1) If Evolution is true then how do you account for Mental Faculties? Atoms banging against one another in randon fasion do not seem to make much since as to how our mental faculties can be reliable. You are stuck with Darwin's Doubt. I find this as a flaw in Atheistic Materialism.
2) Hell is not unjust. Biblical Christianity says that man is fallen. We are born bad so to speak, that is why we need the Grace of Christ. So it is not unjust for God to send us to hell. I would also ask the question: Who are you to talk back to God?
44 comments
1) what? reparse, please.
2) Hell is unjust because it is an infinite punishment for a finite crime. In answer to your question: I am a sentient, autonomous being; a far cry from God, who is an imaginary being contrived from the minds of other sentient autonomous beings like myself.
"1) If Evolution is true then how do you account for Mental Faculties?"
Intelligence evolves just as any other trait. If it enhances the number of a species that survive through their reproductive period and/or increases the number of offspring, that trait tends to predominate.
"Atoms banging against one another in randon fasion do not seem to make much since as to how our mental faculties can be reliable. You are stuck with Darwin's Doubt. I find this as a flaw in Atheistic Materialism."
You inept sentence construction has jammed my Fundie to English translator.
"2) Hell is not unjust."
Yes, it is. No matter how much you really, really wish it was just, it isn't. Eternal punishment for the slightest crime is unjust, period.
"Biblical Christianity"
As opposed to what? "Chilton's handbook Christianity?" "Pets on Parade Christianity?" "Cabbage Patch Doll Christianity?"
"says that man is fallen. We are born bad so to speak, that is why we need the Grace of Christ."
I was not "born bad."
"So it is not unjust for God to send us to hell."
But "Biblical Christianity" says God, the omnipotent, omniscient, omni-benevolent, good and loving, perfect God, created us. If created by a perfect being, we would be perfect as a perfect being could not create imperfection without being imperfect himself. If we were perfect, then we could do no imperfect thing yourselves, therefore,there could have been no fall. If there was no fall, there is no need for a savior. Poof! Bye bye Christianity.
"I would also ask the question: Who are you to talk back to God?"
Who is God, but your imaginary friend? I do not talk to imaginary beings.
What he means by point #1 is that if our mind is material, evolved, and imperfect, we have no reason to think its conclusions mean anything.
I think this argument may be accurate in his case.
What he means by point #1 is that if our mind is material, evolved, and imperfect, we have no reason to think its conclusions mean anything.
I think this argument may be accurate in his case.
What he means by point #1 is that if our mind is material, evolved, and imperfect, we have no reason to think its conclusions mean anything.
I think this argument may be accurate in his case.
<<< Atoms banging against one another in randon fasion do not seem to make much since as to how our mental faculties can be reliable. >>>
That would be because their interaction is not random.
<<< Hell is not unjust. >>>
Infinite punishment for finite crimes is infinitely unjust, as others have said.
The only way hell cannot be unjust is if there are infinite crimes, such as if I were capable of killing an infinite number of people. Then it COULD be just for me to receive infinite punishment. Otherwise, infinite punishment for finite crimes means the punishment does not fit the crime, which is unjust.
How people can respect a religion that starts off with the idea that everyone is born bad and has to pay for past sins unrelated to them I just can't understand. Well, I can actually understand from a cult standpoint, but not from a logical one. As a cult, religion needs a way to scare people into joining, and original sin tends to do that. Even if it's STUPID :P
@awhell
BURN ME AT THE STAKE
If they had their way they probably would.
1) Show detailed evidence that your Mental Faculties have been engaged. So far, your argument draws your mental faculties into serious question!
2) My question to you: Who the fuck are you to speak for god? That's blasphemy, my friend, for which you will burn in hell with homosexuals and abortionists.
3) ... never mind, just fuckoffanddie.
"A more humane Mikado never did in Japan exist;
To nobody's second, I'm certainly reckoned a true philanthropist;
It is my very humane endeavour to make, to some extent,
Each evil liver a running river of harmless merriment!
