re atheists and hell in apr athos rutgers edu atterlep vela acs oakland edu cardinal ximenez writes hello i have seen two common threads running through postings by atheists on the newsgroup and i think that they can be used to explain each other unfortunately i don t have direct quotes handy atheists believe that when they die they die forever more correctly when people die they cease to exist a god who would condemn those who fail to believe in him to eternal death is unfair i don t see what the problem is to christians hell is by definition eternal death exactly what atheists are expecting when they die the idea i ve gotten is that to christians hell is like heaven afterlife i e you don t cease to exist but are subjected to eternal torture well that s the orthodox idea anyway eternal death if you prefer that atheists don t believe in any sort of afterlife literal interpreters of the bible will have a problem with this view since the bible talks about the fires of hell and such personally i don t think that people in hell will be thrust into flame any more than i expect to jesus with a double edged sword issuing from his mouth i treat both these state ments as metaphorical i think it s safe to say that hell was never intended metaphorical certainly not the equivalent of ceasing to exist some christian concepts are indeed metaphors but your idea of hell is a th century interpretation it is of course nice to see that even christianity might evolve to fit the worldview of modern age but i fear the church will not accept it understandably per haps because if you accept that hell is a metaphor then you re one step closer to turning god into a metaphor as well antti lahelma mtf saha hut fi gnothi seauton lehtotie o stel purkki apu fi helsinki jumalat ovat pakanoille suosiollisia tunne itsesi
