From: kevin@taronga.taronga.com (Kevin Brown)
Subject: Re: The After-life
Reply-To: kevin@taronga.taronga.com (Kevin Brown)
Organization: Minimal.
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 07:43:54 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.202524.26862@tc.fluke.COM> emery@tc.fluke.COM (John Emery) writes:
>In article <1992Apr7.012115.7172@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> erisande@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Erin Anderson) writes:
>>
>>	Question...  If there is such a Being as God, or whatever they
>>call him now, IF he exists, Then how can Hell be posible?  My eartly
>>father would not want to punish me for the rest of my life, why would
>>the Heavenly Father (who MUST love me more than the earthly father)
>>put me in punishment forever? 
>
>He doesn't, Eric.   He wills completely the opposite.  In fact He has
>gone to radical extremes to prevent this from happening, even to the
>point of sending His own eternal Son to pay the penalty due us.

This is so incredibly bogus that it's hard for me to believe that *anyone*
buys this junk.

This "God" SET UP THE RULES.  And here you are claiming that "He has gone
to radical extremes to prevent this [people going to Hell] from happening".

What a load of baloney.

If your "God" set up the rules (defined consequences of things, etc.), he
can CHANGE THEM AT WILL.  Yet your "God" DOESN'T EVEN BOTHER.

"Radical extremes" indeed.  It looks like a fireworks show to me,
designed to impress the masses, but having no real substance.


>> Even if it is because he wants you to
>>learn your lesson, isn't it a bit far to take it?
>
>Yes, I would say that it would be.  He is not trying to teach a lesson,
>He's in the business of loving and saving.  

Like Hell (pardon the pun).

>2 Peter 3:9 says that "he
>is patient with you, not wanting *anyone* to perish, but *everyone* to
>come to repentance."

*Snicker*.  Gee, if that were the case, there would *be* no ETERNAL
punishment, would there?  Rather, he would arrange for everyone to have
eternal life automatically, and allow people to come to him or leave
him as they please.  Free will is preserved because people can still
choose to come to God or not of their own free will, and even change
their mind at any time.

Now *there's* a solution in which *everyone* wins.  "God" wins because
he maximizes the likelihood that any given person will eventually come
to him (given an infinite amount of time and a nonzero probability
that any given individual will come to him, everyone eventually will).
All the people win because they never die, and have infinite opportunity
to do whatever pleases them (God can even arrange for people to be able
to "kill" others, only to resurrect the victim, so that those who take
pleasure in killing can do so without doing any permanent harm).

But does he (according to you) do this?  Noooooo.

Instead, he makes demands: "Love Me Or Else You Will Be Dead".
"Believe In Me Or You Will Roast For Eternity".  Etc., ad nauseum.

So: would you have us believe that your "God" is too *stupid* to come
up with the idea I outlined above?  Because if not, then it means that
your "God" *deliberately* set things up otherwise (having thought of my
idea and *discarded* it), and that makes him either a big asshole (for
deliberately setting things up such that people suffer eternally for
FINITE acts and decisions) or a wimpy incompetent (for not being *able*
to set things up a better way).

So, which is it?  Is your "God" malicious or a wimpy incompetent?  Given
your beliefs about how things supposedly work, you really haven't got any
other choices.

>>Erin Anderson    -    Socks    -    The Robe, The Ring, and The Romance.
>>ARC's Philosopher, Dreamer, & Stand-up Comedian.
>>		       (Lis's Hero on call 24 hours.)
>
>In His Spirit,
>
>John Emery
>emery@tc.fluke.COM



		Kevin Brown (kevin@taronga.taronga.com)