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Re: Question for Christians #1
Reply #20 - Apr 15^th, 2012 at 4:35pm

Mercy For All wrote on Apr 14^th, 2012 at 9:47pm:

I think it's more comfortable than the presence of an all-powerful God that they have willfully rejected.

I don't believe that God is absent in Hell. It is described as a place of torment where God is an active agent of judgement. Is Hell the absence of God? I believe it is the absence of God's benevolence and favor.

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Mercy For All

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Re: Question for Christians #1
Reply #21 - Apr 15^th, 2012 at 9:46pm

DV wrote on Apr 15^th, 2012 at 9:59am:

So the term is not defined anywhere in the Bible?

The word "hell" is an English word that is not defined in the Bible. It is used to translate a number of words (e.g., Gehenna, Tartarus, Hades), all of which mean different things.

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Does your god allow a person to decide, in the first instance, after death?

I don't think so. I'd like to be wrong.

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If they rejected a caricature of the god, then they did not reject the god. In that case, does your god permit a re-election (after death)?

Possibly, I don't know.

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DV LNF Representative2 Offline RELIGION IS BLISS Posts: 1,666 Gender:	Re: Question for Christians #1 Reply #22 - Apr 15^th, 2012 at 11:54pm Quote: The word "hell" is an English word that is not defined in the Bible. It is used to translate a number of words (e.g., Gehenna, Tartarus, Hades), all of which mean different things. Are any of those terms defined in the Bible?
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Mercy For All

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Re: Question for Christians #1
Reply #23 - Apr 16^th, 2012 at 12:03am

DV wrote on Apr 15^th, 2012 at 11:54pm:

Are any of those terms defined in the Bible?

I don't believe they are. You have to look at extra-biblical sources, and take into account cultural connotations and the implications of each of them if you want to understand each one.

For example, "Gehenna" was a literal place in the time of Jesus...a dump outside the city of Jerusalem where garbage was burned.

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amanwithaplan Ex Member	Re: Question for Christians #1 Reply #24 - Apr 16^th, 2012 at 11:33am In our society, we punish criminals mainly as an example to the others, in order to discourage them from following the criminals' example. Punish people after death on the other hand doesn't make any sense as the living ones will never know. It's just an act of gratuitous cruelty.
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Mercy For All

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Re: Question for Christians #1
Reply #25 - Apr 16^th, 2012 at 4:18pm

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In our society, we punish criminals mainly as an example to the others, in order to discourage them from following the criminals' example. Punish people after death on the other hand doesn't make any sense as the living ones will never know. It's just an act of gratuitous cruelty.

Unless it's equivalent to a punishment that is voluntary chosen, like the effects of drug addiction.

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Re: Question for Christians #1
Reply #26 - Apr 17^th, 2012 at 12:26am

Mercy For All wrote on Apr 16^th, 2012 at 4:18pm:

Unless it's equivalent to a punishment that is voluntary chosen, like the effects of drug addiction.

Even if your comparison wasn't an apologetic stretch it would still be inadequate. We can all see the effects of drug addiction on others, no one has actually seen the effects of hell on anybody. Plus someone who suffers the effects of drug addition can still amend his ways as a result and stop taking drugs, no one who suffers hell can stop whatever it is that sent him to hell. So your comparison is doubly invalid.

So it's by no means an equivalent to the effects of drug addiction.

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Writers_Block LNF Speaker LNF Bunker Offline Posts: 18,344 Florida Gender:	Re: Question for Christians #1 Reply #27 - Apr 17^th, 2012 at 1:40am Mercy For All wrote on Apr 13^th, 2012 at 11:52pm: Hell is the absence of God--the choice of those who refuse God. You don't believe in a literal hell?
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Re: Question for Christians #1
Reply #28 - Apr 17^th, 2012 at 1:43am

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In our society, we punish criminals mainly as an example to the others, in order to discourage them from following the criminals' example

No, that isn't "mainly" the reason. A person commits a crime, he suffers the consequences.

If it was for the purpose of discouraging others, then we've failed miserably.

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. Punish people after death on the other hand doesn't make any sense as the living ones will never know. It's just an act of gratuitous cruelty.

Thus proving my point about your statement as punishment discouraging others. The purpose is to PUNISH the individual.

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amanwithaplan

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Re: Question for Christians #1
Reply #29 - Apr 17^th, 2012 at 2:49am

Writers_Block wrote on Apr 17^th, 2012 at 1:43am:

No, that isn't "mainly" the reason. A person commits a crime, he suffers the consequences.

If it was for the purpose of discouraging others, then we've failed miserably.

The purpose is to maintain law and order not to punish people for the sake of punishing them which would be pointless and sadistic even. Your argument about failure is as moronic as they come, as is usual with you, doctors for example eventually fail to keep people alive yet that is their main purpose, in other words you are an idiot!
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Thus proving my point about your statement as punishment discouraging others. The purpose is to PUNISH the individual.

Punish people for eternity without possibility of reprieve is just pure sadism but I am not surprised that a worthless lout like you would advocate such a thing.

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