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Debate Info

303
337
Yes, they rejected him No, it's incompatible
Debate Score:640
Arguments:370
Total Votes:804
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 Yes, they rejected him (184)
 
 No, it's incompatible (184)

Debate Creator

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Would a benevolent God send people to hell?

Would a benevolent God, knowing that the majority of people in the world would never be exposed to the correct 'Religion' or 'Denomination' send people to hell based on that fact, or is it incompatible with benevolence?

Whether or not you answer in the affirmative or the negative, does this in your opinion create a lottery situation in which some people are given greatly increased chances of acheiving salvation and heaven based on random factors? While others are given a greatly decreased, if any, chance to receieve salvation and heaven?

If you answer in the negative [He would send them to hell] how do you reconcile the situation in which someone may, for instance, live all their lives in a radical, 'heathen' country where information of the 'true' [whatever it may be] religion is not allowed?

Yes, they rejected him

Side Score: 303
VS.

No, it's incompatible

Side Score: 337
14 points

Everyone on this side continues to fail to actually answer the premise I set out...interesting.

Side: No, it's incompatible
guaranteed(2) Disputed
4 points

I actually did answer the question within the text. The question, however, is based on a wrong premise but not only would He, but He will, if you understand why and reasons behind it.

Side: Yes guilty people go to hell
3 points

you guys do not know God's plan. hell is not a place of torture, you simply cease to exist, thats why its called the second death, you just end in oblivion, nothing more, nothing less. but for people who think God would send people to hell who never heard about him you are wrong, God said he would show every human his existence, whether in this life time or not, so God never sends any one to hell for not knowing him.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
guaranteed(2) Disputed
4 points

This premise is completely wrong. Hell is not a place where people stop existing. This is merely a JW's argument based on faulty doctrine and incorrect translations.

The bible is clear that the devil, his angels and all those who reject Jesus Christ will go to hell, "the smoke of their torment will be a reminder forever, their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’ ” (Mark 9:43-44,46,48). Some argue that this means that they become like unto garbage and the worm represents the eating away or unending destruction of the individual that will last for all time. Gehenna (Hell) was a refuse dump.

In regards to people not knowing God, scripture is clear that God never leaves himself without witness regardless of how we humanly understand this concept. God alone judges fairly.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
mudkipz2(360) Disputed
4 points

after reading a argument and the such i have realized my argument is incorrect, but since i cant edit my post i shall dispute my self.

hell is a place of torture,but also psychological torture as well. the second death means a spiritual death, that is the inability to have relationship with god. after talking with a theologian, we cam across a very interesting fact, if god is omniscient, that means hes presence is in hell to. so imagine the torture a person in hell feels. he can sense gods presence but due to his spiritual death he has no ability to connect to god or any thing, so then the presence of god turns into torment and pain. such a horrible feeling it must be to loose the ability to have a relationship with god but to be tortured by his presence still lingering there.

the main reason why i thought hell was a place of simply ceasing to exist was because i thought hell was a place predestined for sinners to go to. but this is not the case. hell was never intended for humans. it was created by god for satin when he rebelled against heaven. the garden or paradise that Adam lived in was what god created for humanity, but out of love and free will that god gave Adam, he ate the apple and now us humans must ether follow god back to heaven, where we were intended, or fall into hell, a place created for satin.

Side: Yes but for reasons we can't understand
lyle91(87) Disputed
2 points

I'd say that makes him worse because that sounds worse than eternal suffering to me.

Side: No, it's incompatible
CJames(16) Disputed
2 points

That seems very at odds with the belief many Christians hold that they are going to heaven and everyone else is going to hell.

Could you please explain the countless threats people get about hell if there is no such place?

Side: No, it's incompatible
0 points

Do you know how retarded you sound? You believe in that fairy tale? Go back to 2nd grade you incompetent chump

Side: No, it's incompatible
Leahn(21) Disputed
2 points

I have only known of this site recently. I have answered your premises.

Side: No, it's incompatible
CubeGlider(132) Disputed
1 point

We agree that its possible but your premise isn't as strong as some others.

Side: No, it's incompatible
jstantall(178) Disputed
0 points

And what premise was that? Cause it seems a little vague to me.

Side: No, it's incompatible
4 points

Here is how dictionary.com defines benevolent;

1.characterized by or expressing goodwill or kindly feelings: a benevolent attitude; her benevolent smile.

2.desiring to help others; charitable: gifts from several benevolent alumni.

3intended for benefits rather than profit: a benevolent institution.

So if you were a benevolent God who had two people and one of them picked up a knife to kill the other, what would be the most benevolent thing to do?

Stop him from doing harm?

That's what hell is for.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
DEL681651(70) Disputed
2 points

First off, sending someone to Hell does not "stop him from doing harm", it only retroactively punishes them for harm they have already caused. Hell does absolutely nothing whatsoever to decrease the amount of suffering in the world.

Second, most interpretations of Hell are of infinite suffering. Hell is an infinite response to a finite amount of harm - certainly not a benevolent action. All the suffering every person in the world has ever experienced is not even equivalent to sending even 1 person to hell. That seems ridiculously out of line.

Third, if God intended to use Hell as a deterrent, she did a really terrible job of it - leaving absolutely zero evidence of her presence and no universal rulebook. How exactly is one supposed to be deterred by the notion of Hell if one can't be sure that one's actions will lead to it, or even that it exists in the first place? If Hell is really supposed to be a deterrent, it would have worked much better if God made it very, very obvious - as a benevolent God should do, rather than toying around with the possibility of infinite suffering.

Side: No, it's incompatible
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
2 points

"Hell is an infinite response to a finite amount of harm"

... no. Hell is where those who are imperfect (i.e. have a sin nature) and do not seek to be perfected (i.e. do not seek Christ [and the reconciliation to the Father that comes with Him, and thence to slowly kill off the sin nature]) go, because with the sin nature left unchecked anyone can do an inordinate amount of harm, however finite. Look at Hitler in WWII with the Shoah (or Holocaust as only Anglophones call it), for instance. He used warped reasoning to justify his hatred, and hatred comes from letting the sin nature run unchecked - as most people are wont to do (at least in our worst of moments).

Side: Yes, they rejected him
clearEn(207) Disputed
1 point

Below is a copy of a post I had above, but I cannot link you to it.

-----

Revelation constantly informs the reader that 'hell' is the Second Death:

Revelation 2:11b "Whoever is victorious will not be hurt by the second death."

Revelation 20:6a "Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power"

Revelation 20:14 "And death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death--the lake of fire."

Revelation 21:8 "But cowards who turn away from me, and unbelievers, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those who practice witchcraft, and idol worshipers, and all liars--their doom is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death."

As for death, itself, the Bible also states that there is no life in death, no spirit surviving on. You're dead, in the ground.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 "The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing"

John 11:11 "Then he said, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep[1], but now I will go and wake him up."

[1] The Greek word used here (koimaō) is also used in Matthew 27 to describe dead people. It also describes death in Acts 7 (Stephen's death), Acts 13 (King David is now sleeping), and others.

So the first death is sleeping, but everyone will get awoken at some point in time. The Second Death would then be 'sleep' without waking. Dead. Gone.

Thus, Hell is not an eternal fire-pit, but an eternal death.

-----

So hell is not infinite suffering. It's very, very finite. If it was infinite, it wouldn't destroy sin. It would only contain sin.

And isn't the Bible a universal rulebook.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
jstantall(178) Disputed
1 point

So do you think people who commit moral crimes should be punished?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

I got your back.LOL I dont like being down voted, and then on top of it a person im argueing against get upvoted while im getting downvoted. lol

Side: Yes, they rejected him
riahlize(1573) Disputed
1 point

Hell is contrary to benevolence.

As a purely benevolent god in that situation I would disable his willingness to hurt other humans.

Of course that restricts free will, but to be compliant with benevolence, that's the type of action one would have to take.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

Great comments. A knife is a good thing if it is used for good, but in Hell there will be no knife to use and nobody will be able to use a knife to cause harm.

Side: No, it's incompatible
3 points

It is completely in the hands of God. We can not tell anyone who is going to hell or not, because the final judgement is between the person and the father, son holy spirit. I can say this however. God has given all of us many chances to come to him, and in many different ways. Sometimes people can not see or hear his voice speaking to them because they have rejected him. Even then god will find ways in trying to bring his people to him. And remeber their consists of only 2 sides. Sons of darkness, and sons of light. We have to make a choice. Beleivers are called to spread his word like water covers paper. He works in majestic ways. He works through people and in other ways that only the god of life can do. Please dont underestimate his power. We have to choose to love him, because that is what makes our relationship with him special, choice.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

It's His goodness which leads us to repentance.....when we see He is always good and we are sinners, His love wins us over so we say sorry for our sins and seek His mercy.

Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed one another. The Truth, Jesus, took our place in death to that God's wrath against sin was satisfied by Himself, and by His resurrection God's mercy toward us is secured.

I don't mean to be preaching to the choir, I hope to see lost people believe and see the Light of Heaven and receive Him as their Savior.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

If hell is a place to repent, reflect, and eventually leave, yeah probably. Otherwise, no. I mean, it's all really out there so it's not something I'd have a totally awesome opinion on, but I think that if this hell is a place where you learn and leave, then yeah. Of course, some people tend to think you just burn there forever, which if you do, then no, that would not be a very benevolent god.

Side: Depends which hell
brycer2012(1002) Disputed
1 point

Being on Earth is the place for people to reflect and repent. They have their lives to make a decision and if they don't then that's their problem. Why should they go and just have nothing but fun and look away from God until they get to Hell and then decide that they want to follow him?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Darkb456(94) Disputed
5 points

You do realize that in order for you to be correct, Earth would actually have to be Hell.

Side: No, it's incompatible
4 points

Having fun, enjoying life is a bad thing for which you must suffer eternally. Nice God you've got there.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Warlin(1213) Disputed
2 points

No. You're wrong. Life is a journey, not a test. And I never said they'd just go to hell and say "Okay I like you now because I hate this place." That isn't what I meant. I'm saying if there was a hell and god and all of that fun stuff, it would be right for a benevolent god to send people there if they were able to learn from hell and eventually leave or something. Learn. Not lie and cheat. There's a difference.

Side: Depends which hell
2 points

THERE IS NO GOD! Their is only the man and his fellow country men! We must rise above the outdated instituions of religion and praise our fatherland! Religion only controlls the masses.

Side: What a homo
tallblondguy(64) Disputed
4 points

as opposed to Nationalism, which has never been used to manipulate people....

Side: No, it's incompatible
clearEn(207) Disputed
1 point

THERE IS NO GOD!

This topic is whether or not a benevolent God would send people to a (misconception of) hell. It's not about whether there is a God. I'm sure you could find an argument out there about that, so why bring it here?

Religion only controlls the masses.

Improperly induced religion controls the masses. Christianity is supposed to bring happiness to people. I know it brings joy to me. It's too bad Religion has turned Christianity into a Religion. It should be a way of life, not a doctrine. People have made it into a guilt trip, when it's not supposed to be.

As for controlling the masses, that's for governments to do.

Side: You Have A Choice
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

Rise above? All you are doing is falling down, tick tock tick tock, out runs the clock and the finality of your dying is complete. You can't rise up except in your imagination, and God will cast you down in your pride, like your father the devil.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

The bible already answers that question. God is just and God knows the heart of a man. It also says a few promises: If you knock the door will be opened, if you ask you will receive, if you draw closer to God He will draw closer to you, if you do not give up in doing right you will receive a harvest in due time. You reap what you sow. (Understand, this verse is not talking about Karma because Christians often suffer much more than the fairness of Karma would dictate. It's talking about your relationship with God, insistently rejecting sin, the unjust suffering you endure, and then the fruition of that suffering and rejection of sin in the form of rewards that you will get in heaven that you never see on this earth.)

If God is really God, meaning that He's the beginning and the end and through Him all existence exists, then to say that God would not judge the truth in a person's heart is to say that God doesn't exist. (Coincidentally many atheists think of God in the same way they think of fallible man.) I mean really, all truth, God is God, creator of all existence, the beginning and end of all. Without whom existence would cease to be. God is definitely going to judge a man's heart first.

What seems to confuse people is that God wants to know them personally and to repent and turn away from their sins, whatever sins that may be. Well, God put it out there who He is, and expects us to seek Him. If we don't, or if we decide to believe something else before finding out, that alone is part of our guilt. Laziness is one of the seven deadly, sins is it not? (Really, I'm actually asking because I don't remember what they are.)

I believe that Christ will judge all of our hearts completely justly when we die.

However, there is another dimension to this that I only recently realized. If a person never hears of Christ, they also may never be told that Christ will hold them accountable for what they are doing that they know is wrong.

God has demonstrated that He has mercy on those who are ignorant of their sins. But we all have a basic understanding of right and wrong even when we are not told. And I'm telling you as an army brat and a Christian since 5 years old, growing up in a Christian home, a lot of times people will somewhat freely do what they know is wrong all the time up until they are told that Christ will hold them accountable for it.

Then, because of that, and that alone, they start their personal quest to avoid any and all things that they know are wrong in God's sight. I was one of them, believe it or not, even at 5 years old. I remember it, although at 4 and 5 I didn't know a whole lot, I had a general understanding of right and wrong as much as 4 and 5 year old can have. Even more so when I reached middle school years.

Well, if a person is doing something that they know is wrong, such as talking behind people's backs to make them look bad, causing pain to someone who doesn't deserve it, being selfish, holding bitterness or murderous feelings in their heart against someone who probably doesn't deserve that, or lusting after a woman after he has committed to one woman already, or stepping on someone to get higher, or poking fun of someone you know doesn't deserve it, or hating someone for no real reason, or stealing something insignificant that you know the person that owns it wouldn't accept that, or a multitude of things we easily do from day to day, or getting revenge that you know is ill-deserved, being conceited, putting yourself above others when it causes them undue suffering such as is the case with many past political leaders of various countries and nations throughout history, and these are just a few examples of things people know is wrong that they do anyway.

Well, how would a truly just God judge the heart of such people? Well, how many of us DO NOT do things that we know are wrong?

Well, how will we know that we need to stop doing those things we know are wrong if we are not told that God will hold us accountable.

That's why the message of Christ needs to be spread. A few people in billions may decide to avoid doing those things that they know is wrong, but most of us won't. Most of us will continue doing things we know are wrong, and it is for our sake that Christ's message must be heard. Because for some of us, the only thing that will get us to stop doing what we know is wrong is the knowledge that God will hold us accountable. And for some it's the knowledge that it all is not just a waste of time waiting until we die. That hope invigorates them not to take the easy route that would involve doing what they know is wrong.

But never forget, God is just and likewise will judge us justly and in complete truth. If a person has never heard of Christ, God will still judge them justly and in complete truth. Hopefully that truth will reveal that their heart's were right, just merely ignorant of Christ, but how many will actually be right if they are not told to at least stop doing what they know is wrong? That, I do not know.

The bible says that all fall short of the glory of God, there is not one who is righteous, not one. Of course these and other verses are open to some interpretation.

So the real question is, if we all fall short, then why are we given the message and not everyone? Well, like I said above God made us promises, and they don't just apply to Christians, they apply to all who will seek God, truly seek God. Put your faith in God and don't give up until you are absolutely sure you have found Him. (And I'm not just talking prayer time, I'm talking research time, reading time, consideration time, asking for wisdom and guidance time, well, some of that falls under prayer time I suppose.

Side: You Have A Choice
4 points

Oh, one other thing, people go to hell because beyond this world is one of two places heaven where sin doesn't exist and hell, where those still with sin in their lives go. Really, hell may simply be the tangible explanation of what it means spiritually to be forever and completely severed from God. After all sin cannot be allowed into heaven, and only those who have given their sin to Christ will be allowed to enter heaven because only Christ is guiltless, and it is only through him that we can even enter into heaven, otherwise we'd go to hell too.

The punishment for sin is death because God will not tolerate any sin in heaven. Sin is anything that goes against God. Usually knowing that it's wrong is what qualifies it as sin because, really, how can God hold someone accountable for something they didn't even realize was sin, such as lusting after a woman when you've made no commitments to anyone else. I mean most would think it was a natural thing that attracts us to the opposite sex, not adultery of the heart.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
alstars(739) Disputed
1 point

you wrote such a leanthy argument...Interesting .

But do u think everyone will read such a lenthy one?

Also, ur points sum up to 5!

Side: No, it's incompatible
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

Good comments and I have also spent a lot of time pondering people who never hear the gospel. I think the Bible supports the idea that if anybody honestly seeks God's mercy they will be saved. There are examples of entire nations in the Bible who were not saved, entire nations of people doomed to Hell because of their wickedness. The whole world perished except for eight people with Noah, none of them were saved, maybe they heard God's offer of pardon and maybe not, but they could have been like Noah and believed God and been saved if they wanted to. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and our duty is still to try to reach everybody with the message of God's offer of pardon, forgiveness, and eternal life through the blood of His Son. Some Christians will imply that we don't have to try to reach anybody because God knows who will be saved and who won't and our actions are not required to bring about the end which God knows. They are misunderstanding God's design and plan for us. He wants workers, not only benefactors....and we owe it to Him to labor for Him.

