hell atterlep vela acs oakland edu cardinal ximenez wrote here s how i talk to non christians who are complaining about hell me do you believe you re going to heaven him i don t believe in heaven me so are you going there him if there was a heaven i would me but since there isn t a heaven you re not going there are you him no the point is that heaven is based on faith if you don t believe in heaven there s no way you re going to be in it hmmm people in the americas before the time of christ children who die young etc of course the next step is i don t believe in hell either so why will i be there it seems to me that hell is eternal death and seperation from god but of course the popular conception of hell correct or incorrect is something akin to eternal perpetuation of consciousness at the very least most atheists do believe that when they die they will die forever and never see god so they do in fact believe that they re going to hell i think a good number of atheists believe there is nothing beyond bodily death but it is simply an abuse of language to say they believe they re going to hell they believe they re going to die understand that you ve turned hell into a verb using the same logic it also follows that all animals are going to hell are you sure this is what you want to say presumably animals don t have the opportunity to get to heaven but this still doesn t change the fact that they re going to hell die a final death i don t claim to know whether or not there is an afterlife of some sort but if hell is as you described final death and not eternal perpetuation of consciousness it will be true that there will never be a moment when i am aware of my non existence assuming i go to hell and not to heaven in other words i ll never know i m dead hmmm hell doesn t have to be worse than earth to be hell because it s eternal ever hear people say of a loved one who was ill and has died at least she s not suffering any more she s in heaven now consider the following statement at least she s not suffering any more she s in hell now the above statement sounds odd but according to your definition of hell it would be a true statement the person in hell would not be suffering granted they wouldn t be anything wouldn t be having any conscious experience whatsoever you say hell death is eternal however this loses its meaning to a dead person and to me it seems that the threat of some sort of eternal punishment only makes sense has force if one expects to be conscious throughout this eternity many atheists believe that the thirst for an afterlife is simply the product of propaganda friend do you want the free gift of e ternal life it s my understanding that the early jews did not believe in an afterlife can anyone back me up on this combined with the survival instinct all animals share the difference is we have consciousness and once we get the idea of eternal life drilled into our brains we then desire a sort of super survival and it s a lot worse than heaven that s the only comparison that matters that would depend on what heaven is like if god is a king and an eternity in heaven consists of giving thanks and praise to the king i might opt for hell i read a lovely account of a missionary trying to convert eskimos to christianity in the book the illusion of immortality by corliss lamont the missionary started to speak about heaven are there seals in heaven will we be able to go hunting asked an eskimo the missionary said no the group of eskimos then said something to the effect of well what good is your heaven if there s no hunting scram i highly recommend the above book ioi to anyone who wants an account of the other side of the immortality coin that there is no immortality alan terlep incestuous vituperousness oakland university rochester mi atterlep vela acs oakland edu melissa eggertsen rushing in where angels fear to tread pax dana
