From: schnitzi@osceola.cs.ucf.edu (Mark Schnitzius)
Subject: Re: Atheists and Hell
Organization: University of Central Florida
Lines: 33

atterlep@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Cardinal Ximenez) writes:

>1) Atheists believe that when they die, they die forever.

>2) A god who would condemn those who fail to believe in him to eternal death
>   is unfair.

>  I don't see what the problem is!  To Christians, Hell is, by definition, 
>eternal death--exactly what atheists are expecting when they die.  

Well, I think that most Christians believe that your conciousness will
somehow continue on after your 'physical' death, which contradicts what
most atheists (myself included) believe, namely that your conciousness,
being contained in your brain, dies when your brain dies.

>There's no
>reason Hell has to be especially awful--to most people, eternal death is bad
>enough.

I fear the pain that often comes with the process of dying, but since I
won't be around to worry about it, I don't fear eternal death.

>  Literal interpreters of the Bible will have a problem with this view, since
>the Bible talks about the fires of Hell and such.  

This is something I've always found confusing.  If all your nerve endings
die with your physical body, why would flame hurt you?  How can one "wail
and gnash teeth" with no lungs and no teeth?


Mark Schnitzius
schnitzi@eola.cs.ucf.edu
University of Central Florida
