Can omniscience, omnibenevolent and hell co-exist?

Question

Truth: according to the Bible god is omniscient (all-knowing) and omnibenevolent (all-good). Plus hell is a place for the unrighteous.

However, a good god creating a person knowing that he'd just send them to hell in the end means he isn't good. Even if it's only foreknowledge... Simply knowing that a child will die if they wander onto the freeway, yet letting a "preventable event" occur is still cruel.

So my question is, can we avoid the unavoidable?

Answer 1

I'll spare you the 1,000,001 reasons why I'm an atheist, but sufficient to say, there are a LOT of very basic and fundamental contradictions in theology.

One of the (many) benefits of being an atheist is that being outside of a religion, I can view it with an objectivity impossible for a True Believer. Believers in one religion will look at the teachings of another and think, "oh, that's just a bunch of fairy tales and barbarian history." But these same believers will refuse to take that same view towards their own religion, if only because it's the religion that they were raised to believe in, and because they WANT to believe in it.

The heaven/hell concept was not original to xtianity. It came about as a way to both enforce morality and as a comfortable delusion that death was not really final. Virtually every religion employs similar concepts. For instance in Buddhism, morality enforcement is through the notion of karma (if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you), and reincarnation serves as the comfort against the finality of death. The now-extinct religions of ancient Egypt and Greece also used these concepts of morality enforcement and an afterlife.

There are some Buddhists, and a very few xtian sects, who teach that good deeds should be done for their own sake, with no expectation of reward either now or after death. This is also my belief as an atheist. Heaven & hell are a reward/punishment system that basically treats adults like children. Mature adults should not need threats or enticements to be good people.

To answer your final question, I would say that the "unavoidable," isn't. The theologists (most of them, anyway) say that god gave us free will and the ability to choose. True free will is incompatible with living in a deterministic universe. Thus, if the xtian god existed, then either he isn't omniscient, or he's lying to us about having given us free will. If he could know the future then that means the future has been determined, and we don't have free will and are thus not truly responsible for our actions or morality.

Throw in the Old Testament, and the xtian god is looking less and less like a being worthy of worship....

Answer 2

No, I don't think those three facets can co-exist. I know a lot of people say that they don't *really* contradict each other, but, come on, hell being created by an unconditionally-loving god? If the biblical god were human on earth today, he'd be in prison for the actions he's credited with in the Bible. The holocaust camps were basically hell on earth, and we condemn the men who created them. If Hitler said he felt benevolence towards the Jews, we'd laugh in his face.

Answer 3

To your main question, the answer is yes, for on Earth and like planes of duality -- whether high or low -- all do indeed co-exist.

And to your last question, the answer is open; it depends: whereof it is absolutely unavoidable, the only mitigation is whether it be sooner or later, the speed at which the Cycles move, and not whether it be at all.

That such an edict carries as told-forth is inevitable.

Answer 4

Your beliefs are mine. This is why I'm agnostic. Truely, why would you make someone just to send them to Hell?
I think Hell is the most uncreative place ever thought of. A room full of fire? Come on, give me something better.

You can avoid the unavoidable by taking a new route.

Answer 5

Truth: You are in error! God is not omniscient -- if he were he could not have imbued his creation with free will. Thus he has set a limit to his knowledge that he will not cross.
http://bythebible.page.tl/Predestination-Debunked.htm

Truth: God is love -- therefore, hell in the sense of a place where people are tormented does not exist and this is not taught by the Bible!

Rather, the Bible teaches that sinners shall die -- nothing less, nothing more. These who die have paid for their sins by dying therefore they are sinless in death!
Rom 6: (KJV)
23For the wages of sin is death;
7For he that is dead is freed from sin.

See the following subjects on HP: http://www.bythebible.page.tl/

Soul[Immortal & Animal, What?] Man’s Spirit
Condition of the Dead:[ One & Two, Special Scriptures ]
Sheol and Judgment
Link for "one"
http://bythebible.page.tl/1-.--Dead__the-condition-of--.---.---.--.htm

Answer 6

Omniscience is understanding all. Predetermined would not advise understanding all. you are able to comprehend all approximately something devoid of controlling it. the place in the Bible does it say god is "all Benevolent and all-powerful?" he's purely. Justice is on account that all of us receives what they deserve. Sinners deserve Hell. via who's standards? His...he created the international so he receives to set the factors. His standards are perfection, so all of us fall short. The punishment is dying and somebody could pay the fee. because of the fact he enjoyed us and should be with us, Jesus took our punishment so justice could nonetheless be served and he might have a relationship with us. wish that helped :) Im a Christian and that i think of its all style of confusing, so i will see how a non-believer could be at a loss for words...yet i attempted to state truthfully and easily what i comprehend to be authentic.

Answer 7

You've just answered your question. You cannot avoid something you cannot avoid, (unavoidable.) Besides, It's unavoidable, by that mere prefix "un-" you are stating that you cannot avoid it.