I hope I'm preaching to the choir here.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

He would do you think God would force thoose who hate him to be with him for all of eternity therfore you can see hell not as divine puniishment but as slight divine compassion als no one truly knows what hell is like i dont believe it is a great place but here is a represantation on a much smaller scale would you force someone who hated you to live with you if they could live somewhere else i think not but that is for you to decide food for thought if you will

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

No, separation from God is not what people would prefer, even if they hated God because God is the essence of all existence. God is the purpose of existence. How do we not know that Hell isn't more concept than a place and that it's description is merely the tangible understanding of what it means to be separated from God for all eternity. Imagine it. Spiritually God does not physically need fire and brimstone so those two things are obviously tangible representations of what is really in hell. How do we not know that all of hell, and the lake of fire is not just the tangible description of what it's going to be like for those of us, that because of our sin, are separated from God for all eternity.

I'm telling you, it's not a pleasent thought. And God being the alpha and omega, not just of all things, but just the beginging and the end entirely, then there needs to be no prison, we may just simply exist with nowhere to go or anything to do separated from God for all eternity. And the Bible's description of hell is what it's going to feel like. That may be all that hell is, and if it is, then separation from God is not a pleasent prospect. Although, we already know, regardless, from what the Bible says that it's not a pleasent prospect anyway.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

Good comments..."divine compassion", for people who hate God and don't want His presence, in His compassion for them, even though He has no pleasure in their death, He gives them what they want.....complete absence of any indication of Him, complete absence of anything good because the fire has destroyed all goodness in it's flames.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

Does God really care whether or not people know about Him? Were it a benevolent God, probably not, but is there even such a thing?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
2 points

I think the question is rather askewed. I do not claim to know the actual method. Religion has been polluted by men, and just as the Dems and Replicans have screwed up our systems of government so has the old church leaders tainted the word of God. Jesus, who is charge of this department, will make sure that ever one who ever lived will get the correct iformation before they are "judged". So in reality it is not so much that God sends anyone, they rather choose to go themselves.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
2 points

It is not God who is sending these people to Hell, it is the people themselves. God is not to blame here, these people chose not to follow him and are now paying the price. Another logical example of this: A young son goes to war and has a high chance of dying. Is it the parents' fault if he dies because they gave him free will? I think not.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
2 points

Of course He should put people in Hell. Would yu want to be with people like Hitler, Stalin etc? Well, I do not!

Side: Yes, they rejected him
2 points

God does not so much send people to hell as they let them go where they already chose according to their free will. People who choose to go to heaven go there people who choose hell go to hell it is not god making the decision it is us.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
2 points

God doesn't send people to hell they choose hell according to their own actions and free will. They choose heaven or god. God doesn't choose for them.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Bohemian(3860) Disputed
1 point

Does a person choose what they believe? Is it possible to spontaneously change belief?

Side: No, it's incompatible
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
2 points

"Does a person choose what they believe?"

Ultimately yes.

"Is it possible to spontaneously change belief?"

Not spontaneously, but it is possible to change belief.

Why are my answers as such?

Because while we are influenced by what surrounds us (family and friends, pop culture, business culture etc.) we do have minds and some degree of intelligence - not to mention free will - and hence we are equipped to question what we believe. If our beliefs do not stand up to our own personal scrutiny then we can choose either to abandon the current belief or to add to it to make it become plausible again in our eyes. I am sure, though, that the process of changing belief is not without anguish.

The bottomline? A person can choose and change beliefs, though not spontaneously.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
2 points

That is the biggest religious lie out there. People say the bible speaks about hell as this place of unending agony. But that is based on gross errors. First off, in the old testament, Hell has been translated from Sheol, which was the same word used for grave. Gehenna was also translated as hell, was really just a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem, considered by the jews at the time a place of dishonorable burial. Then people assume that the bible says the fires are eternal. Eternal was translated incorrectly from aion, which means a period of time which is indefinite with beginning and end. In the scriptures, fire is symbolic for a cleansing agent, not some torture tool. If you put something in fire, its not going to be tortured forever, it is going to eventually burn up to nothing but ash. In fact, many verses preach about going through fire, and being made pure. "Tested through fire". Several verses in the New and Old testament talk of a final restoration of all creation, and salvation being given to all. In fact, in the Old Testament, God hated the act of burning someone alive in a fire. He also specifically told the Israelites not to learn the ways of the Heathens. They all believed in Hellfire, but the Israelites did not. However once the Israelites did learn the heathen ways, they adopted that foul doctrine. The Pharisees who Jesus reprimanded the most were hellfire believers, and they were the greatest stench of rotten fruit. Todays Churches that boldly teach hellfire are the most like the Pharisees. Also known as the Fundamentalists. So contrary to popular belief, that doctrine is the most opposed to the bible. In fact the early Greek fathers who read Greek, and outside of Roman influence believed in Universal Salvation. Both Augustine and Basil recognize that most people believed this. Hellfire came from the church in Rome, which was more Pagan than Christian. Augustine was the first to boldly preach all those pessimistic doctrines we find in the church today like people born deserving of hell, eternal torment, original sin. But Augustine was actually a Manichaean, which was a belief that Good and Evil would have a duel, and one exist in one place and the other in another place. The bible teaches that Evil will be annihilated, not separated. However Universal Salvation was a belief that never died out, despite the fact that Rome condemned it in favor for eternal Hell. However they were always a little flock like the bible foretold in the current age.

Side: No, it's incompatible
raulsvilla(1) Disputed
0 points

Your philosophy about hell is plainly wrong. You are anchoring your reasons on the old testaments Gehenna and Sheol being translated as hell. You imply that when hell is mentioned in the bible its either grave or the dump site outside Jerusalem. And the fire as symbolic of cleansing. I would like you to consider this verse, Matthew 25:41 where all your erroneous reasons will be seen. The verse read : "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for i was a hungered and ye gave me no meat..." Here you must see that some people on the left hand of the Lord on the judgement day are cursed and are going to the place where the devil and his angels are destined. That is the hell, the place of eternal torment which the devil and his angels are going to and also the cursed people mentioned by the verse. Now, can you apply all your philosophy that hell is Gehenna or grave or that eternal fire is symbolic of cleansing and a tool for purification? Will there still be purification for the devil and his angels in the first place? NO MORE. Jesus said the devil is already condemned. Can they be put to a grave or dump in Gehenna? Impossible. They are spirit beings. And it is really true that God will throw some men to hell, those cursed, with the devil and his angels. But that is still to come. After that judgement day that God has appointed. God being benevolent, good is also a God of justice. Those who have not known God or His righteousness or the correct religion will not suffer by that fact but they will be judge according to their works and according to their conscience ( Romans 2:14-16).

Side: Yes cursed or evil doers will go to hell

Accept and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior = Go to Heaven

Deny or reject Him = Go to Hell

Simple as that.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Hadrian(483) Disputed
4 points

Not so simple if you are someone who lived:

1. Anytime in the approximately 2.5 million years humans have existed on this planet [1] before Jesus was ever born.

2. In any country in which the "good news" was not preached until some time after Jesus died. [2]

Did these people by default go to heaven or to hell?

What if you have lived a totally moral life, yet are not a Christian? Do good people go to hell?

And what the hell is hell, anyways? [3] Was it anything the Early Christians ever believed in and did they go to hell if they did not?

No, its not so simple.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_human_evolution#Homo

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Christian_missions

[3] http://what-the-hell-is-hell.com/

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

Also if there is hell after this wouldnt it be wiser to live it up.

Of course we need rules to keep some sort of order .

I mean by the sounds of it this "heaven" place doesnt sound like you get a choice. Whereas here on earth where people go through hell every day , they have a choice .(<this seems narrow , its not meant to be.) And as far as those that believe in this so called "sin free", "freedom of speech free" , "freedom free" "heaven" they also believe hell is some place to be feared , a place where , bad behaved people "by their individual definition" deserve to go or endure , some kind of "hell".

Also id like to ask so who has been told they ARE going to hell ?

Has anyone here truly "repented" or just prayed and thought no more past Amen ?

Im sure if the lord is benevolent he will open his gates to you.

Or will he just look you up and down and say

" You have repeatedly asked for forgiveness .

How many times do you expect me to forgive you" .

Only joking ! go have fun.

If "god" created everything then he also created temptation.

If "god" is the ultimate in all things , then he knew what was going to happen to us all before he created it.

What a shit stirrer.

Not very benevolent if you ask me.

Side: No, it's incompatible
hoegy(308) Disputed
1 point

Dude why are you so worryed about past peoples on earth. God is justice man dont underestimate the god of life. WE ARENT SUPPOSED TO KNOW EVERY FREAKIN DETAIL! We dont have the ability too. God is love by my stand point meaning that Go with judge fair, and out of love. Remeber we dont know much at all to tell you the truth but the little we beleive or do know can save us or destroy us. It depends on our choice and wether or not we open the door. Living with out God is like slowely dying. Your sick do you want to be cured?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saffron(94) Disputed
3 points

I can do that to, but let's rephrase a few things...

"Accept and receive Allah as your Lord and Savior = Go to Heaven

Deny or reject Him = Go to Hell

Simple as that."

Sound familiar? It can be done for just about anything.

Fact; You aren't going to win anyone over to your 'Lord' with arguments like this.

Side: No, it's incompatible
DontBeRacist(19) Disputed
3 points

Who said I was trying to win anyone over to the God I believe in??

The question was "Would a benevolent God send people to hell." which is pretty much open to any ambiguous interpretation considering not one set "god" was identified.

And if it can be done for just about anything then I would like to say:

Accept and receive MY ASS as your Lord and Savior = Go to Heaven

Deny or reject MY ASS = Go to Hell

Side: Two Can Play
guaranteed(2) Disputed
1 point

Lets make everything clear. If you are a muslim and you know your Qur'an, then you will realise that Salvation in Islam is about Mohammed and not just about Allah. You cannot merely accept Allah.

In Islam they consider Adam to be a prophet of God.

Read more: http://www.comereason.org/cmp_rlgn/cmp011.asp#ixzz0tUJxvPdK

But how can the man who brought corruption and sin into the world through disobedience be a prophet? Islam is confused, it considers that prophets are either sinless of without most of the major sins. But Adam is the author of mankinds problems.

Christianity is simple, believe in Jesus his words, ressurection and provision for sin and salvation.

Side: Other
0 points

DontBeRacist is 100% right! That is simplest way of putting it and the best way of putting it.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Yes, of course. Love has an object, the beloved. When the beloved is violated, love acts. It's what we do when something valuable is treated as worthless, we defend it.

This debate however miss the single greatest problem in the universe, the justice of God. If God has said that the soul that sins shall die, why does the human race still exist? Is God a lair or worse yet, unjust. Why didn't God cut down Adam and Eve the moment they sinned. He did say that the day they ate they would die, yet they go on for hundreds of more years. The very character of God is on the line here. His He just or unjust. What happens when love and justice collide? This whole question is about the justification of God and how he can be both just and the justifier of the ungodly.

What should God do when He is treated with disdain, disregarded, devalued and treated as worthless. What would that say about Him if He were to let that stand? He would be affirming that He is worthless and that would make Him a liar.

The question then becomes; are there truly any innocent people? If there are, then they have nothing to worry about. It would be unjust for God to send them to hell. Because He is just He only sends guilty people to hell.

The problem is whether or not we have valued anything more than the one who has given us all things. If we have, we have disdained God and committed cosmic treason and that makes us guilty. And guilty people go to prison (hell)

Reality is that every human being is guilty before God and they know it. So I ask why shouldn't God send everyone, me included, to hell? If He didn't He would be unjust and we know he isn't.

So I think the real question of this debate should be; How does a good God acquit the guilty and remain just? A debt is owed to justice and that debt must be paid. We have only two options; pay it ourselves (hell) or find a substitute to pay it for us. Keep in mind that the size of the debt is in proportion to the value of the offended party and God's value is infinite. That's why hell is forever and only God himself can pay the debt. Infinity minus ten-thousand is still infinity. It takes someone of infinite value to pay it.

Also, No one goes to hell because they did or didn't believe something. You go to hell for crimes against God. And God's laws apply to what we think, not just what we do. And keep in mind that the wages of sin is death. Your death will be evidence of your guilt.

To all the nay-sayers who will protest and say that all this talk about justice, courts etc. are just human categories and that God is beyond justice and all that stuff; I ask, are we so naive to think that we are more just than God Himself? What an insult to Him.

Finally, God is no kill joy, He is the one who created pleasure in the first place. He loves us and wants what is best for us. But what do you do when your beloved rejects you and does violence against other people whom you love? What happens when love and justice collide? They meet on a cross and God dies in the place of those who hated Him, They go free and He is condemned. That's good news indeed and I know of none better. It is the great exchange.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

So for those who put their trust in Christ when they stand before the "Supreme Court" they will be dismissed for lack of evidence because they stand in the righteousness of another, God's, and not their own.

And those who don't are condemned already, just like the ones who received the pardon were. All men have rejected God, me included. I just received the acquittal and not because of anything I did but because of God who showed mercy. But mercy can only be given after justice has been satisfied. That's how a just God can acquit guilty sinners, He pays the debt I get the acquittal. Justice has been satisfied so there is no injustice. God remains just and loving without sacrificing one for the other. Oh the depth of the wisdom of God.

Side: Yes guilty people go to hell
Hadrian(483) Disputed
3 points

"Reality is that every human being is guilty before God and they know it."

No they aren't.

No they don't.

Your god is not reality. It's simply your fantasy.

You condemn yourself by, in the name of your god, condemning others.

Side: No, it's incompatible
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
1 point

@ Hadrian:

""Reality is that every human being is guilty before God and they know it." No they aren't. No they don't."

Unfortunately we all are. Whether people know of it or not depends on whether you come into contact with Him or not.

"Your god is not reality. It's simply your fantasy."

... what, then, of conclusive proof that all the other supreme authorities of all the other religions existed?

PLUS the Bible has historical backing. Some of the other religions though - they have fantastical statistics (cf the 'kalpa') that come from (pardon me) God-knows-where. However the Old Testament numbering of the population of Israelites was done systematically. Think about that one.

"You condemn yourself by, in the name of your god, condemning others."

No. Sure the world is worthy of condemnation, but then again we too are fallen. We just have the means to go back to God, and isn't evangelism all about sharing that? After all, the tragedy of people not going back to God is their failing to reconcile with Him and their (wrongful - especially if they were ignorant) sharing in the fate meant originally for the Prince of Lies alone. Our mission in to show the Way back. And if they don't accept it then - what can I say? - good luck to them (which probably won't come anyway).

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Argento(512) Disputed
1 point

I would like to present the following thoughts to you.

The soul, or consciousness as I call it, is so pure and "godly" that it never gets tainted. It never turns to the "dark side". It never sins. Therefore it is never guilty. The soul's existence is infinite.

On the other side, cohabiting the body, is the human mind. A great and powerful tool. So powerful in fact that it can overpower the carrier and trap him into a false self/ego and make him a slave. Unlike the soul, the mind is very easily tainted. It can sin and it can commit horrible acts while caught up in its self preservation games. The brain's existence is finite.

The carrier (human) that has completely identified and given into the mind, at some point will commit "sins". If the human is still in touch with his soul/consciousness, a sense of guilt will emerge. Because when the acts and thoughts of the mind are exposed to the light of consciousness, they come shattering down and turn to ashes. At this point the person is likely to put things wright and make amends, thus allowing a fresh start with no debt.

If on the other hand the person is refusing to acknowledge guilt, or is far out of touch with their consciousness to see their actions, then that person will remain a slave of the brain. And pay the price for it. Because, make no mistake, they will suffer the consequences of their actions, even if they don't see the cause for their suffering.

In short, all your sins are committed by your brain. The brain is finite and so are the sins it commits. The brain does not transcend into eternity after your death. It dies along with your body. If your brain committed sins, you will have paid and suffered for all of them in your lifetime. Therefore when you die, there is no debt left. Your soul, being innocent, is free to transcend. So ultimately there is no eternal hell. You suffer here and now.

I will also address your comments about our relationship to other people and how God is involved.

It is not a coincidence that the core message delivered by Jesus was forgiveness. He was calling for us to be in touch with our consciousness. When you do that, when you do not allow your brain to be caught up in a game of revenge, you acknowledge the violator for what they are: a person whose pure soul is trapped under the manifestations of a destructive mind. A person that is suffering. When you do that, you find peace and joy regardless of how bad the violator acts against you. You can defend your wellbeing without giving in to your brain's cries for revenge, retaliation and wish for eternal punishment.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Remember that?

So where is God in all this? Well, since we are all guilty of giving in to our brain at some point or another, it makes no sense for the Creator to start getting involved. He has given us all the key to joy: forgiveness.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

I don't think that the people who aren't in the "right" religion or the religion chosen by God won't go to hell.

I like the plan of the after life that Mormons have it makes the MOST sense out of all other religions...

Side: Other
jthm39(12) Disputed
1 point

Becoming a God? Hardly, if we were God's by nature then that would shine through in our life, which it doesn't. In order to state truthfully that Mormons are right, you must prove most parts of Christianity and then make a leap to proving the legitimacy of Joseph Smith and his reading golden plates through stones.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Sulith(508) Disputed
1 point

They believe that they must earn the right to be gods.

Care to explain this?:

Back in the good ole'days of Joseph Smith the Tombs in Egypt were being opened up and discovered by Britain. A man had a Papyrus scroll that he had translated in Britain and then he brought it over to America. He wanted to see if this Joseph Smith was a real "Translator" or "Modern Day Prophet".

Smith took the Papyrus and went to his translating room and translated it and gave it to this man.

The translation was the exact same.

Tell me how can a uneducated Young Adult who grew up on a Farm and had no schooling whatsoever translate that?

