Regarding the Dante question, I meant what many people think, not what the church teaches. I know plenty of people who have been in serious religious debates regarding various circles of hell and other things from The Divine Comedy.
Thank you kniz
twice.
100 sheep, huh. he could pull a lot of wool over your eyes with those.
Sorry… ba a a a ad joke.
I’ll see your blanket statement and raise you an alternative viewpoint. I haven’t belived in the whole “eternal fire” thing for many years. There are many reasons for this, but instead of giving you my reasons, I’ll just give you a link, because after concluding myself that the “fire and brimstone” hell didn’t seem to be accurate, I found a nice little page a while later that confirmed my ideas and added a whole lot more. IANABiblical Scholar, but appears this person is, and they say it much better and with more supporting evidence than I could:
http://www.concordant.org/expohtml/DeathAndJudgment/TheGehennaOfFire.html
Polycarp already addressed this.
Your using the fallacy of applying 22nd century thinking to a culture that existed millenia ago. Things that seem barbaric by our standards seemed merciful back then.
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth was liberal. In societies where one could be killed for stealing a loaf of bread, the ancient Hebrew laws were designed to have the punishment fit the crime. Petty theft did not result in death. Only the most severe crimes resulted in death.
You also have to bear in mind, that radical changes to culture are generally not accepted very well (e.g. the abolishment of the Death Penalty in general is a relatively modern concept, and many people are opposed to abolition of it, in spite of the fact that to many it seems barbaric). Dramatic changes won’t happen overnight. God wasn’t working with us more enlightened 22nd century folk back then. He was working with a people that saw abuses of power everywhere they looked. The poor, the widowed, and the orphaned were considered the lowest of the low. The Hebrew laws were the first to implement any sort of charity for the poor and less fortuned. They were the first to extend any protection to servants and slaves. They were the first to have punishments fit the seriousness of the crime as judged by the standards of the day. Sure God could have made laws requesting that everyone be completely equal, but the Hebrews probably would have rejected them out right. After all, the original plan was for them not even to have a king, but after seeing that everyone else had one, they decided they wanted one too. The Hebrews weren’t very socially enlightened compared to us. No society was at the time.
**
I’ve heard that said too, I don’t buy it. Repentence is important, but it is not a requirement to be saved. I believe that’s where the RC concept of purgatory came out of. The whole idea of being prevented from entering heaven until all sins committed on Earth were repented for. In this way of thinking all people who commit suicide are sent into purgatory for it.
Personally, I’ve never believed there’s a purgatory, but there is no mention in the Bible (that I know of) of any unrepented sin resulting in a permanent separation from God. As has been mentioned, the only non-forgiveable sin is blasphemy against the holy spirit.
And I don’t understand why people have such a hard time with the concept of God not making a heaven for non-believers. Hell is simply the separation from God. There is no indication what hell is specifically. It could possibly be a nice place to be. If you don’t want to follow God, why would you want to be in heaven with him anyway??? God is not a rapist; God’s not going to force you to do something you don’t want to. To follow God is a personal choice.
If the Bible doesn’t really go into detail about describing Heaven, the place where most of it’s followers are going to go, why would it go into detail of describing Hell, the place where most of it’s followers aren’t going to go?
Personally, I think we give too much importance to the whole concept of Heaven and Hell. I hear often non-Christians make the claim that Christianity is a religion based on fear. Well, I know many Christians, and including myself, none of them are Christians due to fear of Hell. The point of the Bible is to be a guide through this life. Heaven and Hell aren’t described in detail, because they really don’t matter in this life. Heaven is being with God; Hell is being separated from God. That’s it. If you choose not to be with God, than that’s it. If you choose to be with God, well, then the Bible will be a guide in how you can follow God.
The ways and means are the important parts (as the apostle Paul mentions repeatedly), the ends are mostly icing on the cake.
Congratulations, I just propelled you and the rest of humanity forward a whole century. 
I’m sorry, but if you read the bible, that’s patently untrue. Jesus and his writers don’t say, “and the devil and his angels and the unrepentant sinners will be left outside the gates of heaven, to do whatever they will,” they say “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” I don’t care how you want to rationalize that line, but it doesn’t sound like MY idea of a good time.
Well, happyheathen, under my Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) upbringing, suicide was viewed as an unforgivable sin.
Only if successful, of course…
It’s interesting that the only instance you can find that represents an actual place of eternal torment is in a Revelations, a book that was basically a vision or dream of the apostle John, whether divinely inspired or not is somewhat irrelevant. What is most relevant is that it is full of symbolism. It is probably the most disagreed upon book in the entire Bible. Many scholars hold the view that the whole purpose of Revelation was predicting the fall of the Roman Empire, something that has already happened. Nothing in Revelations should be taken at face value. Do you really think a bunch of angels are going to come down and pour bowls on the Earth?
