energy level of your soul. Evil beings may take perverse please in manifesting their astral form as demonical.

Answer 5

The word “hell” is found in many Bible translations. In the same verses other translations read “the grave,” “the world of the dead,” and so forth. Other Bibles simply transliterate the original-language words that are sometimes rendered “hell”; that is, they express them with the letters of our alphabet but leave the words untranslated. What are those words? The Hebrew she’ohl′ and its Greek equivalent hai′des, which refer, not to an individual burial place, but to the common grave of dead mankind; also the Greek ge′enna, which is used as a symbol of eternal destruction. However, both in Christendom and in many non-Christian religions it is taught that hell is a place inhabited by demons and where the wicked, after death, are punished (and some believe that this is with torment).

“Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades and Gehenna by the word hell. The simple transliteration of these words by the translators of the revised editions of the Bible has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this confusion and misconception.”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1942), Vol. XIV, p. 81.

Translators have allowed their personal beliefs to color their work instead of being consistent in their rendering of the original-language words. For example: (1) The King James Version rendered she’ohl′ as “hell,” “the grave,” and “the pit”; hai′des is therein rendered both “hell” and “grave”; ge′en‧na is also translated “hell.” (2) Today’s English Version transliterates hai′des as “Hades” and also renders it as “hell” and “the world of the dead.” But besides rendering “hell” from hai′des it uses that same translation for ge′en‧na. (3) The Jerusalem Bible transliterates hai′des six times, but in other passages it translates it as “hell” and as “the underworld.” It also translates ge′en‧na as “hell,” as it does hai′des in two instances. Thus the exact meanings of the original-language words have been obscured.

Answer 6

Hi XXL,

Good question, no in the case of actual insanity, murder is not premeditated and therefore is not one of the two understood unpardonable sins.

Answer 7

What if perhaps you think this world is hell; therefore, you choose not to be a part of it, and are obsessed with fantasizing something better is coming after its over?

Answer 8

I think the god that designed their brains to have mental illness should take responsibility and go in their place.

Answer 9

Even the insane have the choice to accept God.

Therefore, hell is fitting for them, as they did not choose God.

Answer 10

No, they definitely should not. They are not responsible in the sense that they did not freely choose to commit the acts. Trouble is, who here can tell the difference: "There ain't no justice in this world." That's why we need the Big Guy.