And have it be 100% Accurate?

That (and others) Papyrus Scroll ended up being the Book of Abraham.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Hey, the title of this debate sounds, well, just like another debate I know. Check it out

Supporting Evidence: CAN A LOVING GOD SEND PEOPLE TO HELL? (www.leaderu.com)
Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

You have to ask for his forgiveness then you will be saved

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

No because there is no hell nor is there a god so we're safe.

Side: Yes, they rejected him

Unless the rules of heaven and hell also govern God. Maybe there are divine laws he can't circumvent. Maybe if you do x he must put you in hell. Maybe he's only God because he obeys these laws (i.e. God cannot be God if he is evil). If person x shoots person y and kills him and then God says to person x it's ok, come to heaven, person y was denied justice, and God is supposedly just.

Side: Other
1 point

I say yes. If there is a higher power, whatever thought process he/she/it uses to make its decision has to be so far from our comprehension that we could never even hope to understand their motives. If whatever higher power there is decides to send someone to "hell", its reasons would probably be different from what we'd expect.

Side: Yes but for reasons we can't understand
1 point

We(the LDS religion) believe hell to be separation from god. Not an actual place with fire and lava. Just merely a lower heavenly kingdom. (we believe there are three).

So yes a benevolent God would give people the choice to be with god or not through their actions. That's the point of why we are here.

Side: You Have A Choice
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
1 point

O.o

... without God, can it even be heavenly? Without God, in whom everything good is and who is goodness itself, can it?

NO.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

We(the LDS religion) believe hell to be separation from god. Not an actual place with fire and lava. Just merely a lower heavanly kingdom. (we believe there are three).

So yes a benevolent God would give people the choice to be with god or not through their actions. That's the point of why we are here.

Side: You Have A Choice
1 point

I didn't feel comfortable with answering on either sides of this debate. I believe God knows all things. If a person seeks truth, or realizes there must be something bigger or better than them (a creator) Then God will make sure that person heres the truth. No matter what culture they live in.

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. - Romans 1:20 "

Every man has a chance to believe in God.

Jeremiah 29:13 - "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

Every man and women has a chance to believe.

Jeremiah 29:13 =

Side: Jeremiah 29 -13
1 point

I did not read the whole thing and i honestly cannot answer that question and i believe no one else can you will find out on judgement day what the most just and benevolent of all beings decides. I would like to add that every person should see there is a god so that would not be an issue but whether or not they choose allah or god changes things i think.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

The idea of a benevolent God sending people to hell is a false premise. First of all let me use these analogies:

1/

I loved someone so much that I sent hundreds of my friends to help them, but because of ignorance, indifference and even hostility them rejected that help. So rather than friends I sent close family to strong persuade them and physically show the way of escape. I even sent my close family and finally my son. But they were so enraged that they killed him. Is that a lack of benevolence?

2/

Suppose I was God and all life was because of me and through me and actual in me. Let us presume that life could not exist outside of me it was just impossible.

One day, I created some spiritual beings similar to myself except they lived because of me and not independently because that was impossible. My aim was for them to enjoy life, have fun and love one another, no argument here because I know whats best because I know everything and am perfect.

One day someone fooled them into believing I was not perfect, I didn't love them and I didn't know everything. They went on to convince them that life was what they made it and not only because of me.

-----------------------------------------

So in order not to labour a point too much. Hell is not a place where people are sent, they are thrown. It is a place of weeping, crying and torment. A place not prepared for people but the devil and all those who oppose God. This was never meant to be a place for people. But God created all things and just like a fruit tree that stops producing good fruit, those who feed on unbelief, anti-Christian ideas, practice immoral behaviour and reject Jesus Christ (God) produce bad fruit and are thrown on the fire.

God would possibly be considered in-benevolent; if he had not constantly provided a way for us to produce good fruit and escape the corruption of the world, if he had not suffered severely himself to make a way of salvation, if the decision to go to hell was not one that we make now!

Hell is a place that is outside the presence of God. To remain in his presence we all need his son.

Side: You Have A Choice
1 point

Not that they rejected Him....the need is to accept Him as your personal Lord & Saviour.

Side: You Have A Choice
aveskde(1935) Disputed
1 point

Not that they rejected Him....the need is to accept Him as your personal Lord & Saviour.

A benevolent god cannot send people to hell. The concept of a god is that of absolutes, all-powerful, all-knowing, etc. Being perfectly benevolent means that it is impossible to commit an act that is in any way cruel or hurtful. Therefore, no matter what biblical doctrine you cite, if your god sends people to hell he is not benevolent, if he is benevolent then he cannot send people to hell.

Side: No, it's incompatible
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
1 point

Mind you, to compress God to His benevolent side is to flatten out the issue and to lock yourself in that false premise you've been keeping yourself in.

God has a just side too.

Going after other gods (note the small 'g') or doctrines is wrong in the eyes of the Creator. Just think: can people get help from things and ideas they fashion themselves? Of course not! Hence people are turning to the wrong gods and doctrines if they pursue them. So while God does want the best, He won't force people to it because He has given us free will, and we will be given what we deserve according to our deeds.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Without mercy there could be no justice.

Correct, but remember:

Without justice there would be no mercy.

What God says is not only true, but it makes sense, common sense. As the Bible states:

The LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth, who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.'

- Exodus 34:6-7

Side: Depends which hell
1 point

Whatever hell may or may not be, God doesn't send people there, they send themselves there. He provides a way out and people either reject it or take it as a gift. Its their choice. As far as people who have never had a Bible or heard a preacher, I'm sure God is smart enough to provide them a way to believe and to know wihich ones are true to him and which are not. Some American Indian tribes had a deep belief in a creator who provided them with lifes essentials and they had a profound respect for the creator and his gifts to them and in some respects would put many true Christians of today to shame with their level of faith and respect, yet they never had a preacher or a Bible to read. Some of them saw the creation and realized there must be a creator. Just like when you see a painting, you know there is a painter even though you never met him or her. God cannot let wickedness or sin into Heaven and there fore if we choose to reject his provision for us to rid us of our sin through his sacrifice, we send our selves to hell by our own choosing.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

All people on earth is proving evidence that God send people to hell, if hell is on earth.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

We will all be judged by Him... yeah, it sucks, since He doesnt bother to come around much, but we stopped making the rules 2,000 years ago, right?

Side: Yes guilty people go to hell

I am be a Christian and i read the bible ones a time but if God is like a form of father he would only punish his kids for their crimes according to the degree of crime and should be punished for a small time (put to hell for a given time).

But the ones who reject him and worship other gods shall surely be neglected and handed over to the lord of hell.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
clearEn(207) Disputed
1 point

I'm sorry, but 'lord of hell'. God is the 'lord of hell', for how short 'hell' exists.

I assume you're referring to Satan, the Devil, the Dragon (whatever you want to call him), but it's quite clear in the Bible that Satan isn't the 'lord of hell', but will actually be killed in it the same as the wicked. Why should the king of the wicked be exempt from the judgement?

Revelation 20:10 "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone."

Side: Other
1 point

God doesn't "send" anyone to hell. Think of it like this. If you were getting pulled down the river by strong currents about to go over a waterfall and a rope was thrown to you. Would you grab onto it? If you don't you allow yourself to suffer whatever comes. Annihilationism (The theory that you'll will be annihilated in hell and removed from existence)and universalism (That you will eventually get out) are completely unbiblical ideas. Hell is clearly a place of physical torment. Being let out does not solve the problem with sin. If you go to jail for murder and are let out, you're still a murderer. Annhialationism is also completely unjust. Murderers, rapists so forth get away with it all?

God is also just. A judge letting everyone off on earth would not be tolerated so why do we expected it from Him?

Side: You Have A Choice
1 point

God is a God of love and justice, he would never force you into hell, all he does is endorse your decision.

What a rotten, evil God he would be if he forced you to be with him if you had always said that you didn't believe in him and wanted nothing to do with him.

We have now seen the consequences of parents not disciplining their children, and even animals discipline their off spring. How else can the animal world know what is right and what is wrong. We are born knowing nothing, and it would appear that we do not automatically do good, unless taught and we seem to naturally be selfish, get angry, lazy, jealous, want our own way etc, but we seem to have to be taught to be caring, nice etc..

Imagine a God who says you can do what you like and there are no consequences..

I have spoken to people who say that they have experienced something in a near death experience, some say they have experienced wonderful things and some say bad. Look up, Dr Richie's near death experience... he is now a lecturing/Professor.

We need to be in a Group hopefully a good church which can teach the why's and fors of things, once I studies it, I understood but it..

Guys all I can say is that our lives are stinkin short and if I am wrong when I die I have nothing to loose, but if you are wrong???.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
nahga(81) Disputed
1 point

god endorses your decision to go to a place that you never wanted to go? how do you burn a spirit? that is the mot ridiculous notion ever. or is it the chicken-snake, or the talking donkey? these stories are for childlike minds, and fearful coward, escapist who hate the fact that, like everyone else, they'll someday die

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

If God were also just, yes. If "evil" exists, and is defined as concern for the self, and good exists, and is defined as concern for the other, then it is clear that evil and good are complementary concepts. Benevolence is only required to make a way for the evil men do to be escaped by them if and when they turn from doing evil, and, at least according to the Christian faith that is exactly what God has done through His Son, Jesus. He has shown men that His love is unconditional, thus removing any rational mistrust of Him by men, thus opening the "narrow way" in which men can come to and experience God.

That said, everyone who has ever been unfortunate enough to have been in a relationship where they are loved selflessly and unconditionally by another they do not love at all, knows first hand the torment that there is for them in such a one-sided love affair. The other's love becomes an indictment; a constant accusation that there is something wrong with you issued in an inner voice you often recognize as your own. Hearing that voice over and over again eventually changes your simple lack of love for the other to a constant annoyance with them, and then finally to hatred. Now suppose this hypothetical "other" was a perfect being. The inner torment you'd feel in rejecting their unconditional love by failing to return it would be multiplied by the difference between human frailty and fallibility and perfection; i.e,, beyond the mind's ability to imagine. We could not possibly hide our rationalization for our failure to return their love behind our assumption they were flawed themselves, and their perfection would only serve to brighten the light exposing our own flaws until it was pure torment to continue seeing.

Hell is not a place, but a state of mind in a person who consists in nothing but mind; i.e., a "spirit", at least in most theistic religions. If that mind is in torments, then that mind is in hell. If that mind is at peace, and experiencing the inner joy that comes with selflessly loving others, including it's Creator, then it is in heaven, and in the presence of the Ideal Being who is selfless, unconditional love. And clearly any being who is "God" would have to be selfless love, for surely we can agree that unconditional love is better than love granted only when some standard of conduct has been met, and that thus "God" must have the property "loving unconditionally" if God is the Ideal Being.

Which brings us back to the quesstion, what if God isn't the Ideal Being? The answer to that is very simple. Since God is unquestionably at least possible, then there must logically exist some possible world in which such an Ideal Being exists. So, you might say, how does that tell us this world is that possible world? Easy. An Ideal Being that exists in one possible world must logically exist in all possible worlds, for clearly it is the case that any Ideal Being, to qualify as the Ideal Being must exist in all possible worlds as the Ideal Being in that world. Since this world is obviously a possible world, and since any Ideal Being that exists must exist as the Ideal Being in all possible worlds, it follows logically that the Ideal Being, who, as we've seen must essentially have the property "loving unconditionally", exists in this world. Further, it is God's unconditional love, that you've referred to as His benevolence that produces BOTH heaven and hell for mankind, depending on how they respond to that Love.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

It says in order for someone to go to heaven, you have to accept Christ into your heart and confess with thy mouth(called repenting of your sins).

ADMIT you are a sinner. Admit that you have been disobedient to God.

BELIEVE that Jesus is the Son of God. Believe that he gave his life for you. Believe that he died and rose from the dead.

CONFESS your sins to Jesus. He will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Supporting Evidence: Salvation (members.doubleknot.com)
Side: Yes, they rejected him
MythnLegend(10) Disputed
1 point

Once again, you argue on scripture alone. You would send more than half the world into eternal torment "because the BIBLE says this". And what if Islam is the right way, or better yet, what if Al Qaeda, the extremists who believe that America and all who call it home are pure evil, are right? You probably think that that is extremely unlikely, but in reality it's no more unlikely than Christianity or any other religion BECAUSE THERE IS NO PROOF. There is no indication that any one religion is correct over the others except for the word of each individual religion who all claim to be right. Perhaps Christ did die to save us of our sins, but wouldn't you think that in a world where we absolutely had to believe that to be touched by His sacrifice, a benevolent God would make it clear that the Christian faith is His way? And you might think that He has made it clear, but you probably are a part of a Christian family in a Christian nation or have in some way been influenced by Christian people; you probably live in a Christian bubble that, trust me, most people in the world do NOT even have access to. If you had been born in the Middle East you would believe just as strongly in the correctness of the Qu'ran as the word of God and the necessity of your belief in it to eternal happiness.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Yes, God gives many chances on Earth to do whats right. If they fail then they are not welcomed in heaven.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
MythnLegend(10) Disputed
1 point

"What is right" and "what the Bible tells us" aren't always the same.

Side: No, it's incompatible
GuitaristDog(2548) Clarified
1 point

The bible is not the religion its self, it is just a religious text for christianity, no angle, spirt, savior or god EVER wrote anything in the bible.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Your getting mixed up with your ideas of God and religions. Firstly, God is beyond understanding – philosophers for centuries have tried- because the minute you understand God he ceases to be God. The closest we can come are attributes and our understanding of them, in your case benevolent – meaning helpful and well meaning.

A policeman can be seen as benevolent but if he does not possess the ability to punish and apprehend then he’s an expensive watchmen and of no use to the people but aid to wrongs. Similarly you can’t just put the attribute of benevolent on God and say if he’s only kind then why does he punish?

People have a choice and they follow fate but their choices can affect their fate if they put in the right efforts and intent. So it doesn’t matter what religion or denomination you follow as the actions of a decent person will be the same and their intent and efforts will direct people towards the middle path and they will strive themselves to follow too. Those that have managed it perfectly are called The Prophets and from the few that are well documented we know that all said the same thing: Do not lie, cheat, steal, kill etc.

Ignorance is not an excuse as religion is the cornerstone of every civilization known and unknown. No true religion goes against the basic tenets of The Commandments but politics changes the messages over time and the religion becomes detached from it’s original teachings leading to the decline of the civilization and the religion.

No one is guaranteed “salvation” anything and no one knows the fullest extent of their actions either. So killing an alleged thief may be seen as something good but it was not proven so you have in fact exonerated him and condemned yourself. It’s not random factors at all but a fine line between doing good and understanding what your doing – you can’t blindly follow and expect to be right and more than back any horse and be right every time.

As for the hell scenario – it’s silly to think it’s too harsh a punishment. Charles Manson is still alive and still has no remorse over his actions. Will he change tommorrow do you think? In a year? In a millenia? So if the guy isn’t going to use his will in the right way to change himself when he can, then an eternal punishment is not harsh as he’s going to be like that for eternity anyway.

Side: Other
1 point

I think it depends what you did wrong. I think if you sad a bad word or breaking a BIG promise i think he would send you to hell.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
MythnLegend(10) Disputed
1 point

Well then, according to you it seem that there's no one actually in Heaven.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Yeah, I really don't know why I said you if you say a bad word you go to hell, I really ment if you break a really big commandment

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Hi all,

God created us in his own image and gave us free will, just as he gave the angels free will. God Tell's us repeatedly that he wants a relationship with us as individuals, he wants us to love him with our minds and hearts just as he loves us. He could have just programmed us to repeat in a robotic voice "I love you God" but how satisfying would that be?

So, God does not send people to hell, as we have been blessed with free will, we have the freedom to make a choice to either be with God in Heaven, or be with satan in Hell. God is the creator of everything, you me the Universe and Hell, which he created for satan, the fallen Angels and followers such as the Nephillim. but Satan is the ruler of this world as it is a fallen world. hence all the sorrow, torture, illness and death. God loves us, and while satan is trying to destroy the world God turns his evil to good.

for those who are agnostic or atheist and abstain from making any decision for or against God, you will still be choosing to follow satan. just because you decide that God doesn't exist doesn't make it so. God does exist, there is evidence all around us that shows us this truth. there is really only ONE thing we need to do during our short stay on earth and that is to thank God and accept his free gift of Grace by sending his son to die on the cross, take our sins upon himself, and save us from Hell and the clutches of Satan. Because we are fallen and therefore have evil in our hearts, we cannot be near God who is Holy and cannot be around evil, so it is our decision to accept grace that saves us from hell and allows us to be with God.

Hope I wasn't too long winded.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

The question is being asked wrong. The question that should be asked whether in India or America is, "Considering that I daily reject the obvious truth that is written on my heart, and burned into my conscience; considering that I willfully reject the truth that I am presented with, How can a God of JUSTICE NOT make me pay for my CRIME. To allow me to go free under those circumstances would make Him unjust, and therefore evil and anti-benevolent.

This issue is putting God on trial and not allowing Him to testify. And no, I don't expect to sway this debate. :)

Side: Yes, they rejected him
MythnLegend(10) Disputed
1 point

If you really believe that then you are either extremely apathetic or you spend your days feeling miserable and helpless as every non-baptized person around you is, you believe, cast into eternal torment by a supposedly "loving" God; in either case, I feel sorry for you and the misery in which you live this one life you have.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

They rejected His forgiveness. Therefore, with this rejection they still have sin. Heaven is a perfect place and sin is imperfect. So, God cannot let anyone into Heaven that still has sin. That said, they have to go to Hell. Since, they cannot go to Heaven.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

As there's too many arguments to try and wade through, I'm writing this and hoping somebody will read it.

