Is it OK to hope anyone is in Hell?

[materia3]

Is it OK to hope anyone is in hell?


By Dennis Prager

The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat raises an interesting and significant question: Is it morally and theologically acceptable to hope anyone goes to hell?

Rest of article from Washington Times is at:


http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20041130-043053-9359r.htm

[Kopji]

Compared to infinity, whatever we do in this life matters less than a millisecond matters in a billion billion years.

[c4ts]

Honestly, what you hope and think privately shouldn't be anybody's business. It's when you go to Arafat's survivors and tell them you hope he went to Hell that something becomes wrong with it!

[Beanbag]

Let's spend some time on a more relevant subject, like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

It's simple: either you wish he was still here, you're glad he's gone, or it really doesn't mean a rosey red rat's patootie to you either way.

Regards;
Beanbag

[Zep]

http://www.worldofdave.ca/monkeygrove/scribbles/1990/satan.jpg

What's with this "hoping" stuff? Some people WILL come to hell. And I should know, y'know?

[ding dong!]

Ah ha! Coming, Yasser! We have your suite ready.

[hgc]

It takes an extra special nimrod like Dennis Prager to drive home just how childish a belief in Heaven and Hell really is. What sentient adult sits around dreaming about how his enemies list will spend "eternity" in a lake of fire?

[synaesthesia]

Not only is it ok, it is an excellent thing to praise God for all his consequences.

Praise God for eternity upon eternity of torment, and praise him for helping the blind see!

God made light and darkness, and saw that it was good.

[Zep]

Originally posted by synaesthesia
God made light and darkness, and saw that it was good. By what criteria did God decide that it WAS good? Was there a celestial scorecard of some sort? An omniscient quality-control checklist? Votes by the viewers? I mean, what if God was voted off the island for not creating very well?

[hgc]

Originally posted by Zep
By what criteria did God decide that it WAS good? Was there a celestial scorecard of some sort? An omniscient quality-control checklist? Votes by the viewers? I mean, what if God was voted off the island for not creating very well? You don't understand much about absolutes, my friend, and just who it is that promulgates them. I'll give you a clue: it's the same one that sentences Dennis Prager's boogeymen to an eternity of torment. How do you on Earth know what's absolutely good? Just read the manual -- it's the best selling book around, so it must be right. Drop this relativity, or you're going to burn...

[Nex]

Originally posted by hgc
... What sentient adult sits around dreaming about how his enemies list will spend "eternity" in a lake of fire?
http://www.nirvani.net.nyud.net:8090/misc/$87,000,000,000/dubya.jpg

[Dr Adequate]

What part of "sentient" didn't you understand?

[Nex]

Originally posted by Dr Adequate
What part of "sentient" didn't you understand?
Apparently, the "sentient" part. :D

[Beerina]

In my last few moments of believing in religion 17 years ago, I imagined that Yaweh should go to hell for sitting around while children were raped to death.

I still believe the sentiment, even though I don't believe in either anymore.

[c4ts]

Originally posted by Zep
By what criteria did God decide that it WAS good? Was there a celestial scorecard of some sort? An omniscient quality-control checklist? Votes by the viewers? I mean, what if God was voted off the island for not creating very well?

The same standards the Cat uses on himself in Red Dwarf.

"How's my universe lookin'? It's lookin' goooooooooood!"

[elliotfc]

Originally posted by hgc
It takes an extra special nimrod like Dennis Prager to drive home just how childish a belief in Heaven and Hell really is. What sentient adult sits around dreaming about how his enemies list will spend "eternity" in a lake of fire?

I read the article, and that isn't what Prager does, or admits to doing, at all.

If heaven/hell exist, it being a *childish* belief is irrelevant. Prager purports that a just God means heaven/hell. You can reject that position by saying that God doesn't exist, that God isn't just, that heaven/hell doesn't necessarily follow from God being just, etc. Calling it a childish belief means that you believe it to be a childish belief, you believed it to be a childish belief before you read the article, and that all you can say after reading the article is the belief that you already had.

Having said all of that, I think it's a waste of time to talk about who deserves to go to hell, particularly by naming names. It can be argued that a Christian should not speculate about an individual's eternal fate based on wordly deeds. Of course Prager isn't a Christian.

-Elliot

[hgc]

Originally posted by elliotfc
I read the article, and that isn't what Prager does, or admits to doing, at all.

If heaven/hell exist, it being a *childish* belief is irrelevant. Prager purports that a just God means heaven/hell. You can reject that position by saying that God doesn't exist, that God isn't just, that heaven/hell doesn't necessarily follow from God being just, etc. Calling it a childish belief means that you believe it to be a childish belief, you believed it to be a childish belief before you read the article, and that all you can say after reading the article is the belief that you already had.I have no idea what you're talking about, except that yes, of course I already believed that. Water is wet too.

This is what I was talking about:Just as any decent human being would want good people to be rewarded in whatever existence there is after this life, they would want the cruelest of people to be punished.

So, of course, I hope Yasser Arafat is in hell.
So Dennis found it not only to be OK, but a friggin' obligation of goodness to take on God's mantle, and decide who's going to eternal damnation. Why am I even talking about this? I feel dirty. It's like eating mud pies.
Having said all of that, I think it's a waste of time to talk about who deserves to go to hell, particularly by naming names. It can be argued that a Christian should not speculate about an individual's eternal fate based on wordly deeds. Of course Prager isn't a Christian.

-Elliot For my part, knowing who and who isn't a Christian is way above my belief-grade. I just know that Arafat is dead, and things really suck for a lot of people up here on Earth.