Ophelia Benson vs. Hell

[turoldus]

"So - adults who tell children there is a hell where some people are tortured forever are doing a bad thing, even if the children do simply ignore the claim, or shrug it off, or deny it. If the children believe it but think it is only other people who are tortured forever and are happy with that thought - that is a very bad thing, because those are some callous children, if not outright sadistic."

www.dereferer.org/?http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebutterfliesandwheels%2Ecom%2Fnotesarchive%2Ephp%3Fid%3D2568

[jamierobertson]

<RANT>

What stupid liberally humanist tosh.

1) See JH's comments in reply to The God Delusion about the effect of telling a child that when they die, they're worm food. It cuts both ways.

2) The picture of hell is the medieval "pitchforks up the bum" picture, which is hardly a biblical one. Think "eternal isolation and shame by separation from God, as the natural outworking of their life's choices", or read The Great Divorce.

3) Even if hell WAS like this, and even if it WAS the nastiest thing you could say to a child, it completely bypasses the question of whether hell is actually real or not. Aren't we supposed to choose what's true rather than what sounds nice?

</RANT>

[Al Moritz]

Article:
"Do we need empirical evidence to warrant thinking that telling children that people suffer torment in hell forever is harmful and bad? I don't think so. There are things that we know without evidence."

Yeah, like that the universe is caused by nothing and has an entirely naturalistic explanation. Delusional atheists. But wait, don't atheists only "follow the evidence"? Hey, I'm confused now