Oh Go To Hell!

I've not updated this blog in quite a while as, to quote a Sister Hazel track, life got in the way, but I've decided it's time I pester you to read my mind's meanderings again as I need to get something off my chest. It's not a long one (oh shush!)

How many of you whilst talking to Christians have been told that unless we repent and turn to Christ we will face judgement and be cast into Hell? If you've debated on Facebook or any other religious based forum I'm betting it's most of you.

Why are they allowed to do it?

If I were to tell somebody, even on Facebook, that unless they did as I told them my friend would hunt them down in real life and torture them, setting them on fire, I would likely be reported, and rightly so. I'd very possibly be suspended or removed entirely by Facebook.

Yet this is effectively exactly what Christians are doing to atheists daily, and nothing is said. They are telling atheists that unless we repent their friend will torture us.

If I said to somebody face to face that they would suffer unless they did what I told them I would probably be guilty of a criminal offence, just threatening violence is considered assault under UK law. Yet a Christian can thrust a Bible at me and tell me that unless I do what they tell me I will suffer not just violence but the ultimate torture. Again, nothing would be done about it.

Christian defence seems to be along a couple of lines.

1. They'll claim it's not a threat, they're simply warning us of what lays ahead and are trying to save us.

This is like defending a Mafia Don who tells you that you should do what he says or you'll sleep with the fishes because if you pay the protection racket he runs you'll get treated really well. It's still coercion, it's still a threat.

It also flies in the face of these bullshit claims that their god is loving. No loving being would be capable of creating the ultimate punishment, as Hell is. No loving being would condemn to an eternity a person who merely lacked belief in him. No. God is not loving if he sends good people to Hell for lack of belief. He's a monster and narcissistic tyrant.

2. They'll claim that atheists cannot feel threatened by Hell as we don't believe it exists.

This is irrelevant. The intent behind it doesn't change even if, as I do, I find such threats asinine and amusing. These Christians do believe Hell exist and they are threatening us that unless we repent we'll get what we deserve, eternal torture. They may think they're trying to 'save' us, but then a Mafia enforcer probably thinks he's doing the extorted storekeeper a favour, too. 

It doesn't matter if I believe Hell exists because I am being threatened by somebody who does. If I were to tell somebody my friend would torture them if they didn't do as I said it wouldn't matter if they believed my friend existed, they would still be being threatened. What is really worrying is that my friend might not exist, I might know it's an empty threat, but these crazies actually do believe that Hell is real, and they are willing to defend a God capable of creating it!

Next time a Christian pleads they're persecuted remind them that no persecution on Earth can equal the eternal suffering and misery they believe atheists will be dealt by the God they love so much.

Any Christians reading this; please stop using these tactics, they're counterproductive as they make you and your God look vindictive, they make you look immoral for defending such a doctrine and it simply serves to reinforce that you actually have no evidence for your faith, so have to resort to threats. Which is rather silly, isn't it.