Skip to main content

A Kinder, Gentler Hell

I think the most likely candidate for a first cause are the laws of physics themselves. I don't think a mind makes much sense at all since the nature of a mind involves incredible, evolved complexity, and as we work backwards in the chain of causation things get simpler and more fundamental. 

Yes, I have heard about the kinder, gentler hell. But, even short of physical torture, are those who are separated from God not suffering? Are they not feeling the anguish of God's absence and the pain of regret? Or are they perfectly happy in Hell? Even a small amount of suffering, stretched out over eternity, is monstrous. After all, having a little bit of water dripped on your forehead is no big deal. Having it dripped on your forehead for 48 hours straight is torture. There are obviously no lessons being taught in Hell, since an eternal condition makes such a "teaching" irrelevant. 

CS Lewis asks, "What are you asking God to do?" Even if we grant that those in Hell have rejected God of their own free will, it seems annihilating the rejectors would be a far better option than Hell. I have heard the argument that God can't annihilate souls since they are immortal. I find this to be a strange check on God's omnipotence, but even if that's true, why couldn't he just put the souls into some kind of eternal, unconscious slumber? Somehow, the only the option for an omnipotent, all-good God is to inflict eternal suffering on billions. 


Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Bound Up With Causal Chains

It has been almost two years since the last post, but I checked around and no one appears to have definitively resolved the nature of morality in the intervening twenty-two months, so I suppose we should keep this conversation going.  In reading back over the full discussion, I notice that it has grown unwieldy with various offshoots and tributaries. So I propose we table most of the discussions and focus on driving one topic to resolution (or, more likely, mutually agreed impasse). We can then circle back to other disagreements. I believe the spine of our discussion remains the First Cause argument, so I am going to address that while putting a pin in the following topics:  Faith as a "superrational" path to the truth.  Other arguments for the existence of God.  Free will.  Intelligent design.  Before we get into the syllogisms, I will continue to insist that if the refutation of a strong argument for a position doesn't lower your confidence in that positi...
Read more

Can We Trust Faith?

There are big differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. They have the same center, but it definitely is a large jump to convert between them. The reason the Protestant 84% is so high is because there are at least 200 different Protestant denominations in the United States. Some are similar, but many are very different. Anyone rejecting the beliefs of their parents and switching to a new Protestant denomination is not counted in this data. Yes, one of the keys of being rational is indeed constant vigilance with regards to our own biases. Once, I believed a semi-Protestant theology because I wanted it to be true, was not very knowledgeable, and didn't look too deeply into the issue. But one day I realized, as I learned more, that I had to rationally seek the truth, and choose the one belief system that I believed to be the true one. So I researched, and Catholicism always had an answer for any charge anyone tried to lay against it. I have been blessed to have never really do...
Read more

Mind vs. Brain and the Pains of Hell

The laws of physics themselves cannot be the first cause because they are not logically necessary. There is nothing in the nature of the laws of physics to hold themselves in existence, as is demanded of a first cause. We can easily imagine a universe where the law of gravity was a little different (or a lot different) with no logical contradiction. You're right that "as we work backwards in the chain of causation things get simpler and more fundamental." The Catholic Church teaches that simplicity is one of the attributes of God - that God is not "composed or divisible by any physical or metaphysical means." - http://www.saintaquinas.com/article5.html I was talking about this attribute earlier as part of talking about oneness. So how can complete simplicity have a mind? By mind, I do not mean a brain. A mind is an "I" that can reason and choose. True, we have only seen minds connected to brains, which science points to having evolved over time. But th...
Read more