Is worshipping a god who (you believe) to have created a hell for nonbelievers, an act of COWARDICE???

Question

See, here's the deal.
You claim to love the "god" you worship.
You also believe that "he" will torture you for
all eternity, if you don't accept "him."
So there is an element of FEAR in your "acceptance"
of this deity. You are motivated (if only subconsciously!)
not by LOVE for the deity, but by the same thing that makes
you grovel in front of a mob boss, loanshark, or schoolyard
bully. The emotion of FEAR, which is an ANIMAL reaction
to a threat. Here you have a guy who is threatening to torture
you, or maybe your friends and family who refuse to grovel
before "him." (Not to mention, if the "carrot" ("heaven") is so great, why does "god" need to hold up the specter of a torture pit to beat people into this "heaven" - e.g., the "stick"? This sounds like something old Vlad Dracula might do.)
So, is choosing to grovel in the face of THIS threat, not an act
of dog-like, cringing cowardice? (Even as grovelling before a playground bully and giving him all your lunch money every day is..?)

To "Laptop Jesus":
Yeah, I DON'T know "God",
and I don't want to.
To "God":
***If you exist, you can suck a fart out
of my a$$!***
Hey, no lightning bolt. No heart attack.
(Guess there's no "God" after all..!)

Answer 1

Hell was created for satan, if you chose to follow him there that's your own choice

Answer 2

I am an Atheist BUT I'd be much more likely to believe in Invisible Sky Critter that said: I love you unconditionally like I do my woman or child. I can relate to that.

I am much more likely to believe in something that said: you can come live in my house for as long as you like whether you like me or not but if you do come and stay you gotta be nice or you're out in the cold.

Worshipping or Loving the Invisible Sky Critter cos you're scared you'll go to hell if you don't is not love - it's no more than common blackmail with NO honourable way out.

This xian Invisible Sky Critter saying: Be my b*tch or go to hell, leaves me a bit cold; I’m glad the God Delusion is no more than a Voluntary Psychosis that people, who are too frightened to accept the finality of death or the aloneness of each one of us in this universe, ascribe to.

Answer 3

Firstly, bullies don't torture you for eternity. 1 John 4:18 explains it nicely. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." Considering that Jesus said that it would easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man enter the Kingdom of God, I think that he knew how to use literary devices to get his point across.

I think that heaven and hell have taken on the characteristics of two approaches to mythology. I have been reading a web page that calls them reductive hermeneutics and innovatory hermeneutics and I'm theorising that they are like Joseph Campbell's traditional and creative mythology. Traditional mythology, at any rate, needs creative mythology in order for society to continue as is. Innovatory hermeutics, then, represents the colloquial meaning of hell. "Innovatory hermeneutics could provoke an excessive proliferation of significances, owing to which the figurative power of images, allegories or symbols might lead to a more and more evanescent imaginativeness, provided by an exclusively subjective validity, never linked to any collective reference." Reductive hermeneutics is heaven where people don't know what all the harps are for. "Reductive hermeneutics might tend towards an excessive materialisation of myths and symbols, whose creative signifiers end by being irremediably lost."

The word for how Satan takes people captive is derived from words that mean hunting animals. 2 Timothy 3:25, 26. Jude also backs up that people who are false Christians are like unreasoning animals in verse 10. Christians are the light of the world. They are often poor and oppressed too, as in James 4:6 - "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble and oppressed."

Advancing the work of God's Kingdom in the world takes love, for which we need God's guidance and Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22, 23)

Answer 4

It's not cowardice. There are many good religious people that truly believe that their religion is the only true one. There's a disconnect though where they don't think about the evil and injustice of a god that would allow any creation to burn for eternity for a finite sin. I'd compare it to someone who is very political (on either side) and can't see any wrong in their chosen parties politics. Humans are very good at this.

Answer 5

I choose freedom over the slavery of being afraid. I'd probably get flamed for this but if the christian god was a god of something besides just god of all gods, I'd say god of war. Because in norse Odin was god of all gods but also god of wisdom and magic. In a way I see the islamic god and christian god as both gods of war. For all we know they could both be real and using us as pawns for their war between each other. But I don't even really know if any gods actually exist, no one does to been honest. We'll find out when we die, I for one don't want to find out anytime soon.