Since this is a religious debate, I assume I'm allowed to use the Bible. There are many views supported by popular Christianity that aren't backed by the Bible. For instance, the idea that when people die, they go either to Heaven or to 'Hell'. Ecclesiasted 9:5 says, "The dead know nothing." If the dead went directly to Heaven or Hell, and yet 'knew nothing', what's the point in being there? If Lazarus went to Heaven, then how cruel would Jesus have been to call him back?

As for Hell, the Bible never says anything about it being an eternal place of torture and torment for the non-believers. Jude 1:7 says, "Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire." If Sodom and Gomorrah were subject to the 'eternal fire' of Hell, then why aren't they still burning? Shouldn't we still see columns of smoke rising in the middle-east? No. Those cities have been destroyed to the point that we don't even know where they were.

The effects of 'Hell' are permanent. The result lasts an eternity. Revelation 20:9 describes Hell in its entirety: "And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God's people and the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them." That's it. Hell comes and goes. Those who didn't accept Jesus's Sacrifice are burnt, and they die. The wicked aren't tormented eternally, they simply no longer exist. Just like you didn't exist before you were born. That's it. Done.

In fact, the basis that God is loving and benevolent destroys the idea of an eternal hell. Why would such a God keep people alive for eternity merely to make them suffer? And what sort of life would it be for the people in Heaven, who know that their loved ones are suffering every moment. In that universe, Heaven would be just as much as hell as hell.

And God doesn't 'send people to Hell'. People choose Hell for themselves. By rejecting the love of God today, they choose their own fate. It's not about which religion is 'right'. No religion has it dead-on. No religion can claim to follow the Bible word-for word. No, it's about accepting Jesus as your savior.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
0 points

Actually, sorry. The Biblical refute is up.

I really hope somebody reads it, as nobody has commented on it yet. (I'm going to vote myself down to zero, as this really isn't an argument either way)

Side: Yes, they rejected him

yes and no,

i believe that people do go to hell and that god is benevolent, but i believe its more because god cant be around sin. i believe its because while god can forgive those who imbrace him, he cant forgive thse who dont, as a result, god cannot be around sinful people.

i dont believe on the other hand that godsends them there. i believe its complecated, and we as humans cant comprehend it

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

we all know that we have sinned. It has been going on for thousands of years and God continually puts up with it. I believe a kind God would send people to hell especially if those persons have been warned their entire life.We have been given a fair number of chances and those who failed to succumb should be severely punished. Also we know that God is kind and we also know that he keeps his promises as he did in the time of Jonah. Don't you think he can do it again with fire??????

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Ya, would a benevolent God, allow people to Get away with wrong doing?

Jus because he is loving doesn't mean that he doesn't believe in justice.

People use his Love,mercy etc to say that he wouldn't.Why?

Because its human to hide from the truth.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

God does punish people according to their sin. One sin causes infinite pain, people assume that God does not feel pain but everytime a person sins he feels pain. Pain that is caused by you and me and never goes away. God punishes people according to their crimes. The punishment does fit the crime but not in the way Dante's Inferno describes it. The punishment is eternal because God is eternally in pain because of the crime. But in his Benovolence he grants mercy in his love for us he finds it in him to forgive us. All of us, Jews and Gentiles Black and White whoever is baptized into Jesus Christ and believes with all their heart and loves and strives to be like God will be forgiven. That God is benevolent is self evident through the simple fact that he has not sent everyone to hell.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

And Yes people can change their beliefs it is not however spontaneous. It comes through a little thing called seeking God. I was raised a Christian by my parents. But, I was not a Christian. I did not strive to be and act like Christ. I sinned and did not care. It meant nothing to me. I walked through life with no meaning no purpose but to serve myself. Gradually with the help of God I began to see the error of my ways. Over the course of several months I read and I studied the Bible. I prayed I talked to people. The more I did this the more happy I grew. Then one day i was reading about the Crucifixion and I burst into tears. A week later I converted to Christianity. So my beliefs changed.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Okay, I'll answer the premise.

Would a benevolent God, knowing that the majority of people in the world would never be exposed to the correct 'Religion' or 'Denomination' send people to hell based on that fact, or is it incompatible with benevolence?

No. But that's not what's happening. God doesn't 'send' people to 'hell' based on correct religion or denomination. God saves people from a fate that will occur without such salvation based on if they love Him or not.

Whether or not you answer in the affirmative or the negative, does this in your opinion create a lottery situation in which some people are given greatly increased chances of acheiving salvation and heaven based on random factors? While others are given a greatly decreased, if any, chance to receieve salvation and heaven?

No. There are random factors. There will most likely be people in heaven who don't even know God but still love Him. Salvation isn't about chance, it's about choice.

If you answer in the negative [He would send them to hell] how do you reconcile the situation in which someone may, for instance, live all their lives in a radical, 'heathen' country where information of the 'true' [whatever it may be] religion is not allowed?

There are many examples where the worship of God is forbidden under pain of death. That is actually when the church grows the most, because those who stay with it are those who truly believe in it. Such faith is contagious. So, first off, He doesn't send people to hell, and 'heathen' countries are where the Gospel (literally "Good News") is spread the fastest.

Pretty much the only way to stay away from God in today's world is to actively reject His love. And if you do so, you also reject His salvation. But even if He did save those who don't love Him, what salvation would it be? Forced to spend an eternity in a very one-sided relationship. It's hard to spend a few months in those, let alone millions of years. Salvation then would be more of a hell than hell is [1].

-----

[1] If you look down, you can see one (actually two, but one readily visible) of my arguments in which I show how the Bible refutes the idea of an eternal, torturous hell.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Bohemian(3860) Disputed
1 point

No. But that's not what's happening. God doesn't 'send' people to 'hell' based on correct religion or denomination. God saves people from a fate that will occur without such salvation based on if they love Him or not.

So unless I love a man-god I have never known, I will go to a place of eternal torment?

Side: No, it's incompatible
clearEn(207) Disputed
1 point

No.

Unless you love God (one of the basic ideas is that He's not a man) that wants to get to know you, you will separate yourself from Him. God want's to be your friend. If He didn't, why send Jesus to die?

Everyone you meet in life is a complete stranger until you get to know them. If somebody comes up to you and you push them away, is it their fault? God respects your wishes. If you don't want to get to know Him, he'll let you do that. He doesn't like it any more than you would like one of your children disowning you, but He allows that to happen.

As for the eternal torment, if you read down in my post, you will find directions to an argument refuting that. If you wish, I could paste it below your argument.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

And that seems very selfish of our "loving" God, doesn't it? He will only save us if WE love HIM. If HE loves US, wouldn't he save us regardless? A mortal parent loves their child unconditionally, so wouldn't a perfect being like God, often called a parent of his many human children, take UNCONDITIONAL love to an extreme?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
clearEn(207) Disputed
0 points

Actually, sorry. The Biblical refute is up.

I really hope somebody reads it, as nobody has commented on it yet. (I'm going to vote myself down to zero, as this really isn't an argument either way)

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Basically, it depends on what one means by a "benevolent" God. If by benevolent, we mean fair, then yes, He would send us to Hell. Is it fair (no offense to ANY Nazis) for Adolf Hitler, the perpetrator who caused the Holocaust, to go to Heaven? Also, would it be fair for someone to receive awards from a person or people that someone doesn't know over another that does? It really isn't fair. However, if a benevolent God means an all-loving God that just "forgives and forgets" for everything, then He wouldn't send anyone to Hell. However, this is a very unlikely reality. We, as humans, sin so much, that even an all-forgiving God would send us to Hell.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
zombee(1026) Disputed
1 point

Would you agree that an adequate definition of a just god is a god who doles out the appropriate punishment for a particular crime?

If so, humans are not immortal. They have a finite amount of time in which to sin, ergo, upon their death, they have committed a finite number of sins no matter how evil they were.

Hell is widely represented as a place of infinite punishment, and additionally, the punishment is the same for every offense, from jealousy to genocide. How can finite wrongdoings, regardless of severity, ever merit infinite punishment? Especially considering that if we had not been created exactly as God intended us to be, with free will, we would not have the ability to sin.

Side: No, it's incompatible
MythnLegend(10) Disputed
1 point

Your argument makes sense, except that that's not how the Bible sees it. According to the Bible, not only did Hitler go to Hell, but so did Anne Frank and the other millions of Jewish nonbelievers who he murdered in the Holocaust. So did Gandhi, a Hindu, and so did so many other great men and women guilty of nothing but the unforgivable crime of not believing in Jesus Christ.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Before I was a Christian, there were many aspects of the faith that baffled me, and I demanded questions, questions that were similar to this one. It wasn't that long after that I heard a preacher man say this: "Many people ask me 'how can God hate if He is love?' and my reply is this 'God must hate because God is love". If you cannot understand this, then perhaps you should inquire no more on the matter, because its not something that one can't understand, it is something that one does not want to understand. I will add this though: would a benevolent God let man who denied His existance stand alongside men who gave up their lives for His existance? Would he reward men who rejected His Son the same way He rewards those who loved His Son and did great things in His name? God's wish is that all believe and come to the knowledge of the truth, those who don't are responsible for what happens next.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
MythnLegend(10) Disputed
1 point

A benevolent God would love unconditionally regardless of belief, especially in a world like ours where people are constantly influenced by atheistic ideas. Your idea of God is not benevolent, and if that god is THE God then he is unworthy of our love.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

I want to answer this question as it is framed. The premise of the question is hinged on two ideas - (a) you are speaking of a particular deity "a benvolent God" and (b) questioning His nature on the basis of His action (ie - "would" He "send people to hell?").

Terminology is key to understanding. First, we use the term benevolent, and think of some kindly, well-meaning gentleman that in philanthropic-action, pours out his resources on others simply because he can. The Bible claims God as being "good" (Mtt. 19:17 - "...there is none good but one, that is, God") and where it is true He does work "all things" "together for good" (there is a limited audience according to the verse - Rom. 8:28 "...them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose") there is no term of benevolence applied to God. So, the question may be better phrased - would a good God send people to hell?

First, hell was created for the devil and his angels. Why? Satan rejected the plan he was designed for and sought to "be like the most high" (Is. 14:14). The Bible teaches that a third of the angels followed Lucifer in rejecting their place. In return, they have a place prepared for them that will one day be their permanent home. Hell, then the Lake of Fire. It is not the current place of residency but for a select few demons (who we are told have been chained in that bottomless pit. They were a particularly churlish group.) Satan's domain is as the "prince of the power of the air." (Eph. 2:2) Job teaches us that he goes "to and fro in the earth" "walking up and down in it." (Job 1:7) His residency is on earth, and his purpose is he "walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (I Peter 5:8). Why? Because he is God's adversary. He is man's adversary. He wishes to destroy God's creation. To have man reject God as he did. To what end? That he might destroy man, by having him reject God's purpose for his/her life.

What of man? Judges 17:6 and 21:25 tell us "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Does that mean everyone is out trying to be wicked? No, it simply says that everyone is living life according to their own notion of right and wrong. When God's plan has been rejected, the solution then is to determine a new plan - a new system. The philosophy of today is just do it "if it feels good, or it feels right." Yet, the basis of good can not fit into our frame - because as already stated, there is none good but God. That means He sets the standard. When we reject God's standard and replace it with our own, we are basically telling God we are going to replace Him in on the throne of our lives - with what we find to be a more fitting substitute. Ourselves. Our reasoning. Our plans. The Bible says in Psalm 14:1 "The fool hath said in his heart, no God." (Some may add in the commentators "There is" - but the original simply states "No God.") So, to reject God, and His plan - is to play the part of a fool.

What is God's plan for the life of man? I already stated that God is good. In fact, He is so "good", he is absolute perfection. Another word used to describe that is Holy. God, in His perfection is completely sinless and Holy. Man, in his fallen state - is on the opposite end of the spectrum. We are taught, "the plowing of the wicked is sin." (Prov. 21:4). And "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23). And 'There is none righteous, no not one." Rom. 3:10). For "the carnal mind is enmity against God (Rom. 8:7). We are in a helpless state. The Bible goes on to say, "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23a) There is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to escape this place of desperation and separation. We are estranged to God. We are sinners. He is holy. In our sinful condition we cannot go to Him, and in His holiness, He can not fellowship with us. But God provided a solution. That solution was the shed blood of a perfect lamb (as pictured in the Old Testament - and expressed fully in the death of Jesus.) The remainder of Rom. 6:23 says, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

God provided a gift. Gift's do not cost the recipient anything; they simply have to receive. The gift Christ offers is eternal salvation. Romans 10:13 says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And probably the most quoted scripture, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life." Do you see that? The options are on the table - accept the free gift to salvation, or reject God's plan and perish.

Would a good God send people to hell? By their choice to reject the plan of salvation He has provided, then yes, He is resigned to reject them and to cast them into hell.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

of cores y not... if ur a dum shit like some ppl r then of cores have fun in helll! i join u bra

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

The question, however, is based on a wrong premise but not only would He, but He will, if you understand why and reasons behind it.

http://www.btscene.eu/subcat/id/3/

Side: Yes, they rejected him

Yes. He can't save people who will reject them becasue they will be covered in sin, and God is not compatible with sin. But you can't say he's still not benevolent becasue even despite that he gave up his very SON so that we could have a way to escape sin and hell.

Side: Yes, they rejected him

Actually everybody DOES at some point come across Christianity. It doesn't matter how; they still will at some point in their life have that opportunity. (Except for babies that die before, although it's thought that he has a place for them.)

Side: Yes, they rejected him

And so no: it actually doesn't create a lottery: at some point everyone WILL have a point where they decide what they believe in, which is what the Christians now are supposed to be doing: making sure the word DOES get to other people.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Yes God would send people to hell because some people like atheists and agnostics and people who do not believe in God will go to hell for not believing in God. The only way to not go to hell is you could believe in Jesus Christ and follow his ways and but the road to heaven is very narrow to get but wide it is to get to hell. The road to heaven is going to really hard tho and if anyone is willing to take the challenge its the Christians.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Yes He would send people to hell. God gave us free will to believe what ever but there will be conquences to people who choose there own way and not God's way. Its the person's choice to believe in God or not if they choose not then then that is ther fault since they choose not to believe in Him.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
2 points

I totally agree...The entire sub jet tends to be misinterpreted...It is not GOD that throws us away, but we that throws him away...if you get what I mean

Side: Yes, they rejected him

we speak of a perfect god and how can he send people to hell? because thats the wrong way to look at it.

we choose god, god has already asked us to follow him, its up to us if we choose him or not.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

It would make more sense if everyone places themselves in this situation, would anyone cast their children into the pits of hell. Ofcourse in our case hell would be simply throwing your kid out of the house where he has to fiend for himself in the steets...Does this happen? Yes...all, the time...

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

It would make more sense if everyone places themselves in this situation, would anyone cast their children into the pits of hell. Ofcourse in our case hell would be simply throwing your kid out of the house where he has to fiend for himself in the steets...Does this happen? Yes...all, the time...

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

What most people arguing that god shouldn't send them to hell don't understand is what hell actually is, hell is the pain and suffering of living without a god which people only go to if the refuse god, its not that god sends them to a place full of fire and suffering

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Yes, it's because God has nowhere to put them except in the place representative of their burning passion against their Creator. Hell burns because sin burns against God...God hates it, and His wrath is against it because He had to take death on Himself in order to buy back His creatures from death...because He is love, He knew this is what He would have to do before He created beings with free will and powers of reasoning like His own. He knew some would rebel and they would have to be thrown into the fire. For the joy of having what He intended from the beginning, a people for His Kingdom to give all things pertaining to life forever, He endured the suffering and despised the shame. In His righteous anger against those who broke His law of perfection, His law of love, He will avenge Himself by the fire of Hell from which only the smoke of the torments of His adversaries will rise forever, and it's good to know God punishes evil.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

God gave you time you do not deserve, you do not deserve to live but He gives you time....and in that time, He died in your place, paid your price, to buy you back from the death you deserve, so you can be forgiven in His resurrection. If you think it is nothing what He did for you, then you have nothing but your own death and nobody but yourself to blame if you find yourself unable to escape the fire of Hell.....and your loss will not stop God from being good. How can God be good if He does not banish all that is not good away from the living forever? You have gone bad, and you can't blame God for not trying to bring you back to Himself through the blood He gave with His own life to pay for your sins.

God cannot be benevolent toward evil or He would be evil. God being good does not mean He is benevolent to those who have gone away from and against Him. Your own actions testify against you, and God is good so He honors the facts of reality and will let you burn in Hell if you don't want to seek His mercy and believe on His Son. It doesn't matter how much you say you should be allowed to have life your own way...God gave it to you and he has the right to deny you from it forever.

You are arguing something you cannot win in. You are arguing against yourself when you go against God who did all He could for you on the cross of Calvary.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Lots of good comments here, but too many foul mouthed trash bags who God still loves but I have had enough of in this discussion. I hope to see you all in Heaven.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Yes. Not that he doesn't love us, though. When your parents ground you or punish you, it isn't out of hate, but out of love. God isn't out puppeteer... he gives us free will. Along with this free will, the tells us what is right... we just don't listen. THAT is why we go to hell is we don't believe in God.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
0 points

This is simply a place to insult people who know something about the bible!

