Reply to Distrust of Atheists

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Distrust of Atheists"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I didn't read the link, but I always found it remarkable that someone could do evil things like rape and murder, but ask for god's forgiveness on a deathbed, whereupon all the jugdemental fundies will pass the evil dude right onto heaven.  Meanwhile, the athiest dies with a lifetime of good works has no chance.  That is why I would not be surprised at the outcome of trusting a rapist over an athiest.  [/quote]

The belief you cite is held by a small offshoot of Christianity:  the notion that once you are "saved" by professing belief in Christ, you are set, no matter what you do.  Or, as an alternative, that God has His "elect," and everyone else was created for damnation.  And also the idea that it is heaven or hell at the moment of death.  Those beliefs are in the vast minority, and not compatible with reason.

Salvation is about choosing to align one's free will with God's will, for all eternity.  God created all humans to be with Him forever, if we so chose.  But He gave us free will, the ability to choose to be apart from Him forever.  So He doesn't "send" anyone to Hell.  We choose Hell.  In Hell, we experience God's eternal love, just as those who chose to be close to Him do--but His love feels awful, even torturous, because we want no part of it.  The Great Divorce does a great job explaining these theological concepts;  I can't recommend it highly enough.

God made salvation possible through His love;  none of us "deserve" salvation, but all of us can choose salvation, by the grace of God.  However, God is also perfectly just.  So every single person will face justice as we enter eternity, and God, only God, will judge our hearts, exactly where we were.  So it doesn't matter if you never heard the name of Jesus Christ on this earth.  He is a man who lived in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, but he is also the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.  God wrote His Word on our hearts, and we will be judged according to our personal culpability.

So the "noble savage," or the "good pagan," will know God for eternity, because s/he already has known and loved God here, while the Pharisee and the hypocrite and the self-loving will have a hard time.  Not necessarily damnation, but most certainly a period of cleansing, of redemption, as the soul is made clean, to be perfect as God is perfect.

As for the original article cited, it strikes me as quite flawed, in so many ways, just done to stir up a sensationalist headline.[/quote]

I appreciate your more nuanced language, but I still see that a converted murderer has a higher value in God's eyes than the nobel atheist.  Someone in an earlier post said that atheist's don't have moral codes even if they live honorably.  Well, what good is a more code if you don't really have to follow it all the time?  [b]Christianity seems to place a higher value on your selected belief team, rather than on following the code of the team.[/b]  That's fine, but it creates some hairy situations for your team.  Good luck with all the death row inmates you find in heaven.  Hopefully, they will behave better in heaven than they did here.

[/quote]

This is an excellent point:  It's funny, this is exactly the sort of bet-hedging you'd expect to see if you created a religion out of whole cloth with the intention of maximizing your number of converts.  "Come to Church, make your 'offering', don't worry about all the sinning and such, that stuff doesn't matter, just as long as you stay a member."[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics