1.) Not everyone is a Christian, as I’m sure you realize. And 2.), if that is the case, respectfully, why did you reply at all? Since it was stated as part of the premise before anyone even replied.
Also, I meant to add that back in the day when I professed to be a Christian, I would have had no problem answering a hypothetical question. I mean, surely something that’s not even real in my world would ever bother me in any capacity. I’d have been that certain in my faith and assuming that the rules had changed in order to answer some silly question, I don’t believe it would have in the least bit threatened me.
Oh, and as for where I’m at now, El_Kabong’s answer is as close to perfect as I could envision.
To answer the question. Surely you don’t think the OP wanted his answers limited to only “Non-Christian” responses?
I am the OP. And no, I didn’t want the responses to be solely limited to those that describe themselves as “non-Christian.” However, I would have preferred them be acquainted to with the premise I set forth when I put the question out there.
I had hoped that no matter how you (in the general sense) see yourself in relation to religion, you can answer hypothetical proposals under the qualifications that they are suggested. IE: Implications such as “But to say, “Yes, I’d go to Hell for my son” would be to suggest that God is unjust, that God would send someone to Hell who didn’t deserve it… And I’m not going to dignify that assumption.” isn’t doing that. Hence why I wondered about the reasoning of participating in the first place.
Does that make better sense now?
I think faithfool knows better than any of the rest of us what the OP’s intent was. 
Not to get off on a tangent, but Catholic !=Fundie Christian. The hypotheticals you mention don’t necessarily match what Catholicism would say.
Traditional Catholic here and as such I guess I am not qualified to answer your question. But I will say that for years I thought you were supposed to love others first and then yourself, but it turns out you can’t love others without loving yourself first.
Did not intend to imply that the two are the same. Really don’t think I did, what with separate paragraphs and all. What I did mean to imply was my habit of asking pointed questions on matters of faith tended to upset the authorities at my high school.
Sorry for the confusion!
This pretty much sums my attitude. Especially the second point, as I don’t think any mortal deserves infinite punishment, and a being who would send anybody to Hell is evil itself, and therefore untrustworthy.
And as a more practical matter, I simply don’t have anyone I care that strongly about, nor am I likely to; I’m not wired that way.
I think that one reason that many Christians might answer no to this question is not that they lack a ‘true christian love’ or whatnot, rather that for (some of) them, the concept of hell is much more real than for non-believers. It may be a lot easier to jump into that kind of a commitment (heh) if you’ve never really given the concept of ETERNAL DAMNATION much thought or rejected it outright. I do feel that astorian has a good point though, one which I can respect even though I don’t subscribe. I don’t think it’s a dodge to say that your faith would preclude this choice on your part. A person of faith’s conception of his or her God is just as much a factor in this type of question as the humanist morality of a non-believer.
All that said, I pretty much made this decision in second grade, though the question wasn’t put like this- the scenario was thus:
My parents had gotten a divorce and since my mom worked full time we got a nanny. She was pretty weird, had a real Shaklee vitamin obsession* and whatnot, but she was there when we got home from school and on weekends when my mom went out of town. She was also a pretty hardcore evangelical christian. We were a very liberal Catholic family, and at first the religion thing was not an issue. Gradually, though, Nanny started weaving more and more religious discourse into daily discussion, including bringing me to her church a few times and culminating in the “Accept Jesus Christ as Your Personal Savior [out loud, in public] or your will burn in HE-YULL” speech. This followed a campaign of convincing me that my baptism and first communion weren’t “real” because they were performed in a Catholic church etc. Needless to say, my mom would NOT have been cool with this if she knew what was going on, but it never occurred to my sisters or me that talking about god could be considered inappropriate.
Interestingly, the thing that kept me from being swept away on her particular Jesus-train was her description of the Rapture. Having gone to Catholic sunday school in the 80’s, I had never heard of such a thing until she brought it up- telling me about how when judgement day or whatever it is comes, all of “us” who had done the personal savior bit would be whisked up to heaven, leaving the rest to burn forever, having missed their chances. I remember quite vividly walking through my classroom in school and picturing what would happen if I suddenly went to heaven and the rest of my family and friends (except Nanny) were left behind - what a shitty thing! I couldn’t imagine how anyone could feel good about such a scenario (still can’t) but at least at that point I seriously did believe I was going to go to hell and I held on to my decision.
Years later, I don’t think there was any harm done, in fact I think it was the earliest point at which I came up against a real moral dilemma and figured out what to do all by myself- critical thinking skills hurrah! Nowadays I am ‘unaffiliated’- I don’t have faith in any religious sense, but I don’t have a real vested interest in a lack of a deity either…
At this point, I don’t know if I would go to hypothetic-hell voluntarily, though I would like to think that I would do it for one of my loved ones, I just don’t know if I’d be strong enough to make that choice. Maybe if I only had a split second to choose I would, but given time to come up with rational reasons (aside from my own fear of endless torment) I would probably end up running away with my tail between my legs. Kind of makes me wish I was still as good a person (or as idealistic) as I was when I was a little’un.
*her mother was a sales rep :rolleyes:
The Lovely Margo Lane, thank you for such a well thought out response. I agree with your assessment there at the end, that it would definitely be a difficult thing to make a long-term decission over and stick to. Especially when you think about the infinite part. And as someone who is still working through issues relating to my former life as a Christian, I know how hard it is to ever completely shake what you used to believe.
That said though, although I can appreciate that giving the currently devout pause in their answers, I really can’t grasp how (when the scenario is laid out up front and in detail) one can disregard the set-up to the hypothetical to go ahead and participate. You know, just to basically say that you can’t participate because you don’t believe that way.
Talk about wanting to bang your head against a wall. Mostly because, again, you tried to prevent this dilemna from happening in the first place. 
To everyone though who’s tried, thanks for playing along. It has been really interesting.
Taking the OP straight at face-value, no. But if I could, say, plot to assassinate god and free my love one, then I’d do that, or try to find some other win-win solution.
For my Mother, if I could work up the courage.
Death is easy, Eternity is hard!
It all depends…
First off, why is the loved one going to Hell? If they were going because they did something really bad—like, I dunno…blowing up an orphanage for blind nuns. With an atom bomb. And it was in Jerusalem so it started WWIII.—I might…might…just leave them to their fate. But again, it depends…were there extenuating circumstances—like they were crazy at the time, or being tricked, or did they make some desperate Machiavellian calculation that doing the evil thing would prevent a greater evil later on? Or were they just being an psychopathic asshole? And again, even if it’s the latter, if I really loved them, I might take their place in hell anyway.
However, there’s also the possibility that they’re getting sent to hell for no good reason—there are plenty of religious points of view where this would seem to be a possibility. Like that they weren’t a member of the right religion, or they broke some archaic rule that God has a hardon about for some reason, or maybe God’s just a jerk, or crazy. In which case, I’d consider going to Hell for the loved one…but then, I’d also have to consider what kind of “heaven” the loved one would end up in. What kind of people are getting into heaven? What if it’s like Taliban or Nazi heaven? What if God just assimilates all new souls into mindless “cells” of his own being? Under the right circumstances, both of us might want to take our chances in Hell.
I said it before, I’ll say it again…
I’d walk thru Hell with gasoline drawers on for my Lady…
[Meatloaf]
I would do anything for love
I’d run right into hell and back
[/Meatloaf]
My thoughts exactly.
There’s no one who’d do it for me, so I doubt I’d ever do it for another.
The key words are … and back.
Actually, Ice Wolf, you’re wrong. If it comes down to you or me, have a nice time in heaven. You’ve served your time here on earth.
I do believe in hell. In the depths of depression, I’ve had a glimpse of what it must be like, and I didn’t care for it. I’ve also met people who think my sister-in-law and her kids are going to hell because they’re Catholic; that one of my oldest and dearest friends is going to hell because he’s Wiccan; that another old and dear friend is going to hell because he’s gay; and that my father is going to hell because he’s agnostic. If I’m wrong about Whom I’ve been worshipping all these years and God really is that unjust and cruel, while I may technically get into heaven (and it still seems arrogant for me to assume I would), I’d still take the place of any of the people I mentioned in hell because a God who would condemn them for those reasons, regardless of what faith I may profess, “ain’t worth worshipping!” as my father would say.
Besides who’s to say I won’t need someone to take my place in hell? I mean, look at the rogues I hang out with, especially on line!
CJ
Although Christian, I don’t believe in hell. But even if I did, I wouldn’t go there for someone else. As far as I understand the concept of going to hell, people “go there” because they deserve to. To interfere would be unjust, especially since people are supposed to be able to seek their own salvation to avoid that fate.