Side: Yes, they rejected him
jthm39(12) Disputed
3 points

This is actually simply a place for intelligence to prevail, and for unsupported ideas to be hacked down like hogs hung from a meat hook. If Christianity is a worthy religion, it will stand the test of extreme scrutiny. History will support it and the text inside the Bible will always speak the truth about society, and how God wants us to live (assuming there is a God, that he directed the writing of the bible, and that he put in the Bible what he wanted his creations to do/how to live their lives).

Side: Two Can Play
TERMINATOR(6780) Disputed
2 points

Scrutiny by people who do not believe it and from a modern context.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Troy8(2433) Disputed
2 points

Wow, so you're saying that Christianity should be able to stand the test of extreme scrutiny? Are you trying to use this as an excuse to bash it time and again? Great idea! I think you should spread the wealth a little! Bash some Hindus and Buddhists and Jews! Oh, wait- NO THAT IS DISCRIMINATION!!! YOU RACIST! I think that Christianity has definitely should the test of extreme scrutiny long enough! Millions of Christians have been killed in history as martyrs.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
TERMINATOR(6780) Disputed
1 point

This is a site for Christianity to be hacked down by atheists! Christians don't get a voice!

Side: Yes, they rejected him
ricedaragh(2494) Disputed
2 points

I know something about the Bible and I am not insulted. I am an atheist though and here is where the problem with bible worship starts. Bible bashers have no logic or evidence to back up there claim, they have blind faith which when questioned logically by people descends into insult or blasphemy or boo boos or whatever terminology you wish to use for "I know I have lost so I will sulk".

Side: No, it's incompatible
hoegy(308) Disputed
2 points

Be careful with putting beleivers into sheep pens because some who claim to be sheep who follow their shepard are actullay wolves disguised in sheeps clothing. If ther are beleivers who just boo woo you and dont sit down and talk with you strait and logically, then im sorry because we are not all like that. And plus those beleivers you are talking about probably dont have any roots to hold their ground. That is their own fault, because the word of GOd gives us roots.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

He's insulting God. Don't take it personally. He's trying to make God go away, trying to convince himself that he is too good to end up burning in Hell with no way out. Don't take it personally. The guy needs to be saved, God left His people in this world to try to reach the lost. Remember, Jesus said if you follow Him He will make you a fisher of men....and that we should deny ourselves, and take up our cross daily, and follow Him....through His cross and in His resurrection to eternal life. They can't hurt you if God is for you....don't take it personal, they are against God and God is for you if you believe on Jesus.

Side: No, it's incompatible
0 points

I was lost in the Darkest parts of my own wicked ways, spiraling down a path of destruction leading me away from His Almighty ways, and all the while im going down ONLY ONE, He could save me. No matter how far i looked on this lowly planet, i never once found a soul who could manage, to show me the love that i truly needed, because on this planet aint nothing but hate and contempt have been breeded. the lowly snake slithering as he goes through the towns of man looking for lowly lowly souls, to feed on so that it could plant it's evil seeds, and so that throughout the generations nothing but evil and hate we could recieve, but those where the ways of the past, my brothers and sisters. the devil had a hold of us and he managed through our parents, down through the generations His ways have been lost, and because of the us, the devil has turned and tossed, We can All be saved, all we need is Thanksgiving, to the One who Above, for All of His Givings. The devils trying to stop me right now as i speak, but Faithful to the Lord and willit He, that i may be meek. Because it is He not i that gives you this message but it is The One that we All should seek. i know that it is hard to find Rest, as we all go through this test some call a game, every single last one of us, probably, training to gain and retain our fame. But That is not what this life is about, i have a Strong feeling that we are All getting our Water from the wrong wrong spout. because thats all the devil has for us is a little bit, of pleasure, then comes the pain. steady feeding our bodies what i see now Is Insane. because ya'll hafto see that we are all carnally minded, and This is the reason The LORD, us he has blinded, binding, ourselves to our own flesh, so that eventually we would All fail this Test. but know that The Lord, He loves us, and wishes nothing but the best, and all He wants is for us to Love Him all the while through this Test. some wonder why we see nadoes and quakes, He needs ya'll to know that its Ya'lls souls that He is trying to shake. and bake if you will, so the devil may not have his fill, to letchya'll know that there is NONE like that ALMIGHTY AND ALL POWERFULL ONE. i say full because Hes filled with Love, like None that we have seen on this lowly earth, but now that i have SEEN, my Eyes have been UnBlinded, and now it is He, He who signs this, letter so maybe that some of Ya'll could listen, and Maybe get the Message that He is trying to dish, out of His spout, so that ya'll might be fed, with all of His Love, His Water, And His Bread. Don't for a second think any of Ya'll are living, All of ya'll are dead and for the devil are you "living" as i sit here and do this all of the "dome" just know that it is Not me and that this is His tomb. He is singing through me in these words and this song, so that maybe one day we All can be free all the day long, and ya'll can say its cheesy if ya'll want, but just know the devil in you he does flaunt x) i had to stop and show ya'll how i felt about that one, cuz its the truth, and right now i have a Strong feeling He is swinging harder than that brother Babe Ruth, or ballin harder than micheal jordan, and in this song he Is Playing His Accordian. Ya'll just need to know that He is our Guardian, and right now im flying Higher than any single air jordan, because my love i gave to Him more than any of Ya'll so i guess i can say more than them. But dont getit twizted like boi's if ya'll know, that me and moreover Him, have a lot to show. we are all brothers and sisters, but i should call us the missers, because we all fail to see the smaller things in this world, without even thinking twice, what truly brings a man alot of happiness or to see the pain that ALOT of us have in us. i know that we are all hurting on the inside, and for ya'll who say we dont, Boi, you know that is a lie, because only with Him and not that evil leech from down south, can we truly fly. higher than the highest of trees or the tallest of mountains, But in Him we Have to trust, so that We may Drink From The One and Only True fountain, only because of Him can i do this for days, and its Because i gave Him my love, thanksgiving, and praise. so now that i have seen what it is truly to be Man, Men of God, all these hater out there who bout to say something aint nuthing more than sod. sorry if it dont make sense, just know that me and Him the latter first, We are just trying to give His children, ya'll some mother lovin cents. forgive me if i pause for no longer am i a vulgar man life is just a beach, and Now, He is playing in the sand, hopefully in the minds of the young, the daughters and sons, i have my holster, and now the Lord is my Gun, Shining Brighter, than a million suns, times two, because His love is True, actually make that twenty twenty, because He is aplenty, in me in you and All, i just hope that ya'll can hear His call, so that maybe that ya'll may not fall, into the Pit, but right now i can say the devil is probably having a fit, of anxiety cuz he is losing his "children" just know that we are God's and with me He has been pilfering, in my mind day and night, as i have been in my room trying to stay out of sight, of ya'll because all it seems like to me, that nothing to ya'll it would please, more, than to see one of your own fellow brother get shot and fall. when i look around me i dont see any real love, this evil surrounds me, but Now i DO NOT CARE, because the Lord, THE LORD, HE has found me. so now ya'll cannot touch, because with His love, im about to bust. with loving Faith and Trust, i put in Him, so that i can be led away from this life of sin, and Now that i have His Trust, my brotha's and sista's, not just the black ones, comeon now, that just is not a must, there is no such thing man, all that is, is nothing more than an evil thought, brought up in vain, so that maybe a man's soul, that leech, can be bought. Quit being evil, for it is Love, that should be sought, out so once again we may be fed from His Spout, for only He can give us what we need so that in the end we may succeed. my brothers and sisters all we need to do is Believe, and then, Anything, together, WE CAN ACHIEVE. this is an ode to ya'll so in hopes once again that ya'll may hear The Call, and will not fall, so one day me, ya'll, and The Almighty,Perfect, like a prefect without the er, Omnipotent, and Patient ONE, that together we May All Ball. and they keep telling me to stop, but i just cant my brothers me and Him are headed to the top, and right now i got The Heart Of A Lion, King, and pray tell me my brothers and sisters who are reading, what single Beast can stop that king? of the jungle we are running but with Him we can be free. out into the open pasture we all can roam, just know this is not me, and that this is His Tomb. its wierd how they're spelled alike but do not rhyme, im talking bout bomb my brothers, and its One of a Kind. in the Hopes that this petty rhyme, can help lead the black sheep, away from the Blind, being themselves, for who? tell me can save them from that? if you dont answer right then your a part of this blight that runs rampant through the streets, evil im talking about and all it wants to do is eat, your souls because it is angry at the Living God, hahahaha for it is nothing more than a sod, on His Cleat as He is Running, Hoping that some of these Words, hit you right in the stomach, and make you sick, but not you, im talking about the evil you, for we are all children of God, but we have made ourselves nothing more than a sod =( i say with a heavy heart, because all this time we have been playing the devil, his part, but with Him it is nothing but a fart, because He Forgives, and Only Through Him may we EVER, get the chance to Live, and im not talking about on the earth, im talking about another, and maybe one day you can see and i can Truly call you my Brother, for there is Life in Death, but it is only gained through this life which is a test, just know that when we die, if you have lived righteously, on that day you will Fly, for the Lord will Breathe His Breath in you when you die and like i said before You Will Fly, but not if you keep eating from the devil's table, for you can only eat from one, and i hope its Not the devil's table. for if we Eat from Him, we can All go back into His Stable, and only in doing that can we Ever truly be stable, only only if, we are eating from, The Living God's Table. and for ya'll who are sitting at your computers steadily dissin Him, i pray for you, because it you are missin, Him and the bigger picture, just know right now im taking a Big Gulp From His Ultimate Pitcher, not one from the MLB, and if you are listening then i pray that you sea, i mean see, but with Him we can fly over the one before, and higher than mike, dunk it in, right for a score, but not for 2 for it is for 3, because He is Holy in me, but atm holy in you, because you missing some parts, we all need to change, so that we may play His Part, that He intended from the Beginning, because only With Him can we ever be winning, but hahahaha not as long as we are sinning. for that is not the way that we was meant to walk, With Him we was mean to Walk and Talk. once again i say this way i, used to, but we choose to live, is insane in the membrane, but He is using me as His Template, lol or templar whichever you prefer, just know that He is Prefect, ha just without the errrr. as i sit here steadily dissin em i mean the demons in the minds of the children of the One and Only, God Who Is Kind, i hope that they depart, so we can All gaze upon The Divine, not like wine or watch, i aint lil wayne, just know that i feel like im the only one who is sane. because i AM NOT PERFECT, do not get the wrong message for that would hurt me, only He is, and He just wants some love from His Kids, but for some odd reason... we still choose to do the evil leeches bids, for i feel he has sucked to much from us, all of our blood, i mean soul, it has tucked from us, and right now He is aiming at it with a Big Ol' Blunderbuss. to shoot it and unleech it, from His Children's Soul's so one day maybe we can gaze upon, That Wonderful City Of Gold, and dont letit peak your in ter ests, for if you do your not getting whats bests, from this test that He has beset, for our minds to ponder and think on, maybe in some of the hearts out there this message is shining, for He is a Beacon of Light, to shine out all the evils, and end this ugly, hateful blight, that courses through our vains, that nasty garbage that makes us feel insane, because no one is living right, and for That NONE is sane. you can talk and sit there and chatter, but i pray and hope that none get fatter, and im not talking because of mcdonalds, im talking about your ego and pride, because We Alll NEED to push that aside, all we seem to do is breed hate and contempt, sitting there looking for another hurt sould to feed on, thinking it makes us content, but just know NOW people, lolol all your doing is letting the devil be your PIMP! ha ha ha i think that really funny, because in the words of man that just makes ya'll some ho's, and please forgive my trespasses my sisters and brothers, for my vulgar words, because i Did Not mean to hurt, He's just trying to keep our faces from being rubbed in the dirt. but it really shouldnt matter because we are mud, and from One we all came, so can i not call ya'll blood??? nah im not talking about them two glock shotta's, im talking bout from The One Who Has Always Got Us, not us as in the navy, i mean us as in the ones who might sit on that bus, the one going to school and to the ones who drool in class, and all of us who needs a kick in the, pause, ya'll know what i mean, im just sitting here trying not be obscene, all im trying to do is get the bigger picture, through ya'll minds so that maybe one day, we can All WALK IN THE LORDS WAY. forgive me if i make any of ya'll mad, if i do know that i Am sad, but how about ya'll just go to the store and go and grab on of them happy hefty bags, you know i meant glad if you didnt you are simple, and forgive me as i sit here and bust this pimple, lol sorry that was nasty just know that i didnt, and know that we are all fake, and its time for some rhino plasty, or however its spelled im just hoping some hearts will melt, like the plastic we are, and become melded into flesh, as i sit here and type in this Soul Food test, for if ya'll can't hear me then your hearts are so cold, forgive me as i trespass, because, uhm, i Am not trying to be bold, im just tryna through some fia atcha hearts, in the hopes that you may leave the Dark, ness not loch just in case thats watchu thought, all you gotta do is leave your flesh behind, and know that He is the one who Should Be Sought, out so we can drank From His Spout, cuz the Lord Knows, man it has been a drought. we are all so thirsty, but in order to be filled its The Lord who must come firsty x) just know that me and Him are going Stooopid, and for those who are real maaan i thoughtchu knew it. and if you dont i pray you haven't already blew it, up i mean your ego, like a balloon, just know right now i feel like taz boi, yup them looney toones, or tunes whichever you prefer, just know that He is Prefect, just without the err. and i say pre because He was always here, yes before you and me, but with Him i wanna letchu know that we can all be as pure, and as white as the snow, just like powder we can all be melted, i mean melded into the beings we were meant to be, so one day we may fly free as a dove, Right over the sea, so that we all can reach New Jerusalem, yup just right where we was all meant to be, that is the Golden City for those who did not, know, im just hoping that one day we can All be as pure as the snow, because the evil has taunted and flaunted and given us a show, to peak i mean perk up our ears and it, that leech i mean, gave us nothing but fears, fears of ourselves and one another, fears from our sisters and daughter, Father, and brothers, but we have a right to Fear the Living God, because to Him we have all become a sod, He is sorrowful and cries as we follow, the evil being, who was never meant to be followed, and i felt His pain at one point in time, yes i Am talking About the Divine, we both cried together, in my room, because of the little things we miss, something just as small as, a heartfelt kiss... for it is the little things that bring us the greatest joy, not some diamond chain, or a, wind up toy, the biggest thing of all that should, is His Love, should bring us the Greatest joy, in the world, for thats all it is man just cars and noise, all the long going our way, Missing the sweetest noise, zes ya'll know what i mean, im talking about the One who is Never obscene, for He is Just And Right, in each and every single way, and for our sins my borhters and sisters, we have to pay, but do not fret for it is never to late, I think we all need to call upon The Divine, and we should All go on a date, do not worry for on this date there is no rape, or murder, or hate, for that is of the devil, and Your Soul it will take, there is no worries once you follow Him, we should all be hand in hand as we walk down this path, called, life Never having to worry about no pain or strife, or for a bigger picture His Wrath, but ONLY IF WE DRINK FROM HIS PITCHER. for The All Powerful and Righteous Wrath, only comes when you stray from His Path, it is there to show us our wrongs...can you feel His Soul as i sit here and Sing His song? and with Him i will NEVER fall, because with my Brother, I will always Hear His Call. i say we but it is Him, who say these words to in the hopes, that those who have an Ear to listen may never Fall, into the Pit, all you have to do is have Faith, Follow The Ten, Believe, and never EVER Quit, for in order to gain His All Perfect and Good Graces, we have to eliminate ALL the Hate and evil, in all sorts of places, i have a feeling this song was wrote long before, just in His mind and now in mine, and i sing His song in the Hopes, that you follow Him and not any of these "popes" for no hope lies in them, lol and if you truly think aboutit that actually rhymed, just know that im thinking of Him, foremost, but ya'll too as i steadily write This Rhyme, it comes from above yup, Straight From the Divine, in the Hopes that one day ya'll can SEE, exactly it was that we was missing, so we can All fly over the sea. Man this thing is long but i should Say God, because this is His Rhyme, and not from a sod, like me or you, if you real you can feel its True, as His Sword aims at the hearts of His good, flying Straight and Through, lol i mean True, but them if you can follow my friend, all we gotta do is sing Praises and Thanksgiving to Him, until the very end, and give Him all of our love, Because WITHOUT HIM, ha There WOULD BE NO LOVE, all there would be is pain and suffering, and i hope that the ones who are, suffer, i mean acating, Might actually stop and take the time to sit there and be debating, against the devil of course, cuz all it wants to do is, lead us, right, or left, but straight off our course. Lord Please Forgive me, if i am being coarse just know that i am your back, and You Are My Horse, lol ya'll might think He's heavy but He's really not, and i Love Him till Death, i mean Life, cuz i have found It, but back to the point, because i HE HAS TAUGHT, never went to church or none of that, maybe when i was younger but none of that, for our minds our are churches, ha gotit backwards but i feel as tall as the burches, talking bout them trees man im over the seas man, just know i cant, wait, My Father, until You Kick Over My Can Man x) aw man i thoughit was funny, because he's One Cool Dude, and i am His, Bunny, i mean Collie, and know that as i, i mean He, but as i bark, that i have a Strong feeling, that i am playing my Part, or His i prefer the latter but the choice is yurs, because it is His Puzzle, and i am the last part, i cant be for certain because the Knowledge is His, but im just trying to bring His Black Sheep back, you know i mean His KIDS, He thoughtit was funny, But ya'll best Believe that He NOR i the first comes first, but neither one of us is No, pause, Dummy, lol but if you choose you can beat and bite, whatever you do just know it is out of spite, and i dont capitilize because its an evil word, just know me and HIM, are trying to end this wrongful blight, and saying these words i Hope that maybe, just maybe some can be given the Sight, that HE intended us to have, right, from Go, talking bout monopoly,lol but no no more, from the start maaaan all HE ever wanted was us to give our heart, which is HIS, because He gave to us, All that is HIS, HE just Wanted someone to talk to man, thats why HE made HIS Kids, HE was all alone, and then HE built, a Beautiful place for us, and HIM, to walk and talk all the while, just laughing and talking, seeing eachother smile =) because HE is our FATHER, He's not as mean ha as ya'll would believe, just know that HE TRULY IS ONE BENEVOLENT KING. lol ha ha i think this is funny, He knows what im talking about, cuz this is all of the top of the dome with barely a second to pause, Just Know the THE LION KING, Has Opened HIS Claws, Blessed be the children who took the time to listen, to the message that a, and The King is steadily dishin, i say a because i am one too, but know that im a servant, and from a Seed i did Grew, i dont care if it makes no sense to ya'll because i have heard the Lords Call, and they, they know who they are, are always listening, and as He types, through, me i have a feeling they are about to call, Prayer is the Best Wireless Connection X) aint no service down here got that type of Connection, i just hope that i get to see some of ya'll at that intersection, i mean Crossroads, bone thugz n harmony, they said it first, man thats the song man and if you feel their soul, then maybe you should hurt, because those bois on the streets back in the day, all they was doing was searching for some Peace, but in the streets, the oppressors, following the devil, have no love for us in the slums, just know that we All have a Holster and God Is our Gun, we dont need no metal, for The Lord our issues HE will settle, all you gotta do is Have some Faith, saying this in hope that some dont see any wraiths, talking demons people come now and please listen, as the Lord spits his song and these Words HE is dishin, out yup you getting it word of mouf, lol or mouth whichever you prefer just DONT follow that lowly snake, yup the one down south, it might try and offer pleasure and happiness butits all fake, HA what do ya'll expect from a lowly snake? remeber eve as she sat under that tree? sitting there thinking and feeling the breeze? the snake spoke in her Ear temptation it did bring, and after teel me WHO did she fear? she had a split second of happiness and thats all it can give, and after that she felt the WRATH which is ONLY HIS, lol i hope that ya'll see, the way we live people, it just wasn't meant to be, i have a feeling that there all up there laughing, with, not at me as i type out His message, and i pray ALMIGHTY FATHER, THE ONES WHO HAVE AN EAR TO LISTEN PLEASE FATHER PLEASE LET THE HEAR. and the ones who dont i pray you dont hit him hard, maybe just a little tap, just like Babe Ruth, on that baseball card x) Peace be with you my sisters and brothers, just know that HIS LOVE IS LIKE NO OTHER, GOD BLESS ALL WHO FINISHED, AND I PRAY YOUR SOULS NEVER, DIMINISH. ONE HEART IS ALL, AND WITH THAT HEART WE CAN NEVER FALL, lol i said i was finished, but i dont think HE is as you can tell this words are not mine, THEY COME FROM THE UPPER BEING, yup THE DIVINE!!! i think im going to cut Him short and please Forgive me, because i know HE could go all day, BECAUSE I CAN FEEL HIM IN ME.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

