Torture And Punishment In The Afterlife
Thank you for your response Fahad. We both agree that Hitler was a deplorable human who perpetrated countless of acts of evil, but torturing him won’t erase the harm he did in his life, and it probably won’t show him the error of his ways either. It would be better for him to be educated by god and his angels in the afterlife instead of tortured. If there is no hell, people can still understand that their actions have consequences. You don’t have to believe in hell to realize that some actions hurt other people and should be avoided. And there are more reasons to be good than out of fear of punishment. Doing the right thing is obvious for anyone who thinks about it, even for people who don’t believe in god or hell. Thus, god doesn’t need to, and shouldn’t, threaten people into being good. I choose to turn away from evil even though I don’t believe that I’ll be rewarded for good deeds or that I’ll be punished for bad ones. Doing the right thing is its own reward, and the threat of hell is unnescessary to make people good. It’s unnescessary in my case at least. I believe that justice is when one tries to solve a problem or conflict between people in such a way that maximizes prosperity for as many people as possible while minimizing the suffering of as many people as possible as well. To me, torturing hitler wouldn’t be an example of justice because it doesn’t solve any of the problems he made, nor does it improve him as a person, nor does it help the people he hurt. All it does is inflict unnescessary pain on an evil human. So me, justice involves thinking of ways to help an evildoer realize their mistakes in a humane manner, while also compensating the victims for the harm they suffered. And while god will compensate the victims, hell is not humane or a good method of teaching. It is only vindictive. I hope nothing I’ve written here will offend anyone. And I’m not saying this to be unnescessarily combative either. But I have to present my questions as arguments for them to be properly voiced.