My object all sublime,
I will achieve in time,
To make the punishment fit the crime,
The punishment fit the crime!"
--- Gilbert & Sullivan, The Mikado
I'm the very model of a modern fundie fuckwit - my arguments are so circular, they fit into a bucket!
His arguments are so circular, they fit into a bucket
- - - - - - - - - -
I'd have to google if I was going to do any more!
One question to you all on the subject of hell...what do you say it is? The biblical view of hell is simply God separating from those who are not His people. In this separating He takes away the common graces He has allowed for every human.
So then why is it unjust for this to happen? If I had a house full of guests for an extended period of time that I had been taking care of, allowing them to eat my food, enjoy the shelter of my house, use my plasma screen and Xbox 360, and on and on. The whole time all these people would do is deny I even exist, curse my name, disrespect me and my family in every way, basically flipping me off and telling me to just leave them alone. Yet I continue to take care of them telling them to cut it out because one day I will stop extending my hospitality to those who continue to disrespect. Then when I do finally kick them out of my house and give them the separation from me they wanted, how is that unjust? Believe in God or not, how is that concept unjust. Would we all not do the same? Would you alow someone in your house that disrespects you and your spouse and your children? Would you be unjust to close your doors to them?
If you don’t believe in God and mock the things of God then why does it upset you so that He would separate Himself from you? Why would you want to spend eternity with something you so despise? The concept of Hell being punishment is true in the idea that being apart from God is punishment. The whole idea of demons poking you with pitchforks is not a biblical concept. Nor is the idea of God exacting some sadistic form of revenge on people. The Bible only talks of God giving people what they basically want, either eternal separation from Him or to live with Him forever. Yes, people will suffer in the separation from God but not by God actively going after them Rambo style, but rather By God just shutting the doors of His house (with all the benefits he afforded you) to those that don’t want to be around Him or His family.
Again, if you don’t believe in God or just despise and mock the things of God then why does it upset you so that He would separate Himself from you?
"Nice try... but the biblical view of hell is an everlasting fire to torment the sinners..."
As I said, God removes his common graces. The world we live in is the Creation of God
the “comforts of His house” as I put in my analogy. The torment is being separated from God. A torment and agony I’m sure none of us could imagine. The only alternative to the comforts of His house are the “lakes of fire” etc. Why should you hold it unjust that when you don’t want to be with God that he removes you from His house and his comforts, even if the alternative is such a ghastly one?? Who is unjust the one who tolerates the disrespect of the guest in His house until He chooses to evict them or the person who mocks and curses the gracious host that is keeping him out of the “fire”? Hell is God removing His graces from this world.
Then again if you believe none of this why does it elicit such a strong response?
That’s what I did for the first 28 years of my life. I’ve always found it curious
the welling up of anger and spite I had at the things of God before I came to see and understand His ways. Sure there are tons of “proclaiming” Christians out there who need and deserve to be mocked and despised that are nothing more than self-righteous asses (Jesus always had the harshest words for the “religious” folks.) But I noticed in myself an anger towards the very things of God not just stupid people who claim to follow Him
it was all very irrational and I’m not totally sure what that was.
More precisely torment is 2 fold:
1- poena damni, or pain of loss :
Imagine the worst break-up you have ever experienced and take that time infinity and we might get close to understanding this.
“poena damni consists in the loss of the graces of God and in so complete a separation of all the powers of the soul from God that it cannot find in Him even the least peace and rest. It is accompanied by the loss of all supernatural gifts, e.g. the loss of faith.
The pain of loss is not the mere absence of superior bliss, but it is also a most intense positive pain. The utter void of the soul made for the enjoyment of infinite truth and infinite goodness causes the reprobate immeasurable anguish. Their consciousness that God, on Whom they entirely depend, is their enemy forever is overwhelming. Their consciousness of having by their own deliberate folly forfeited the highest blessings for transitory and delusive pleasures humiliates and depresses them beyond measure. The desire for happiness inherent in their very nature, wholly unsatisfied and no longer able to find any compensation for the loss of God in delusive pleasure, renders them utterly miserable. Moreover, they are well aware that God is infinitely happy, and hence their hatred and their impotent desire to injure Him fills them with extreme bitterness. And the same is true with regard to their hatred of all the friends of God who enjoy the bliss of heaven. The pain of loss is the very core of eternal punishment.