No one has time read your novel on "would a benevolent God send people to hell?"

Side: No, it's incompatible
0 points

Huge argument is huge.

But yes: God can. I call it benevolent when a person gives up their own SON to save a bunch of people who betrayed him before. Because that IS what the first sin was: Adam and Eve decided to side with the Devil, then tried to hide the fact they did it from him.

Their betrayal separated them from God, which was/is hell enough, as well as caused them to deserve the punishment of hell.

And yet, despite it God sent Jesus to die for the very people who'd betrayed him just so he could save their nasty behinds.

It isn't very hard to get.

And I really love how a person cannot comment on here about their beliefs without the rift-raft showing that they are ignorant and bigoted :)

Thanks for being another stereotypical atheist, people.

Side: Yes cursed or evil doers will go to hell
MythnLegend(10) Disputed
1 point

Even if you are right, we aren't Adam and Eve. It's the same idea as saying all Jews will go to Hell because Jews executed Jesus. THEY'RE NOT THE SAME PEOPLE, so why would we be punished for something our ancestors did? That's just complete bull, it really is.

Side: No, it's incompatible
0 points

Would a benevolent God Kill 500 Billions Baby's With disease and hunger. If He would do that then he wouldn't Think twice about sending people to hell. Therfore he is not a benevolent god.

Side: There is No god
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

God is good to you or you would be burning in Hell now. Here you can know God's goodness. In Hell you will never be able to know God's goodness because you will have chosen finality of death in rejecting His goodness....you will burn forever in your sin which burns against God, and God's wrath burns against it. Your getting what you deserve if you won't repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Side: No, it's incompatible

If one was to view morality as a property of the world around around us there would be no problem with the idea of hell as long as the morals or guidelines of a religion would therefore be derived from rationality. Then an individual who makes immoral choices would in the end understand the reason why he must suffer in hell, and would have no logical or ration objection to this commandment of god. If morals can be derived rationally at all however, I believe an eternal hell would be difficult to defend in this theology.

Philosophers like Immanuel Kant defended this view and I see no issue with their notion. The issue is proving the existance of god, and not in the concept of punishment for incompliance with the moral properties of the world as rationally set by god.

Why has god then not given everybody a full understanding of morality? On the other hand - can you prove he has not? I think the agnostic position is as defendable in this case as in the case of does god exist.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
0 points

The true religion is written on all hearts of mankind, it is truth. The truth is what God gave and sacrificed for you to do good but mankind has chosen the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Does one understand what the tree of knowledge of good and evil even means? If a man knows good and evil he is now a judge, if he then being judge of right and wrong, how can the maker be judge? When one assumes his rightful place as unknowing what is right and wrong, throws all that he has prejudices against and all that he accepts as good away then he becomes a clean slate allowing the free will of God to shed light as to what is good.

In the beginning you and all things were created good. When you know only good then you know that any temptation of bad that comes along is not of God, therefore it is to be rejected and need not to be eaten for it brings spiritual death. Meaning in direct opposition with the life that one has been assigned. You need not do bad to see bad for bad can be seen simply by knowing good only, have belief in the good only and be freed by the imprisonment of bad; for bad when known will deceive you into believing it is good.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

Adam and Eve were told to judge what was wrong before they decided to do wrong, they were told not to do wrong. They were made as judges. They did not have to do wrong in order to judge what is wrong. That was the lie of Satan, telling them that when they do wrong they would be like God. They were like God when they were created, they knew judgement, they knew what was right and what was wrong, and they did the thing they were told not to do when they decided it was not wrong for them to do it because they made excuses for themselves to do wrong.

"when one assumes his rightful place as unknowing what is right and wrong..."????????????? So you don't know what is right or wrong? That means you do not know what you are talking about....and how can anybody know what you are talking about when your speech is jibberish?

Side: No, it's incompatible
-1 points

They not only rejected Him, but they (non-christians) also rejected His son. He does not want to send people into the eternal inferno that is Hell, but they must move towards Him first.

I recall a magazine article I read, where they posed the question:

Why do films such as the exorcist scare atheists? They do not believe in demonic posession - they believe in the natural, not supernatural, world - so why would they be afraid?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saffron(94) Disputed
5 points

You didn't answer a single part of the premise I laid out, all you did was recite the time old adage that is what I was taking issue with.

In any case, I'm not an atheist but I think you read much to far into that. Anything frightening triggers the natural (biological) fight or flight response, even if its imaginary, or digital as the case may be.

Side: No, it's incompatible
TERMINATOR(6780) Disputed
0 points

I am extremely lazy, I didn't read much other than 'Would a benevolent God send people to hell?'

However, since I have been disputed, I'll come up with a better argument - however, I assure you that I shall take the same stance as I did before.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
TERMINATOR(6780) Disputed
-1 points

As I demonstrated with my last paragraph, dealing with 'the Exorcist,' a Christian would argue that God built it into men to know Him, and that those who do not, for whatever reason, are damned. I do not think entirely in this manner. Surely, whether they have been told or not they have gone against God - if they had been told, there would likely have been a different outcome. But that is where the missionary comes in. If ignorance gained people access into Heaven, then we would all know nothing about Christianity. It does not work that way, however.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
2 points

Haha...some atheist get scared in scary movies therefore they aren't really atheists. Wow, that's a stretch. If someone made a scary movie about aliens, and you were afraid does that mean you believe in aliens? The answer of course is no, but while watching the movie you have willingly suspended your disbelief.

Side: No, it's incompatible
TERMINATOR(6780) Disputed
3 points

As I said, that is what I read. I posed it as an argument - I do not believe it.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Disbelief is not rejection. I do not reject Santa Claus, I simply do not believe that he exists. But if Santa does exist, and if he is a "jolly old elf", then he would not punish me for my lack of belief.

Side: No, it's incompatible
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
2 points

I don't believe your argument. So am I NOT rejecting it?

No; I am.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

You are under the wrath of God now for your sin. You are being punished now for your sins. You are dying for your sins now, you are condemned to die now and it is JUSTICE. You need to be saved or you will be lost forever in death as you are now lost in death....only the fire of Hell will prevent your sin from affecting the living as it will be consumed with the dying forever in it's burning.

Wake up and repent of your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and know God's love while you can. In Hell you will only know His wrath. God loves you if you believe it or now. I would believe it if I were you, but I'm not you and I can only believe it for myself....sorry I can't help you in your dying.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Bohemian(3860) Disputed
1 point

If people were only ever afraid of things that were real, then the horror film industry would be in a lot of trouble.

Side: No, it's incompatible
MythnLegend(10) Disputed
1 point

Please, everyone has irrational fear. You don't have to believe something is possible to be afraid of it. And if God doesn't WANT to send people to Hell, why does he? He's God, he can do whatever he wants. There are people on this Earth, fail able humans like you and me, who love all people unconditionally, even if they don't deserve it. People like Gandhi, who wasn't a Christian. Can you really tell me that any mortal man can be more accepting and loving than God? Because that's what your telling me, that God is more loving than anyone yet has less empathy than even the average person.

Side: No, it's incompatible
-1 points

It is a myth. No one knows. But, according to the myth, yes.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
-1 points

.......................................................................................

Side: Yes, they rejected him
-2 points
Bohemian(3860) Disputed
1 point

A statement of faith, does not make for a good argument. Tautological argument.

Side: No, it's incompatible
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
2 points

True that, but the premise already flattens God into His benevolent side alone, which comes out as a lie. God is just too. Can one be just and not punish the wicked? No. Hence God, who is - benevolence aside - just, would send people to the final destination of the Prince of Lies because they turned to things that they made - and that they can't get help from - to help them through crisis.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
17 points

Obviously, no benevolent being, supernatural or otherwise, would subject another being to even 5 minutes of indescribable agony for believing a certain way.

In order to accept the notion that a God would do such a thing one must believe that;

a) God would bring into existence billions of creatures knowing that the vast majority of them would end up suffering in Hell,

b) That a minority of these creatures could escape this fate by accepting the religious beliefs that they were taught as children,

c) That the vast majority of these creatures could escape this fate only by utterly rejecting the religious beliefs that they had been taught as children and (not just that!) also, picking out from the thousands upon thousands of remaining religions the one "True" one.

The kind of God that would set this sort of system into motion is the exact antithesis of benevolent.

Picture a child that squats over an ant hill with a magnifying glass burning all the ants that come out of the hole except for those that travel a very narrow path. Is that child benevolent towards the ants? Or is that child mean-spirited and cruel?

Side: No, it's incompatible
DontBeRacist(19) Disputed
4 points

So what you're saying is. . .You would prefer a God who didn't give you freedom of will and choice?? That He would bring you into existence and then say, "You bow down to me. You have no choice."

God doesn't send people to hell, they do it themselves.

Side: You Have A Choice
4 points

Why does free choice have to include Hell? I can certainly make a choice without being punished if the choice is not the one that God prefers. In fact, since the tools that I use to make the choice (my mind and my reason) were supposedly given to me by God, it seem pretty cruel to punish me if I come up with the "wrong" answer.

And how can you say God doesn't send people to Hell? Who's in charge? Is He omnipotent or not? It's His system, not mine, it seems silly to absolve Him of any responsibility.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

Exactly! Also, God created Hell for all Satan and the third of the angels that rebelled against him and planned to overthrow him! He never intended it to be for us!

Side: You Have A Choice
protazoa(427) Disputed
0 points

no, I believe that the general consensus is that G-d would bring you up into existence and then say "You did what you thought was right, now lets party"

Side: No, it's incompatible
cstamford(9) Disputed
4 points

Your argument assumes that anyone believes a benevolent God would subject someone to indescribable torment simply because they held to a false belief. No one, including most Jews, Christians, and Muslims, believes anything like that. It's not what you believe that matters to a God who is perfect, unconditional love, but whether or not you return that love.

You may never have experienced the torment there is in being loved by someone you don't, but I have, and I can tell you from personal experience it's real, it's constant, and you eventually get to a place where you can't stand being around that person any more. Their concern for you becomes, to you, an indictment of your inability to love them in return; almost an accusation of your own flawed character, until you begin to feel, without a word being spoken between you, as if your every breath is on trial in some invisible courtroom in front of some invisible jury of loving beings. And that's just being loved unconditionally by a seriously flawed human being like ourselves! Multiply that torment and that hatred you begin to feel by the perfection of the Divine character, and you just might catch a glimpse of Hell.

I'm a Bible believing Christian and I don't believe that God casts people into Hell in any sense except the one I've just sketched above. Christians believe God is not only perfectly loving, but also that God is omnipresent, which entails, at least to critically thinking Christians, that God is every bit as much "present" in Hell as He is in Heaven, and this concept only strengthens the idea that it is the experience of God in a much more full and complete fashion that produces either Heaven or Hell for anyone, rather than the idea that God sits as a Judge of the "Law" who hands down some verdict as to what one has inproperly believed in one's life, and then throws them into a place of torment and suffering.

As for God's decision to create a world full of people who never return His unconditional love, and thus end up in Hell as He gathers all into Himself at the end of the ages (or the end of each person's life here, as the case may be), it seems to me that goodness demands choice, just as evil does, and that therefore regardless of God's omnipotence, it is simply beyond anything God can do to create a world in which no one ever goes morally wrong. For God to insure any particular person never went morally wrong it would require that God control that person's judgments and beliefs; in short, their entire mind. But if it's our free choices that are required for anything we do to be a moral act, then it follows necessarily that God cannot control our minds in any fashion capable of insuring no one ever goes morally wrong. From this it also follows necessarily, it seems to me, that it's not up to God how much evil there is in the world, or who is doing it. It's up to us. They are our choices, made with our minds uncoerced by God, as they must be to qualify as moral in the first place. God's perfect knowledge of those choices doesn't cause them or control them, nor could it and our judgments still be considered moral or immoral. Reality causes knowledge of it; not the other way around. And for all anyone knows this world is the best world an omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly loving God could create. It seems unjust in the extreme to assail God's very existence based on the truth of a premise the truth of which no human being could possibly know in this life.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
thisischuck(5) Disputed
2 points

Look, Hell, by definition, is separation from God. Do not mistake it as a place a punishment that came into being because God does not like them. Hell is torture because we are separated from the Holy Spirit.

And God, in His infinite wisdom, is too "high up" for us to completely understand His motives and thoughts. Don't patronize Him.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
anotherguy34(5) Disputed
2 points

Obviously, you are ignorant of the scriptures,and have no knowledge, or a desire to have such knowledge. If you did, You would know that according the doctrine, he created Adam and Eve , who were then decieved by an angel gone wrong. Now, How would He know this demon would become so full of pride and hatred that he would rebel against him?Do u think that was his intention?! He didnt bring into existence billions of creatures that He KNEW would end up in Hell.

Actually that was actually the OPPOSITE of the Plan. without this Demon the other religions would not have been created. And besides, If everyone knows there is a god, and it is shown all the time, How is it a religion? Its Not. Instead, Its a way of life.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

You know who else decided to punish people for not believing in Christ?

Hitler.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

That's a stupid thing to say. Hitler punished people who he thought would be hindrances to him as he sought to control the world. Hitler was full of devils, nothing to do with the Holy Spirit of God who always points people to Jesus Christ so they can know His love.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

So you believe Hitler was Jesus Christ, or the same as Jesus Christ?

People comparing Hitler to Jesus Christ or saying he as a Christian is some of the stupidest stuff I hear people say.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

God took their place in death when He became a man to pay for the things they did breaking His law. He loved them so much that He died for them when they were criminal, lawbreakers, enemies of His. He has the right to leave them in Hell if they don't care that He gave Himself as the Son of God to die for them so they can be forgiven and have eternal life. If they end up burning in Hell forever, it's because they loved sinning for than they loved life and they got what they deserved because God is good.

God is not a child watching an ant hill burn. He took the "fire" of dying on Himself so the ants could be saved from it. God is love, and He gave Himself as payment for those "ants" so they can be saved from the fire by His resurrection from the dead. You are rejecting what God did for you, so you are going to do for yourself what you are earning which is death and if you won't believe it and find yourself unable to get out of the fire, it will be nobody's fault but your own.

