The absurdity of Christianity

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What if there is a terrible cost attached to doing that? One visited upon the children that don't jump in?

Most mothers here would certainly jump in and pull their kids out.

What if there is a terrible cost attached to doing that? One visited upon the children that don't jump in?

Just to be clear, this father would too. I'd jump in to save yours too, actually. It seems beyond silly to me to seriously consider that my Creator wouldn't. To each their own though...

Just to be clear, this father would too. I'd jump in to save yours too, actually. It seems beyond silly to me to seriously consider that my Creator wouldn't. To each their own though...

You mean you don't believe in hell?

It is time for this letter to begin winding down and I’d like to do so by sharing my take-aways from the last few miles of this journey. We, as humans, are made of the same materials as the Universe. What makes us different from the stars is that Presence lives within us, and in doing so, animates this particular (human) form until It withdraws from this husk. As Jesus tells us in Luke 17:20-21, the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed because it is in our midst. We have been gifted life only through communion with God. The gift of life comes with certain rules, and chief among them is the truth that life is gifted to us one moment at a time.

Living life in any way other than ‘on life’s terms’ creates an adversarial relationship with life – which is an inspired definition of insanity. Since life’s terms are that we receive one moment at a time, life is meant to be experienced one moment at a time. Surrendering to life brings us into the moment – or the now. When we surrender to life, we find ourselves untethered by mind’s attachment to past and future, and the regrets, resentments, anticipation and fear that accompany it. When we surrender to life; we find that there is nothing left to surrender to. When we surrender to life, we fall into the moment. There, in between the moments, is the timeless dimension within where ‘I am’ exists.

I do. I just don't believe in the interpretation that we've been given.

Forgive me for anticipating (perhaps incorrectly) the question that comes next...

The Christian Hell has been defined as separation from God. I can get on board with that. I wrote a letter a few months back in which I wrote a response to a question asked of me by a Christian acquaintance. As a result, I wrote it from a Christian perspective (I speak fluent Christian). Here's an excerpt out of that letter:

(snip - wanted to include the letter but Cloudfront won't let me)

So yes, I believe in Hell. I also believe the door to Hell is open. We've been forgiven and our bail has been paid; we're free to return home - or not.

Since we're all kinda speculating here, what kind of cost would you be having in mind?

Like what?No dessert?No internet privileges?

No I wasn't planning a further question. It might have been clearer if you'd said what the question was that you've answered. [emphasis mine] Something like "what do you think hell is like?" I suppose. Frankly I'm none the wiser about that, having read what you've written. It seems to be a rather exotic theological description of something, perhaps because you were answering some other question. If I were to ask what a person thinks hell is like, I'd be looking for an explanation that describes in fairly plain English what they thought their afterlife experience would be like if they didn't make it to the good place - whether there'd be any physical pain, that kind of thing.

It's the problem of spiritual growth and free will. As I said before God doesn't send people away, they walk away and must be free to do so. If there is no real choice or consequence, if we cannot choose oblivion or damnation, we cannot choose a different path either and a real choice is vital. In such a world, there could be no growth and we could never be anything more than forever children at best, or worse a sort of soulless automaton.

Frightening people isn’t a good way to encourage them to grow spiritually.They only comply because they are afraid.Their compliance isn’t sincere.

Yes, it seems that I've outdone myself on the 'not clear' part. .......<snip - once again Cloudflare won't let me quote the whole post >
.........Every time you come across one of the many words for Satan, substitute the word 'ego' and see if it doesn't fit.

Where was the UN during the war against the seven nations?

I reject Christianity on the basis that the Christian god is a twat, and I'm not going to worship him.

Don't care if I end up in Hell. Gods who act like twats don't deserve worship.

If God existed and truly loved humanity, not one person would be condemned for eternity.
No matter how bad my kids were ,I wouldn’t fry them in a lake of fire.

The official number of deities according to scripture is three

The Christian Hell has been defined as separation from God.

Still not very clear to me what you're talking about. What was the question you gave your answer to before? Presumably not "what do you think hell is like?" or you wouldn't have tried to answer that here, you'd already have given your answer.

So you think hell is simply life. Then you seem to describe what life might be like for somebody who has no sense of proportion and lets every favourable event convince them its effects can't ever diminish, and leaves themselves wide open to the shock of something going wrong. I suppose that would be uncomfortable, though I don't recognise many real people I know in the description. It seems more like the life of somebody with the mind of a child who hasn't learned to temper their expectations. So not surprisingly it doesn't clarify anything for me.

Then you invite the reader to do an experiment. I gave it a whirl:

https://www.openbible.info/topics/satan

Just to take the first 5 instances:

Your adversary the ego prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the ego, for the ego has been sinning from the beginning.
You are of your father the ego.
For even the ego disguises himself as an angel of light.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the ego, and he will flee from you.
I suppose there's a little bit of metaphorical sense here and there, but hardly enough to demonstrate that Satan = ego. So, all in all I don't get what you're trying to say.