re atheists and hell atterlep vela acs oakland edu 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 true to a point if you were to ask a buddhist atheist 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 there s no reason hell has to be especially awful to most people eternal death is bad enough actually yes and no hell is eternal death actually the way i ve had it related to me it s more of an eternal damnation where sinners will feel the licking flames of hell if i supposedly can feel these flames i would assume i m still alive but suffering and away from god 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 believe jehovah s witnesses have a similar view where the body sleeps for ever i don t have a problem with being condemned to hell either the way i see it if god wants to punish me for being honest in my skepticism that is for saying he doesn t exist he certainly wouldn t be changing his nature besides i would rather spend an eternity in hell than be beside god in heaven knowing even one man would spend his eternal life being scorched for his wrongdoings stephen atheist libertarian pro individuality pro responsibility jr and all that jazz