According to theologians the pain of loss and the pain of sense constitute the very essence of hell, the former being by far the most dreadful part of eternal punishment. But the damned also suffer various "accidental" punishments.
* Just as the blessed in heaven are free from all pain, so, on the other hand, the damned never experience even the least real pleasure. In hell separation from the blissful influence of Divine love has reached its consummation.
* The reprobate must live in the midst of the damned; and their outbursts of hatred or of reproach as they gloat over his sufferings, and their hideous presence, are an ever fresh source of torment.”
2 -poena sensus, or pain of sense:
consists in the torment of fire mentioned in the Bible. If the term fire denotes a material fire or metaphorical explanation the pain to the senses are the same that is the result of the removal of the common graces of God afforded to all of us.
- Nezu Chiza
"How people can respect a religion that starts off with the idea that everyone is born bad and has to pay for past sins unrelated to them"
Thats somewhat a misstatment of what the bible says. Yes sin entered the world through Adam. Before that everyone was perfect. but Sin (the fall) caused imperfection to be passed down to all of us. We still commit sins ourselves. It's not adam's sin we are gulity of, but the ones we do. But because of adam we became prone to sin. Just like someone might be prone to be an addict, but that person is still responsible for his/her own actions even though they have the predisposition to addiction.
"and has to pay for past sins"
The point of Christianity is that you can in no way ever pay the debt for your sin...ever. You are screwd if you try to attone for your own sins. Only Jesus can cover that debt as He did on the cross. Jesus is looked at as a kind of second Adam. In Adam he passed down imperfection and sin to us. But in Jesus he has passed on to us His rightousness to cover our imperfections and sins.
Chuck, your basic analogy is flawed, since according to Xianity we weren't pre-existing beings who just got invited, we were created by Dog specifically to occupy. He didn't ask our opinion, he just put us here. One could argue that this is closer to kidnapping than to an invitation, or to an abusive parent. And frankly, I don't see the utopia you're describing, it's more like a 3yo getting stuck with a 2m high violent parent with a bipolar disorder...
Since he's the one who created man and the world as they are, who created evil (check your Wholly Babble), who determined the options man was given and so on, responsability for "sin" falls squarely in God's lap. You'd thinkl a perfect, benevolent, omniscient and omnipotent being could have done a better job...
Adrian,
Could you expand a little more on how the logic is flawed?
God creating a world where sin is possible is very different than Him causing it, especially if you figure in free will and man's responsibility for our own actions. other wise we would be little robots only doing what we were programmed to.
How can you kidnap something that doesnt exist till you create it?
"'So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
And He did so to make know the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
As He says also in Hosea, "I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, 'MY PEOPLE,'AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, 'BELOVED. AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, 'YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,' THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD."
-Romans 9
1) Our intelligence is not determined by us having an "intelligent atom" which contains the "intelligence" property. There is such a thing as emergent properties, properties that emerge from the organization of the whole and are not dependent on any one part of the whole. For example, a complete airplane can fly, that doesn't mean that a single part of the plane could fly by itself, or that such a part is what confers the ability to fly onto the whole plane. Flight is a property that emerges from the organization of the whole plane, see?
I find it interesting to note that every time we've had a quote that starts with "if evolution is true, then how..." and then goes off into complete nutbaggery.
I think as an exercise, I'm going to use the search command and see how many fundie-quotes contain the words "if evolution is true"...
1) Guess what? Stuff happens when atoms interact! It's called chemistry, by the way.
2) Hell is officially the worst thing ever, and this bullshit idea that humanity is innately evil is somehow even worse.
Who am I to talk back to God? Someone with a conscience. And someone who exists... Guess it would be silly to talk back to a figment of some goatherd's imagination.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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