The Horrors of Evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 08:51 (5716 days ago) @ edinburgh04

In my post of 09 September at 07.59, I asked a series of questions, which Edinburgh4 has kindly attempted to answer. - The first of these was whether it fitted in with your personal sense of justice that all Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists etc. were automatically condemned because they did not believe in Jesus (following on from John 3, 18:20). Your reply suggests that they are all condemned because they are sinners, like the rest of us, but John is saying that only faith in Jesus can save us. I would like to pursue this question, because it betrays an attitude that engenders exactly the same intolerance which we find in Muslim fundamentalism, and which in the past led to appalling acts of cruelty associated with Christianity (the Crusades, the Inquisition). My question to you specifically concerned your own personal sense of justice, and I suppose I was really asking you two related questions: 1) whether you think it fair that people should be condemned for worshipping God in a different way from yours, and 2) whether you approve of the religious intolerance which John appears to be advocating. - My second question was whether you only avoided doing wrong because you thought God was watching. I was relieved to see that for you, although God's all-seeing nature is very important, "it is not the motivation for doing right or wrong." However, the only motivation you seem to give in the rest of the post for not doing wrong is the fear of getting caught. There seems to be no room in your Christian ethic for fellow-feeling, empathy, a desire to do good for its own sake. Of course, doing good has its rewards, because people will like us for being nice to them, but I would find it endlessly distressing if I thought I had wronged someone, and I would not be able to rest until I had put it right. This has nothing to do with God, and I know plenty of other people who are sensitive to the feelings of others but are in no way religious. The point I am trying to make here is that your motivation seems to be without love for your fellow creatures, and I find this surprising. - In your response to my question about God's unconditional love, you put me in the position of a judge (God) dealing with the son of a friend. I punish the young man for his crime, but still love him and help him, he repents, and we all live happily ever after. It's a nice story. Let me now put you in the same position. The son has always been a trouble-maker, in and out of prison, he is a paedophile, a rapist, and he has just murdered your friend. His name is Mephisto, he laughs at the very idea of repentance, and he tells you to go to hell. Do you (as Judge/God) love him unconditionally? - I also asked you what you thought would be the nature of the punishment that God would inflict. I was actually wondering if you believed in hell, and it appears that you do. My next question is whether you believe literally in a place of eternal flames and torment, or whether you regard it simply as a metaphor. I find the idea of eternal punishment inconsistent with the idea of unconditional love. - As regards the Young Earth v Old Earth debate, I repeated David Turell's question because I was curious as to why you hadn't answered it. Thank you for doing so.