Answer 6

At first i accepted Jesus into my heart because I was scared to go to hell. I was around 12 and petrified. However, I was very young and didn't know enough about God to understand what I know now. I believe Jesus died and rose again for my sins because I really believe He did that for me. Yes, Heaven will be a wonderful place yet, that is not why I believe. Neither is going to hell a motivation for me to believe. Hell was created for Satan and his demons. It was never intended for humans until sin entered.

Answer 7

The fallacy in your approach is one of emphasis. The fear for the loan shark, mob boss, schoolyard bully, etc., is *primary* and NOT "subconscious." You cannot have it both ways.

Consider our love for our parents. They enforced their rules to one degree or another and we, hopefully, sought to conform to those rules to avoid discipline. That "fear," however, didn't cause us to "grovel" before them. The parent-child bond is far greater than this so-called subconscious fear. If all my parents did was beat & threaten me, I would not love them like I do now (if at all). The love they've shown me all my life BY FAR outweighs whatever discipline I may have received.

Similarly, the supreme love of our heavenly Father far outshines whatever spiritual discipline we may have received. If you're not a coward for loving your parents, then neither are you a coward for loving God.

Skeet

Answer 8

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. The great theologian Jonathan Edwards motivated many to come to faith in Christ with his famous sermon, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." Truly, whatever motivates one to come to Christ in believing faith, to have their eyes opened to their dire condition, is a blessing. But when they do exercise believing faith, they don't find a God who is a "playground bully." They find a God who inflicted the worst of all punishment upon His own Son to redeem all those who will turn to Him in faith believing. Even folks such as yourself, who will have to give an account for every word (or typed text) coming out of their mouth. Consider the merits of Christ before it is everlastingly too late for yourself. Read Romans 1-8.

Answer 9

You are making incorrect assumptions. God doesn't have to punish us at all. The natural consequences of our actions are what punishes us. Because we are fallen and sinful people, our actions are inevitably going to lead us to physical and spiritual death.

That is why Christ had to come. Because only He had the power to overcome death. And He did it. He atoned for our sins and overcame death. but how can His gift help us if we dont accept it? If people choose to not take advantage of the Gift God has given them, God won't force them. In deed, He can't force them because it would be contrary to His laws regarding agency.

So if people refuse the gift, they are left to face the natural consequences of their actions on their own according to their own choice. How is God to blame for your choice to face the consequences of your actions alone when He gives you every chance to face the consequences of your actions and change your ways with Him?

Your actions have consequences. Those who stand up and face them with God are not the ones who are afraid. The people who continue to run away from the consequences of their actions, to pretend there are none, who do whatever they can to put off dealing with them as long as they can who are afraid.

You see, perfect loves casts out fear. So when you feel the love of God, fear leaves your life and is replaced with faith, hope, and charity.

Answer 10

No. It's more like prison or the death penalty is to a criminal. Our own laws, in effect say, if we break the law, we know what we can expect. It's a deterrent. If there were no penalty for wrongdoing, there would be little need for laws. If I can steal your car but suffer no repercussion from the law for doing so, why should I worry about it? If there were no punishment for murder, why not just murder everybody a person disagrees with? Should there be no rules and no punishment for wrongdoing? It's not out of fear that one comes to God. It's out of love and thanks. Most people don't go to church because they feel that if they don't go God will punish them. Most go to Church to say "Thank You" to God. Thank you for the good I have in life. Thank you for making possible my deliverance from sin so I don't need to fear going to hell (a place I deserve to go because of the many sins I have committed.) Thank you for forgiving me and giving me something I can't attain or deserve, by myself. God offers us forgiveness. He doesn't force us to accept it. We love Him because He has given us forgiveness, via Jesus, so we won't reap what we actually deserve. God has taken our sin away, and we thank Him for it. The Bible says that the wadges of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. We thank Him for it.

Answer 11

Your dead right. I am afraid of a spiritual being that can send me to a place called hell. I sure as hell didn't like the idea and would have done anything to avoid it. Fortunately I didn't have to. He did it simply for the asking.