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Originally posted by EleqTrizi'T
I would argue the punishment of not going to heaven would be because of wrongs you have committed that you are not remorseful for, not necesasrily for accepting God.
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Are you certain?
What if god forgives everything. Period. You don't even have to ask for forgiveness, because god's mercy is infinite. There is no bound.
Your lack of remorse does not harm god. You are still forgiven, completely and utterly.
By your own arguement, "how could I imagine myself to be more forgiving than god?", this is the end result. Anything short of this would fail that same test.
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Here is my big problem. My best friend is one of the most responsible, family-oriented, loving, caring, giving people I know. But he's athiest. His reason for being athiest is really flawed, you'll just have to take my word on it, but that's irrelevant.
I just can't imagine that a man, say the murderous leader of an army, would be allowed into heaven before him. It blows my mind.
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That murderous leader of an army truely accepted god?
No, really, did the leader accept god? And went on to do mass murder, in gods name?
And not some idol or concept in a madmans head. God.
If a rich man's chance of going into heaven is like that of a camel through the eye of a needle, what chance does a warlord have?
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Heaven is protrayed as a place of peace and good. The first fits in better than the latter. I have a hard time accepting that any single "belief" requirement would be more important than the sum total of man's life.
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Your athiest friend chose to reject god. Now, remember, he has free will. Remember, it is that feature that makes us truely matter.
Can a person choose, out of their own free will, to reject god? If heaven is eternity in gods prescence, if one cannot make the choice not to go to heaven, what free will do we have?
What if free will is actually more important than a guarantee of eternal happyness? Without free will, you are nothing but an automaton.
Then again, maybe your friend did not choose to reject god.
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Originally posted by wilbjammin
I guess I'm in hell on earth. It doesn't bother me in the least. Or perhaps, like Stephen Daedalus in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man choosing to be my own "god" rather than an agent of god is where I am. In that case, I'm not in hell.
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Do you know what eternity is? How long christian theology says the afterlife is? Carry a rock from one side of the earth to the other. And then carry the rocks back. After building a million everests, you still won't have really begun.
And is god present on Earth or not? Many would claim god is present everywhere. And many would claim that god is nowhere. But, if you are going to argue within the realm of christian theology, you should at least admit the existance of god, for the sake of arguement. =)