Would you still love God if you weren't afraid of him torturing you for all eternity?

So, to go to Heaven, you have to love God more than anything else in the world. More than your spouse, more than your kids, more than yourself, etc. If you don't love God, not only do you not go to Heaven, but you go to a place where you are burned and tortured endlessly for all eternity.

How messed up of a belief, is this? You don't love anybody because you're afraid of what happens when you don't. That's like a woman with an abusive boyfriend who just got out of jail. This should be common sense, not blasphemy. If God didn't want us to question ideas like this, he shouldn't have given us the ability to think critically.

 

Is that first scripture from the book of Budweiser?

 

I don't fear God, I love him for my life and his hand keeping me.

 

***Like***

 

ummm.. You've heard of the non-Christian concept of Karmic Justice right? That people who do bad things to other people will, at some point down the road, suffer some kind of punishment by some kind of higher force? Perhaps in the form of some kind of "bad luck"?

Well, if you replace "Karma" with "God" and you replace "down the road" with "after you die" you get the Christian version of Karmic Justice.

 

I don't quite get how God can be omnipotent and omniscient - but still be vengeful. For a Supreme Being - he really has got some serious personality problems.

 

what if 'he' is a 'she'?


all are in love with breathing, eating and pooping.................... so all are in love with god (mother nature)

pedophiles loves to have sex with children too.


lots of sick, selfish love


heck, some people love to believe some dude is on a thrown and they can accept being tortured for all eternity simply for lying to believe in an imaginary HIM.

 

There's a good thread about 'Hell' going elsewhere. Clearly all this drivel is part of the Papal corruption of Christianity, historically interesting but not worth laughing at much. A sick concept!

 

A Christian will tell you that the belief is not sick and demented, that god loves us all.

This same Christian will turn around and say "I will pray for your soul" when you admit to being an atheist.

Its an amusing contradiction.

 

what do you mean?

The papacy is like jesus; they forgive pedophiles

 

Only if they're in the priesthood!

 

if a person is preaching the bible, then what are they?

 

I thnik the idea of Hell is what turns indifference toward God into hatred of the concept for a lot of people.
Good point, Brewskier. But I think the notion of Hell is medeival, and given how they thought authority and loyalty worked back then, it's consistent.

Karma only punishes people in relation to what evil they did.
In that viewpoint someone in Hell would eventually burn off all their bad karma (ehich is like Purgatory I guess... but who believes in Purgatory anymore?)... and strangely, they'd start to earn infinite good karma as they burn eternally? In Hinduism, they'd cease to exist once everything evened out maybe... but that doesn't get figured until a body dies.

The ideas are radically different due to the whole "eternity" thing.
Hinduism holds that everybody gets all the chances they need.
Traditionalist Christianity holds that you get one, then suffer forever.
Though I see some hope that in the future Christianity may move away from these traditionalist beliefs. Eventually fundamentalists will die off.

I think in the medeival Catholic conception, praying for someone was how you got them out of Purgatory. Of course the prayers had to come from Catholics.
Maybe that's where the origin lies.

 

Not true. Even good people will be tortured endlessly if they don't accept Jesus as savior. It is nothing like karmic justice. It's "if you don't join our religion, our god will torture you for all eternity."

That's what Christians believe. It has nothing to do with good or bad behavior.

 

I don't think any Christians believe any such squalid nonsense, though American fundamentalists and such may do. I wish at least some people would read at least some modern theology and stop pretending they lived in the Seventeenth Century.

 

Have you read Dante's Divine Comedy?

There is the Christian concept of eternal justice, laid out for all to see.

 

Have you read the New Testament as a person living now? Dante's a great SF writer and poet, but nothing to do with the question.

 

Would you still fear your boss, if you weren't afraid of him giving you the pink slip and getting fired.?

In all, it's about respecting, and adoreing the creator Almighty God. Obeying his rules of life, and avoiding sin to the best of your capability.

"Plans are Mans - Odd's are God's".

Awesome.

 

I would try very hard to avoid working with a bully-boy whose idea of a proper work-environment was fear.

 

what if god is a she (mother nature)? giggle giggle

then the 'odd's' claim fits. ie.... homosexual intercourse is against the odd's of procreation (living into the next generation)

In a sense that snip above was kind of cool. The problem is the idiots think 'god' is some dude on a thrown making rules, when mankind is just defining them as a part of god (mother nature)

ie.... the rules just exist and mankind is simply learning them

 

Thus guaranteeing that no one ever sees justice for what they do, because there is no god, and what happens after you die is meaningless.

 

Interesting, but wrong theologically. My love of my spouse and children is part of my love of God.

I love strawman arguments like the above.

Also, I honestly don't fear hell as a Christian. God is merciful, and gives us the chance to repent. Of course we should question things. I don't know of many Christians (that I've been close enough to, to discuss this issue) who don't question things.