Going against God the way you are can only lead to death, and God won't have any part of it and you will be left in Hell. You are making it that way for yourself. God loves you and wants you to be saved from it, saved from yourself, saved from your sins, saved from your death. God is offering you pardon, forgiveness of your sins, eternal life and you are doing all you can to trash God and in reality it is only you who is being trashed because that is what you are making yourself toward God...trashy.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
5 points

Depends on the definition of hell.

ex. I've heard Jesuit Priests explain it as a separation. All of the brimstone and fire is not the physical description of the place itself, but a description of the sadness presumably a human faced with the "Truth" whatever that may be would feel upon learning of their separation. But there would not be eternal torture or anything.

That is not incompatible at all I don't think. In fact if I learned I was wrong about everything and there really was a god and he happened to be the Christian one, honestly I don't wanna hang out with a bunch of Christians forever, so I'd choose the separation and they can go have fun playing boggle or whatever Christians would do in heaven.

On the other hand. These born again holy roller types whom I despise believe in eternal torture.

That is 100% incompatible.

A human is not capable of causing enough mayhem and pain in their one short lifetime to merit an eternity of this kind of hell.

If there is a god, and he made a real hell, he's kind of a douche bag and not worthy of praise, all powerful or not.

Side: Depends which hell
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

You are talking like a fool, with one foot in the grave and the other on thin ice melting over the fire of Hell if you believe it or not. You will be in Heaven forever or in Hell forever if you believe it or not. You sure will believe it when you get there. It's better to believe it now and seek God's mercy to be saved from it, but my guess is that you will go on into death saying God can't rule over or against you and you will wake up in Hell.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Tillerman(29) Disputed
0 points

Dude, you need to understand what the word "God" means.

You realize that whatever God there is, He is the God of all. He is the begining and end of all. When there's nothing, not even time or space, God is what is.

You must realize that IF God exists, regardless of which religion He condones, you, I, anyone will have no clue what's going to happen for all of eternity.

It's not going to be harps and clouds up there, don't be so juvenile in your thinking, expand your mind and open it up. There is going to be so much more. If God created all of this, than this is scarcely a taste of what God can do for us for the rest of eternity.

Do you enjoy doing anything a lot. I mean is there something you enjoy so much, you could do it for your whole life and not get bored. Are there several things you could do that would keep you well inspired throughout your whole life, not worrying about the need for money or tranportation. Well imagine, it exists on this earth and this earth is only a taste, not even a full glimpse of what is possible within the realm of the God who is the begining and end of all, who is the authority behind existence itself.

I guarantee, it doesn't matter who goes there with you. It doesn't matter in an MMO because we all just have fun, and in heaven, it's not going to matter either. Don't think so narrowly, realize what it really is that you're saying.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
iamdavidh(4856) Disputed
1 point

Dude, you need to understand what the word "God" means

I do.

You realize that whatever God there is, He is the God of all. He is the begining and end of all. When there's nothing, not even time or space, God is what is.

You have no proof of any of this.

You must realize that IF God exists, regardless of which religion He condones, you, I, anyone will have no clue what's going to happen for all of eternity.

I could care less if your imaginary friend condones me, or condems me for that matter. He's a figment of your imagination.

It's not going to be harps and clouds up there, don't be so juvenile in your thinking, expand your mind and open it up. There is going to be so much more. If God created all of this, than this is scarcely a taste of what God can do for us for the rest of eternity.

You're a fool.

Do you enjoy doing anything a lot. I mean is there something you enjoy so much, you could do it for your whole life and not get bored. Are there several things you could do that would keep you well inspired throughout your whole life, not worrying about the need for money or tranportation. Well imagine, it exists on this earth and this earth is only a taste, not even a full glimpse of what is possible within the realm of the God who is the begining and end of all, who is the authority behind existence itself.

See above.

I guarantee, it doesn't matter who goes there with you. It doesn't matter in an MMO because we all just have fun, and in heaven, it's not going to matter either. Don't think so narrowly, realize what it really is that you're saying.

See above.

Side: Depends which hell
Bradf0rd(1431) Disputed
-1 points

"A human is not capable of causing enough mayhem and pain in their one short lifetime to merit an eternity of this kind of hell."

How do you know that standing up to a God doesn't merit eternal suffering? Remember, assuming there is a God that created absolutely everything in existence (maybe even God itself facepalm), you cannot judge the righteousness or virtue of it's actions. God defines what is right and wrong, after all. You don't know that suffering for eternity would be infinitely better than other things that God could put you through...

Side: Yes, they rejected him
3 points

"God defines what is right and wrong, after all."

If you believe there is a difference between right and wrong... let me ask you this. Is that difference due to God's fiat... or is it not? If it is due to Gods fiat, then for God himself there is no difference between right and wrong, and it is no longer a significant statement to say that God is good. If you are going to say, as theologians do, that God is good, then that means right and wrong have some meaning independent of God's fiat... because God fiats are good and not bad independently of the mere fact that he made them. If you are going to say that, you will then have to say that it is not only through God that right and wrong came into being... but they are in their essence logically anterior to God.

Side: No, it's incompatible
gruehagen(20) Disputed
1 point

By that same logic how do you know what defines standing up to God? You say that God defined right and wrong but you nor anyone else knows what that is. "You don't know that suffering for eternity would be infinitely better than other things that God could put you through..." That represents the heart of the matter. Neither do you or anyone else. From a metaphoric position no one knows if sticking your hand in the fire will get you burned. The idea of going through life constantly worried about what action could be considered as sin or not is Hell on Earth. If God were set upon exercising such draconian punishments on us I am sure I would not miss the separation from someone I am obviously separated form now.

Side: No, it's incompatible
4 points

As I understand Hell, there's no redemption once you're in Hell, is that correct? You're in there for eternity, there's no "get out of jail free" cards anymore. So you can repent your ass off once you're there, and God won't care anymore.

That seems like a pretty harsh punishment for peeking a look at your neighbour's wifes arse (coveting :P), or for swearing at your parents when they're being unreasonable. You're sorry for telling your girlfriend her new haircut looked good five minutes before you were run over by a truck and killed, but God doesn't care, because you have borne false witness, and now you've got to burn.

Not at all benevolent IMO.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Troy8(2433) Disputed
2 points

Yes, this is generally the accepted case, but when Jesus was living, he actually visited Hell. He never said why and it is not known why. Infinite mercy people, thats what it was.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
cstamford(9) Disputed
2 points

It's correct that within the orthodox Christian faith reduced to "doctrine" there is no more redemption possible in Hell. However, you're assuming that you can "repent your ass off" in Hell, and that is ruled out also, making the question whether or not God cares moot.

As I understand Christian theology and human nature, having studied both for many years, both Heaven and Hell are the individual's particular experience of God, and one is in one state or the other based strictly on that experience. If one experiences the perfect, unconditional love of God now as something odious, or even evil, where is there any reason at all to suppose that the future intensification of that experience is going to change from abhorrance to joy? Reason should compel us to expect no such change. I hate liver now, and have no reason whatsoever to conclude that eating liver at every meal will somehow change my abhorrance for liver. Rather, I have every expectation that the more liver I eat, i.e., the more intensified my experience of liver becomes, the more I'll come to hate liver.

Similarly, if God's love is abhorrant to us at the moment of our death, a fuller experience of that love will only make it more abhorrant to us later, and the longer that experience endures, the more abhorrant it will become to us. This, then, is Helll, and our continuing and intensifying abhorrance of God's love is our everlasting torment. The idea that we are eternally punished for some temporal act in which we engage is nonsense; the strawman of shallow and/or lazy atheists who won't or can't take the time to find out what is actually Christian dogma and what isn't; who would rather engage in caricatures of the Christian God than with the actual Christian God. God is the same regardless of how anyone may experience Him, by any definition the one logically necessary example of "objective reality", which should confirm for any critical thinker that our experience of God depends upon us, not Him, from which it necessarily follows our being in Heaven or Hell depends upon us, not Him as well.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Animegirl300(26) Disputed
1 point

You're pretty up what sin is. The problem of sin is that it does not only add up to couple of petty offenses. The problem of sin is what those petty offenses are an indication of what's really evil. The evil people of our world are an example of what sin REALLY is when you let it get out of control:

Hitler was murdering groups people. When he was a kid it looked like the general 'innocent' lying and stealing, but look what happened when he grew up?

That's the type of evil that all sin is.

Thank God that the majority of people actually have a WANT to be good: but imagine if we didn't have the standards of __ is wrong?

That neighbor who was just peeking one day would end up raping his neighbor the next week. This isn't a very uncommon occurrence is there? It happens on the news all the time.

The swearing at your parents when you were a kid was just mild rebellion: but what happens when one day that kid lets all his rage and indifference for his parents consume him? Kids kill their own parents all the time too.

That lying about your lovers whatever looked all nice and innocent then: but what happens when you start lying about sleeping that that other person? So many situations can sprout out of that type of deceit: STDs, pregnancy?

But it all looked all nice and petty and natural when you first started talking about it. But people don't realize that sin itself looks more innocent than it actually turns out to be.

But I love how people like to think that a 'lesser evil' argument works: becasue evil itself isn't evil period: it comes in LEVELS of evil.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Saintnow(3684) Disputed
1 point

Hell will be like your mouth, full of cursing. My guess is that you will find your place there. I hope you prove me wrong.

Side: Yes, they rejected him

No, a benevolent God would send people to Heck which is not as bad as 'H,' 'E' double hockey stick ;)

Side: No, it's incompatible
Struck(179) Disputed
7 points

You're not as funny as you think you are, Joe Cavalry. Could you please have a real debate for once?

Side: Yes, they rejected him

OK, what would you like to debate? I am against guay marriage. Soccer fans are fanatics and if a person from Paraguay marries a person from Uruguay, they would probably kill each other if their teams play each other. ;)

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

yeah JOE dont be a girl and made a real debate even girls make longer debates than you do

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Houston(187) Disputed
0 points

As far as I can tell, Joe is at equals with some of the stand-ups from Comedy Central. And this debate is as real as God.

Side: No, it's incompatible
DontBeRacist(19) Disputed
4 points

Just say the word "HELL," it's not as scary as you think it is ;p

Side: Yes, they rejected him
Houston(187) Disputed
0 points

Your obviously new to this website. I welcome you. =)

The minimum length for an argument is 50 characters. The purpose of this restriction is to cut down on the amount of dumb jokes, so we can keep the quality of debate and discourse as high as possible.

Side: No, it's incompatible
3 points

A benevolent God would send people to hell but not for the reasons stated in your argument. Good Vs. Evil if you are good you go to Heaven , Bad you go to hell. Its not how you worship its if you worship. I will not give my opinion as to what is good or evil at this time.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Akulakhan(2985) Disputed
0 points

Was Robinhood bad for stealing ?

Side: No, it's incompatible
3 points

Why would god want to send people to Michigan? [1]

And if he has, its only been like 266 people. What's all the fuss about?

"Hell, Michigan is an unincorporated community in Putnam Township of Livingston County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community is near the border with Washtenaw County, about 15 mi northwest of Ann Arbor. Hell is situated five miles (8 km) west of Pinckney via Patterson Lake Road. The community is served by the Pinckney post office with ZIP Code 48169. The unofficial population is 266." [2]

[1] http://www.hell2u.com/hell_history.htm

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Michigan

Side: No, it's incompatible
DontBeRacist(19) Disputed
0 points

Being a smartass doesn't get you any points. And neither does quoting wikipedia.

Side: Don't Speak
Hadrian(483) Disputed
2 points

You will have to vote me down again, as some silly soul voted me back up. Please do -- I'm enjoying the see-saw ride!

But what exactly is being a smart-ass about discussing the only Hell that I know of that actually exists. If you claim that your or someone else's god is kidnapping people and sending them to some other Hell other than Hell, MI., I'd like some proof of that. Otherwise, lots of people here are just being dumb-asses.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Houston(187) Disputed
2 points

Yes it does =p

The minimum length for an argument is 50 characters. The purpose of this restriction is to cut down on the amount of dumb jokes, so we can keep the quality of debate and discourse as high as possible.

Side: No, it's incompatible
0 points

This is not createwikipediaquotes.com, this is createdebate.com where you argue with your own opinion and give sources to back your opinion.

Side: You Have A Choice

The fact that we are still debating things like this makes me lose hope... hope for humanity, for our future, and for our potential good.

Side: No, it's incompatible

Infinite punishment for a finite crime is not supported under any civilized Justice system. If God was just he would recognize this, but according to the Bible he does not. The only crimes deserving of infinite punishment are murder and child abuse. As anyone with sin still in them at the time of death goes to hell for all eternity, then people who forget that when they were six they stole a cookie from the jar will be going straight to Hell.

What a ridiculous idea.

Kinda like the idea of God actually.

Side: No, it's incompatible
3 points

God Doesn't Send People To Hell They Are Draged There By There Mortal Sins.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

Such a being would be understanding of ignorance, instead of worrying about what humans believe is going on, He/She/It would be more concerned with how they lived, what principles they followed in life.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

This topic itself is problematic because it assumes that terms such as "god" and "hell" are meaningful.

But suppose one accepts that these terms are meaningful within the frame of reference of religions such as Christianity and Islam.

Then, assuming that there is a god, and that he is all-just, all-good and basically, all-everything, then it doesn't make sense that this all-loving god would send anyone to hell.

It's an obvious contradiction -- benevolence vs the malevolence of hell.

Which could imply that we could simply square the circle by proclaiming therefore that the idea of an all-benevolent god sending people to hell is absurd and that therefore such beliefs are not very meaningful in the first place.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Tillerman(29) Disputed
0 points

However, despite the fact that it seems that way, we exist. Do you honestly in your own heart truly believe that it happened as a circumstantial accident? I mean really, do you honestly believe that?

And it's only contradictory if we were never actually given the freedom of choice between right and wrong because then we'd all be guiltless because we did not decide of our own volition to sin.

However, we do have a choice, and always have since we were barely old enough to contemplate right and wrong.

So even standing to reason, since we have a choice, then those that choose to do wrong anyway must have some sort of judge. And since sin is disobedience to the will of God, as would make sense, God would not be able to tolerate sin in the afterlife because to disobey God would mean to set yourself up as God when you don't have the needed wisdom or knowledge, nor does all existence exist through you, so it's not your place to be God, well at least, not the God of all, which is the only real God there is.

So, it stands to reason as well, that if we are given a choice and God cannot tolerate sin, then there must be a place to go for all those who decided to be their own gods. Well, it says in the bible that outside there will be the gnashing of teeth. Well, we Christians know that outside to be the lake of fire and brimstone, but those are human terms.

You say that a benevolent God cannot send people to hell, and that it's a contradiction of benevolence, but if God cannot tolerate sin where are people to go that choose to sin anyway? Where's the judgment? Well, maybe they just won't be let into heaven and hell doesn't even exist. Well, perhaps hell and those human terms of fire and brimstone are the tangible explanations of what it means to be thrown out of heaven and to be completely severed from God without hope of redemption. You see, in this life we've never been severed from God, so we can't really know what it means to be thrown out of heaven, maybe by mercy for our ignorance of what we are really doing when we decide to do what we know is wrong, or maybe mercy because we may not have sinned without Satan having tempted us to begin with, which brought on all the confusion, or who knows.

However, before you are so convinced by your own wisdom and knowledge that has only been accumulated over the last 100 or so years at best, make yourself ready. Do the research necessary and learn. Ask this being of all existence for guidance so you will find this being before this time of choice is finished, (i.e. you die).

Do not force yourself between a rock and hard place that you'd have to lie to get out of when this being asks, or rather shows you how you came to your conclusions and what you honestly did before you finally reached your conclusions that you now live your life by.

Side: You Have A Choice
2 points

Q) why are people sent to hell according to religious holy books?

A) because they are or have committed some grave evil and need to be punished.

R) that is a bit odd considering god was meant to have created everything. and everything must include evil the devil temptations and the like.

no a benevolent god would not burn us for what he created us to be. 'free will' does not factor, we do not choose to be Born, most of us do not choose to die and we definitely did not opt for evil to be an existent.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

A benevolent God would send people to hell, but not people who had absolutely no chance of knowing him.

The question as asked is absolutely malformed. You ask one general question in the title (would a benevolent God send people to hell), yet, in the explanation, you ask a totally different one (would a benevolent God send people who have no chance of knowing him to hell). While God would send people who rejected him to hell, he wouldn't send people who couldn't know him.

So while I sided with the no's, I'm only siding them because in the case of the SPECIFIC question you asked, I don't believe he would. But in the case of the GENERAL question, with which you have misled people, I think yes, God would send some people to hell, despite his benevolence.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

I don't believe so. Even though I was born into Catholic religion (had no choice in the matter, so I ran away from it later in life), virtually a SHAME society that puts down almost anything that they may see as "against God's will" (basically everything), I do not believe that just because I didn't follow the rules of a certain religion that I would be placed in an Inferno for all eternity. Although I know that there are somthings that I have done which would seem inapporpriate, I'm certain that they won't put me on the Big Man's S&%* List when I pass on.

I believe that as long as you are kind to others and have goodness in your heart, you won't be sent to hell.

You people can flame me all you want, but I'm standing firm on this one.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

The premise of this argument is flawed from the start, but I'll bite for arguments sake. It depends on your definition of a god. If god is "omnibenevolent" then the idea of sending someone to "hell" is incompatible with this characteristic. Of course "hell" is a made up place created by Christianity to scare nonbelievers into accpeting Jesus and "god" is a made up entity created by society as a foundation of authority to demand/incentivize civil behavior.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

I think a better question would be, why would a benevolent God allow a place like Hell to exist in the first place?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Im sure ive read somewhere in some bible someone saying " something , something , hell on earth."