Heck, the whole pit of fire represents the “second death” according to the chapter in Revelations you are quoting from (Chapter 20). One could argue that those cast into it are effectively annihalated. No torment, no paradise, just nothing.
Most other mentions of any sort of “Hell” in the bible are references to Sheol, Gehenna, Hades, and Tartarus, none of which represent the “pit of fire, eternal damnation” concept.
Hoopy Frood, I suggest you try a searchable Bible. A tormentuous afterlife is certainly mentioned outside Revelation – even by Jesus himself!
Jehovas Witnesses don’t believe in a fire-and-brimstone hell. Hell is non-existence to them. And they are often seen to be one of the most strict bible-literalists. I have some Watchtower books at home if anyone wants me to post some quotations in reference to hell please just ask. Happy to oblige.
The nature and teachings regarding (Christian) hell have been addressed by the Straight Dope Staff in
Who invented Hell?
and by the Teeming Millions in
Just where the heck did HELL come from anyway?!?
I thought the question was; “Are all Athiests going to hell? Even the “good” ones?”?
Are all you believers trying to talk yourself out of your fear?
What’s with the bible quotes?
We athiests don’t believe in the bible, nor in [a] god, nor in heaven or hell.
Ever seen a dead ant?
You think he’s in ant heaven? Or, if he was a bad ant; in ant-hell?
Come on.
When you’re dead, you’re dead.
Actually, its been many non-believers throwing out the bible references. I’ve thrown out other references in response.
And fear has nothing to do with it. But I’m not here to justify my beliefs in God to you.
Well being that ants don’t have an immortal spirit, the ant wouldn’t be in ant heaven.
And I’ve felt I’ve addressed the issue of Atheists going to Hell adequately enough. I interpreted the OP as implying Hell in the Dante-esque form. In my view, there is no Hell as a place, more of a state of being. So yes, Atheists will be separated from God because that is their choice. But eternal torment? Not bloody likely.
why wouldn’t an ant have an immortal spirit?
Bigotry!
käse, meet Lolo. 
Adultery is a most severe crime?
Cursing your parents is a most severe crime??
You make God sound like some politician trying to influence a few voters. This is GOD! Why didn’t he state the laws, and vaporise those who disobeyed them?
The point I’m making is that it’s difficult to select parts of the Bible as Gospel ( 
), but then say other parts are out-of-date. Who’s to say which are right?
So why doesn’t God show the world he exists? At least we’d know there was a choice of lifestyle to be made.
Instead there’s no physical evidence, just a wide range of religious believers, whose religions are contradictory.
God doesn’t seem to be very good at explaining to his believers what the true path is, let alone to us atheists.
Why you’d almost think He didn’t exist…
[/QUOTE]
I’d say comparing kase to Lolo is pretty low-low, as it were. Same subject, different approach.
I totally agree with kase; gee whiz, I even somewhat agreed with Lolo (to a very small extent).
I don’t want to get all radical about things, but I’d say the question in the OP is pretty damn presumptuous. It seems like the query was posed thusly –
“Ok, we all know that heaven and hell exist and of course God is merciful, and omniscient and everything I believe is true, so … what about the goddamn heathens?”
That is to say, who is the question posed to? If you’re asking an athiest, the question is moot, so why ask it? If you’re asking another Christian, you’re preaching to the choir (pun intended).
I guess what I’m saying is that I see nothing wrong with, in fact I quite enjoy, participating in or even just reading discussions about the existance of a Christian God. But setting up the debate with a predetermined conclusion to the argument doesn’t make much sense.
Speaking of sense … am I making any? Anyone following me on this?
Why? I don’t understand why atheists enjoy such discussions. Why do they start so many threads on religion?
Sounds like a subject for a thread to me.
erislover; Thanks for Lolo. That was fun. 
kniz I think atheists “enjoy” these discussions for the same reason believers enjoy them; We feel pity for the other.
Believers think: Ah, noooo. Poor atheist, he-or she will never go to heaven, poor thing.
Atheists think: Ah, noooo. Poor believer, there is nothing after death. He-or she spend his/her whole life hoping for a heaven, or fearing a hell.
We can make a new thread, but we’ll never agree, I’m afraid.
I wasn’t comparing them, Jack. Jut thought käse might like to read that.
Well, kase, whether or not a Christian feels pity for you or any other atheist, he’s got a job to do which was assigned him by the Person he took to be his Lord, to wit, to attempt to lead you into an acceptance of that Person as also your Savior and Lord. There are many techniques for attempting this; the one most effective seems to be to show what following Christ is like in one’s own life. (IMHO, the least effective is trying to scare 'em with Hellfire and damnation, but there’s a large school of thought that thinks that’s the only reasonable way to go.)
But bottom line, it’s not an option but a commandment for us.
BTW, I think every Christian would agree with you that “dead is dead.” However, it’s our understanding that the persona can outlive the body, and that through the salvific work of Jesus Christ, one can live although one’s body has, uh, gone into a terminal error state.