Reponsibilities

I love being out of school.  When I was there, I always felt the pressure of looming deadlines, uncertainty of the future, worries about relationships.  Not all of that had to do with studies, but more of my place in life.

Now I’m out of school, and my mind is my own.  I just spent the first part of my Saturday at the library, the grocery store, and the coffee shop.  I have no artificial responsibilities of papers due or grades to improve.

My only responsibility now is to leave the world a better place than it was.  And I think that’s completely attainable.  All I have to do is never stop climbing the slope of learning – if life seems easy, it’s probably because I’m coasting.  I’ll always be seeking the truth, and I’ll incorporate any truths I discover along the way into myself, and live them fully and honestly.  I can only lead by example, not by intervention.

Are Hell-believers just assholes?

Stay with me on this one. Notice the title doesn’t say “Christians” or “theists”, but “hell-believers”. That’s my focus for this post.

I want to speak to the people, Christians or otherwise, who believe in the notion of hell. These are people who believe that a certain subset of humanity will be punished for an eternity, based on some set of beliefs (or lack thereof).

I think these people are assholes.

The reason I think these people are assholes is that they believe that a portion of their fellow human beings are going to be tortured, painfully, for literally an infinite period of time–and they are cool with that.

A common reaction to the previous sentence, I expect, would be “No, Captain Jerk-face, we’re not COOL with it! We WANT you to be saved, just like us, so you can be happy!”

Well, okay, I think I follow you, but try this on: at least some of those people who are not currently “saved” (however you define that) will never be. For whatever reasons, they will not be “saved” by the moment of their death. You know this to be true. You know that some people will never be “saved”, and therefore you believe that they will be tortured with pointy things and fire and polka music, and you are okay with that.

You must be okay with that. You must be, because you are not pleading with your god to alter his criteria for salvation. Nor, I am guessing, have you ever done so.

You’re not holding mass prayer meetings with the goal of contacting the Almighty, petitioning for a “stay of damnation” for any of these souls you share the planet with.

Some of these people are your friends whom you love, or acquaintances you respect. And some of the rest must certainly be good and decent people. And yet you are not angry, or even displeased with your god.

So, I think you’re cool with the eternal torment of some decent people. And for that, I think you’re an asshole.

I think you’re an asshole because you believe that divine torture is okay.

I think you’re an asshole because you believe that some people deserve to be tortured for an eternity.

I think you’re an asshole because you actually label your god good, despite your belief that he has been and will be torturing people’s souls for eons.

But most of all, I think you’re an asshole because you think such a being is worthy of any kind of respect or is owed any sort of gratitude.

I don’t think I’d be able to muster anything but contempt for such a god.

So thank God I’m an atheist.