Im taking that as a hint , meaning that regardless of what god is or isnt , we are already in hell .

Every one of us.

Sharing this gloriously spectacular hell , that we take for granted.

Side: No, it's incompatible
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
3 points

Erm, no. That's too cynical a view - what of all the things that definitely are good, then? Nature, for instance?

"Disease, war, murder, rape, racism, sexist [sic], ageism, and hatred" - the laundry list of sins quoted by Prayerfails comes about due to the sin nature. We became imperfect at the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
lalocutrice(25) Disputed
2 points

Erm, no. That's too cynical a view - what of all the things that definitely are good, then? Nature, for instance?

"Disease, war, murder, rape, racism, sexist [sic], ageism, and hatred" - the laundry list of sins quoted by Prayerfails comes about due to the sin nature. We became imperfect at the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
dacey(1040) Disputed
1 point

Fine its pergatory then ....good and bad ,...... the choice is yours ,( unless you are some innocent child with fucked global positioning of your birthplace ), then its your own fault that you are held accountable for ..... succumbing to the temptations that are placed upon this earth but concidered sinful , no matter how enticing and should be penalised for it , ...... obnoxiously live your life stuck up the guides of your religions and pass the buck for arrogance in confession and smile smuggly with warmth and contentment as you take the blame for two absolute strangers , .............pick and choose for yourself that of which you assume god intends you not to partake in.....ye oddities of pliable matter.

btw- im curious , why have apples never stopped being eaten ?

Is it because sin tastes so damned good?

Side: No, it's incompatible

Yes, Hell is on Earth. I agree with that. If there is a afterlife, can't imagine it being much worse than this: Disease, war, murder, rape, racism, sexist, ageism, and hatred.

If people want to live on what on a book called the bible, fine, I just don't want to hear about it.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

"If people want to live on what on a book called the bible, fine, I just don't want to hear about it."

My sentiments exactly.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

God means love, understanding...............God is the root of all goodness..................

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

God could be non-benevolent, and also the root of all evil as well? Actually, i think it would be necessary for God to be the root of everything; good, evil, apples, your underwear, etc.

Side: RAWR
Tillerman(29) Disputed
2 points

God could not be the root of all evil as well because then evil wouldn't have a meaning because all would be good. Who else defines the basic rules of right and wrong? Well, who was it that wove the fabric of the universe into place, created and balanced all the intricate constraints for which we exist?

But then for all to be good would contradict an infinite, all-knowing being through which all existence exists. Because it would mean that this infinite, all-knowing being through which all existence exists, is merely like us, subject to all the selfish and evil desires we all are. And if that were true, then this being is not God, but merely pretending to be God.

However, concerning this being for which all existence exists, there could be no other position except that which was good because evil could only exist in those that choose to take a position of going against what they know this being would say.

Side: You Have A Choice
1 point

Which god are we speaking about?

There have been thousands of gods in the past 1.5m years since humans evolved what makes people think that Christians or Muslims are the correct answer to god. why not the Romans or the Pagans?

Side: Other
1 point

For the superstitious, it depends on which religion is being rammed down their throats.

For the apologist, it depends on how he rearranges his prejudices.

For the theistically impaired, it depends on what others tell him.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

all these are stories and laws to make the human in control....i don't believe in god and also if god is there he will not send us to hell because he is explained as an endless lover.......

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Hell does not exist. Hell was a doctrine developped in the 4th century based on Plato's teachings of the duality of body and soul and the Dante's inferno in his Divine Comedy poem. There is no support for it in the Bible.

Side: No, it's incompatible
3 points

I constructed my argument on a believer's perseption of what things they shouldn't do so that this benevolent god wouldn't send them to their imaginary fire pit.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Dude this is a deity that does things far beyond our comprehension and understanding. Who are we as mortals who exist for a fucking fart in time to question him? This is an immortal being that either created us or has the right to tell us what to do. I'd think what he/it has to say would transcend our petty view of what's good and evil. Besides, say the atheists are right and there is nothing after death. So what? I'm in the same position as them. But what if there is an afterlife and the people who believe win and those to lazy and livid lose?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

THERE IS NO FUCKING gOD..... what ever happens when we die will happen..we will die some day.. there is no hell there is no paradise...

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Not likely. Seeing as how their is no god and their is no hell.

Side: There is No god
1 point

God wouldn't need to create humans or have people worship him / her if he did. Secondly being all powerful and knowing why create beings that you know are going to suffer from starvation, diseases, etc. Those of you who have a pet dog and love them wouldn't consider allowing them to suffer they way humans do or send them to hell.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Maybe we are all in hell now paying for our sins and we just don't know it.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Never ever. I don't think God would ever send people to hell. It's just an idea that's been spawned from fear and suspicion.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

The religions that influence most people's everyday lives at almost every level all preach the same thing: The creater is all loving, peacefull, mercifull and so on..

..that is they say so in one moment.

..yet in the next momemt: That loving, peaceful and mericful benevolence has a set of terms and conditions of:

-whether people believe in him or not

-how obiedient and faithfull they are to "him" ("him" as if a divine being could even be assumed to have a biological gender in the first place)

-how good people are in their everyday lives

Side: It's hypocritical and contradictory
1 point

No he wouldn't because its not him that has the final say he gave us free will to reject or accept him and weather we go to hell or not is the actions we do through out lives accepting that Jesus is your Saviour is suppose to grant you a place in heaven but going to church and praying is bring you closer to god but all god wants is you to have faith in him and accept his son, and going to hell is by our hand but if we ask for forgiveness we shall be given it by god.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Assuming God exists, and that He is benevolent, it would logically follow that he does not actively send people to Hell. A benevolent God would not impose anything on anyone, therefore, the question is flawed.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

is the god nuts????let's find it out!!!kill ur enemy and watch,till s/he comes 2 u becoming a ghost....ask him/her how was hell?????

Side: No, it's incompatible
clearEn(207) Disputed
1 point

Except, Biblically, ghosts are impossible.

1) If ghosts came back from the dead, and an eternal and present hell existed for them to tell you about it, they'd actually not be in hell anymore. Thus, the idea refutes itself.

2) The Bible refutes the idea of an eternal hell. Look on the left side for my argument concerning hell.

3) The Bible refutes the idea of ghosts, as is visible in the same argument.

If you would like, I could paste the argument to one below this one (or, more accurately, your comment on this one) if you don't want to look for it.

-----

P.S. I would also like to respectfully ask you to use proper punctuation, capitalization, spacing, and spelling. It would make your posts a bit easier to read.

Side: Yes, they rejected him

Why wouldn't He send someone to hell? He sent satan to hell and was created for him and whoever else chooses to follow satan. The majority of people have their own belief of God and how we were created. In the bible, it states that we once knew one language, but he separated us across the world with a different language. We are all unique so why should he brainwash us and have diversity. I think religion was spread out very harshly, specially how the christians did it through the ages, like the crusades. Back to the subject. I don't believe he would sent a non believer to hell, if he himself didn't know he existed. Why would he punish and innocent being for the fact of his lack of knowledge around him. A believer could go to hell because he knows the words of god but chooses to not follow them. Why is this? Maybe he deceived people for his own well being, greed. Deceiving one is having to lead an innocent person down the wrong path. So I believe He, whoever it may be, will send those who deserve to be punished to go to hell. Why would he want a rapist for example lingering around those who could become victims? He wouldn't and neither would I.

Side: Yes guilty people go to hell
1 point

Would a benevolent God send people to hell? Is that more likely than the more likely chance that "God" just doesn't care (for the sake of argument that he/she/it does exist).

Would you care about the suffering of 1 man in the sea of 6 billion. Even caring for humanity as a whole is redundant, seeing as how we murder more and more of us through wars and the like, but doesn't matter because we populate the world like locusts. Humanity isn't going anywhere, just it's quality of life is changing.

Side: Don't Speak
1 point

no he wouldn't he made you so why would he burn you, when he created you in the first place?

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

No. In our daily lives, a major factor in making decisions (especially important ones) is our ability to analyze the available evidence and make (or change) our minds accordingly. This is the very skill that, for better or worse, allows us to dominate the food chain and manipulate our world more thoroughly than any other organism. It is also the skill that allows us to recognize and correct the many mistakes we tend to make. Faith, at least blind faith, runs counter to that skill. If our soul's final destination is of such grave importance, it does not seem benevolent to require us to rely on faith to understand the consequences of our actions. It would be benevolent to make Heaven and Hell places that we all could see, touch and experience before they become a part of our eternal reality. Regardless of whether Hell is place where you go for misdeeds or a place you "choose" by failure to love/accept God/Jesus, it seems anything but benevolent to make the consequences of our decision (to say nothing of our reasons for forming that decision) contingent on a concept (faith) that runs counter to our ability to make informed decisions. It seems more likely to be a political ploy by the very human creators of religion to manipulate the actions of the superstitious.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

They won't because god doesn't exist. So, no one can send people to Hell.

Side: No, it's incompatible

No, and besides, Christianity isn't a very nice religion anyway, either you follow God and worship him or you burn in hell forever...How nice.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

When are people going to realize that the bible is simply a dusty old book that people have been killing each other over. This also goes for all the other dusty old books out there!! Man simply has now clue... if there is a god and what his nature is if he does exist. It’s all guessing and opinion....

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Neither hell nor god exist so the debate is and of itself, pointless.

Side: There is No god
1 point

You know, your right. If that was the reason God sent people to hell He wouldn't do it, because he is a just God.

But I do think He would do it for the crimes people have committed and if you've committed no crimes, you've got nothing to worry about. Because He wouldn't send you somewhere you didn't deserve to go.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

How could we possibly answer that? We haven't actually had a conversation with god.

Anyway, hell is based on the old testament --and god is a truly evil, vengeful , malicious god, so yes he would definitely send people to hell. The culture at the time the bible was written allowed for atrocities anyway.

The new testament - supposedly a more benevolent god? Well, yep he would. Break one his commandments and your arse is shipped to the inferno.

So now i'm answering 2 questions: 1) the god in the bible would send people to hell. 2) A benevolent god wouldn't though.

Ergo -- god is not a benevolent god. Assuming there is a god, which there isn't.

Side: There is No god
1 point

Just had a thought. Over 2000 years ago, and probably still today, I bet fires were kept going 24/7. Not like they had a box of matches or a lighter.

It truly would be an everlasting flame for people to be burned on. Plus any sick person could be burning up with a fever, hence their feelings of heat. The word hell dates back to pagan times and I believe bonfires were quite common. Anyway, could be the difference between a burial or a cremation, just a thought.

Side: There is No god
1 point

A benevolent god wouldnt send ppl to hell, because he'd know that spirits cannot be burned, stupid. nothing more benevolent than burning millions of ppl because theyd never heard of you. I'm sold, sign me up

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Belief in a God is good enough... we can't be all be right... but we can all have faith and believe and make an effort as well as make time for something we do not selfishly get guaranteed rewards for.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

I keep coming back to this thought every time I consider religion, because you're not sent to hell just for not believing something, it can also be for a sin.

This confuses me for two reasons:

1) Can someone really do such a terrible thing that they deserve to be punished for eternity.

and

2) How is that fair to the people who had absolutely no way of learning the "word of God", should they be punished because they simply didn't know.

I could be wrong on both accounts, I'm not religious by any means, and I haven't done much research into Christianity due to the fact I live in the south and have already made my decision on it.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Nobody is, by any means, purely evil. Hell is intended for evil people. People do wrong for a reason, whether it be insecurity, a traumatic past, a psychological disorder, etc. Eve is responsible for all of the faults of the world by eating the bad apple. But Eve's intention behind eating the bad apple was not purely evil. It is the evil gods who persuade people into doing wrong by exploiting their weaknesses, not evil. It is the evil gods, not the people, who should be sent to hell.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Have you ever considered that faith in any god is a product of temporal and geographical circumstance?

My philosophical problem is that, in spite of all efforts made by Christians to follow Jesus’ directive to spread the word (Matthew 28:16-20), there will always have been people who have been not exposed to the knowledge of Jesus.

For example, one could have been born in Meso-America or China in the year 500 and not had exposure to the information about Jesus. And those people will not have been “saved”, thus not allowed entry into heaven after their deaths. Am I correct in stating this? And this is what I mean by temporal and geographical circumstance.

How do you reconcile the idea that people who were never given the opportunity to accept or reject what you believe to be the only way to salvation being destined to an eternity in hell? I can’t.

I cannot say that, because I was “lucky” enough to be born in Christian America and accepted that belief system, I am entitled to heaven, which seems to be a fortunate accident for me and an incredible misfortune for those not.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

I picked this side because I'm not quite sure where how I feel stands, but this seems like a good part.

I would say that god wouldn't send everyone to hell for ETERNITY, just long enough for you to learn your lessons, and then send you back to earth for round two.

Side: Other
1 point

Nice, "Have you stopped beating your wife yet", trap type question.

If your in a burning building and the fireman directs you to the front door and you run up the stairs did the fireman condemn you to your fiery death?

No God is not sending anyone to Hell.

He is offering you to join him in his Heaven he made for us.

You can chose to join us or hit the highway "to hell".... Or what ever land of warm fuzzes and lollipops you think waits you in your personal reality without God.

Since God gave us this world, dominion over it and free will, it's is the Christians duty to make sure everyone hears and has the opportunity to decide. And we are doing a terrible job at it. Anti-Christians should be pleased they have intimidated Christians making them less then they should be.

So it's our fault that we are not doing Gods will on our planet.

Your question and assumptions are flawed.

I agree, God would not send everyone to Hell.

He did create free will though...

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

A benevolent god wouldn't have created a place like Hell in the first place...

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Everything we do on Earth, good or bad, is temporary, including what we believe in in life. No benevolent God would punish us INFINITELY for FINITE actions. In all honesty, I believe that the very concept of Hell and punishment is a falsehood created by religious groups who wanted people to conform to their beliefs. That doesnt mean that the core of those religions are false; simply that we must take everything that they say with a grain of salt. It would be a simple issue of "you have your beliefs and I have mine, but God loves us all" without the idea of the unfaithful being sent to Hell, and the Catholic church was afraid of that. Moreover, you will notice that in almost every debate over whether God judges on belief or morality, whether being homosexual is evil or not, etc. involves the side that argues the former on both arguing completely based on quoted scripture. So many Christians (not all, but many) put so much stock in the complete and utter inerrancy of one book that it's a wonder we aren't still in the dark ages. The bottom line is, that if there is a Hell, there are many Christians who love their idea of God who are fated for it, and many Atheists, Jews, and other such "nonbelievers" who are not.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

God will only send bad, evil, maniac people to hell. If just because you are a Muslim then you were sent to hell even if you done more good deeds than, let's say, The Pope, then God is very unfair.

Side: No, it's incompatible

No. But according to some logic that has been dropped on me, he's not actually that benevolent, because the people he sent to hell, were made to be sent to hell.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

I say no. I think God is both good and evil. .

Side: No, it's incompatible

There is no such place as Hell. Hell belongs in horror movies only.

Side: No, it's incompatible

I believe in god and the Bible. Thats why im on this side. The bible does not teach about Heelfire.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Revelations 21:8

Matthew 13:42

Matthew 13:50

Matthew 25:46

Matthew 25:41

Mark 9:43

Jude 1:7

I could go on. Point being, the Bible does teach about Hell and hellfire.

Side: Yes, they rejected him
1 point

Lots of good comments here, but too many foul mouthed trash bags who God still loves but I have had enough of in this discussion. I hope to see you all in Heaven.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Let me put it this way. A benevolent god COULD send someone to hell if they truly were at odds with benovelence. Meaning if they were very bad people. Because then they're not only not living in the way the benevelont god instructed and demonstrated but are actually hurting the other people who did choose to abide and try to be good.

But, I voted on this side anyway, because the context this keeps coming up in religious debates on this site is that simply subscribing to the wrong batch of beliefs will land you in hell. That it doesn't matter if you act like a good person if you have the wrong core belief. And also that it doesn't matter if a believer does NOT act like a good person because they simply have to believe to be saved. All of those pro religion arguments are nonsense. No benevolent entity is going to smack down and torture people who are trying to be good and instead favor those who are smug bullies gleefully treating everyone who's beliefs are different than theirs like trash.

Side: No, it's incompatible
0 points

This is the sort of questions that makes the whole religious debacle seem amusing and ridiculous. The question is valid as it points out another fundemental flaw in the doctrine of Christianity.

Side: Other
3 points

This is the sort of questions that makes the whole religious debacle seem amusing and ridiculous. The question is valid as it points out another fundemental flaw in the doctrine of Christianity.

The weirdest part is how the inconsistency doesn't even seem to faze believers.

Side: No, it's incompatible
2 points

Definitely it is one of many, too many in fact. Blind faith has a brain washing effect of the mind. Believers are forced believe it wrong to question so the problem can not be solved as to them it does not exist.

Side: No, it's incompatible
Leahn(21) Disputed
1 point

That's only a flaw if it was actually a doctrine of Christianity instead of a Greek doctrine that some people absorbed into their own version of Christianity.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

But if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Side: Yes, they rejected him

Someone is going about ritualistically downvoting me, with no dispute.

Side: No, it's incompatible
1 point

Someone is doing the same thing to me.

Perhaps they dont have a solid dispute but rather firm beliefs in what thier religion tells them to believe.

Side: No, it's incompatible