Why are athiests so hated in the USA?

[Winehole23]

from what I've seen they follow their hearts more or less like everyone else.

how do you decide what you're gonna do?

[Winehole23]

doctrinal consistency and rigor aren't everything. people got lives.

[Winehole23]

the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath

[FuzzyLumpkins]

from what I've seen they follow their hearts more or less like everyone else.

how do you decide what you're gonna do?

Its quite easy. If its obviously full of and inconsistent then its obviously full of and inconsistent. Whats more important is what I do not do: just hold on to the parts of the inconsistent and obviously full of that I like and hold them to be true.

[Blake]

Possibly. Or irrelevant.

For example: While being serviced, I retain the entirety of my free will, but inevitably my free will convinces me to continue doing exactly what it is I am doing.

Serviced?

No idea what you are saying here.

[Winehole23]

btw Blake, I see the part about a fiery lake and a second death in Rev. 21 and condemnation in John 3, but nothing at all about . Where is mentioned in the NT?

[Winehole23]

Whats more important is what I do not do: just hold on to the parts of the inconsistent and obviously full of that I like and hold them to be true.

which again, is obviously peculiar to Christians

(eye roll)

[vy65]

The tendency to particularize a more or less "universal" negative human trait to one's enemies is quite strong in this thread.

[Winehole23]

bread and butter of the daily banter, tbh

[101A]

Serviced?

No idea what you are saying here.

Seriously?

Starts with a "B".

[Wild Cobra]

Seriously?

Starts with a "B".

Second part "J"?

[101A]

NOT gonna spell it out.

[Winehole23]

apparently, you had to

[LnGrrrR]

apparently, you had to

I think he meant literally, as in, the whole word.

[Blake]

btw Blake, I see the part about a fiery lake and a second death in Rev. 21 and condemnation in John 3, but nothing at all about . Where is mentioned in the NT?

Kjv has it mentioned in Matthew 10:28.

Fwiw, King James among others had a way of lumping "sheol", "hades", and "gehenna" in as the same word: " ".

[Winehole23]

thanks. why are you so fixated on ?

[Blake]

I forget my chronology, but isn't that passage speaking about after the rapture?

Keep in mind, our normal death, and the end days, are not the same thing. By the time of the rapture, time is up for our souls to decide their path.

Which would mean that everyone "left behind" is s.o.l?

[Winehole23]

it's unfair to unbelievers to be sure, but what do the unbelieving ever have to gain or lose from something they don't believe in?

[Blake]

thanks. why are you so fixated on ?

I find peoples' theories of an after-life fascinating.

[LnGrrrR]

it's unfair to unbelievers to be sure, but what do the unbelieving ever have to gain or lose from something they don't believe in?

I think what Blake is getting at is that the idea of is inherently immoral, if we assume

1) exists and is horrible and
2) The only way to get to Heaven is to believe

One could argue that there should be criteria which rested upon the intrinsic goodness of an individual, rather than whether they believe in a certain deity or not.

(There's also somewhat tangent arguments about the morality of permanently punishing a person based on a finite amount of time.)

[Blake]

it's unfair to unbelievers to be sure, but what do the unbelieving ever have to gain or lose from something they don't believe in?

Biblically speaking, unbelievers have paradise to lose.

Worse than that, some would say they will be eternally tortured.

[Winehole23]

sheol is "the grave"

gehenna is a place of sacrifice, an actual geographical location

hades is interchangeable with sheol in the NT

[Winehole23]

Biblically speaking, unbelievers have paradise to lose.

Worse than that, some would say they will be eternally tortured.

lol some would say. you won't get off that hobby horse.

[vy65]

I think what Blake is getting at is that the idea of is inherently immoral, if we assume

1) exists and is horrible and
2) The only way to get to Heaven is to believe

One could argue that there should be criteria which rested upon the intrinsic goodness of an individual, rather than whether they believe in a certain deity or not.

(There's also somewhat tangent arguments about the morality of permanently punishing a person based on a finite amount of time.)

Meh. I don't see what's inherently immoral about a notion of justice -- which is ostensibly all is about.

As for the intrinsic goodness business, my understanding of christian beliefs is that faith and the goodness of a person cannot be divorced. Whether they can or not seems to be a matter of religious dogma.

And fwiw ...

"The latest round of revisionism was touched off last summer by a surprising editorial in La Civiltà Cattolica, an influential Jesuit magazine with close ties to the Vatican. , the magazine declared, "is not a 'place' but a 'state,' a person's 'state of being,' in which a person suffers from the deprivation of God." A few days later, Pope John Paul II told an audience at the Vatican that "rather than a place, indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God." To describe this Godforsaken condition, the pontiff said, the Bible "uses a symbolical language" that "figuratively portrays in a 'pool of fire' those who exclude themselves from the book of life, thus meeting with a 'second death.'"

http://www.apocalypsesoon.org/xfile-45.html

[101A]

One could argue that there should be criteria which rested upon the intrinsic goodness of an individual, rather than whether they believe in a certain deity or not.

You're right, but for the purposes of this discussion, the "one" would be arguing with God.

Good luck with that.

Unless your point is that "well, since is illogical, it must not exist, therefore God does not exist, and you all are idiots".

Which, again, is a fine illustration, or answer to the OP.