Balder
New member
Actually, I've thought long and hard about sin and suffering and the human condition. Sin is not really a substance, it's an activity, so it's not really accurate to say that it "stains" the soul. However, I would agree that negative thoughts do impact and leave traces in the body and mind, in the form of contracted patterns.Nineveh said:"Now, I'm not sure if you got my point." Most likely because you haven't really thought about how sin stains a person's soul.
I don't think you've thought enough about the nature of our existence, in which all things are in flux, with an openness at the heart of all things -- which means nothing is ever permanently "fixed" in any condition. Everything exists interdependently, and this very impermanence of manifest patterns is what allows for "going astray" or "being transformed" in the first place.
So, is eternal damnation a self-inflicted condition, or an active form of punishment, imposed from without?Nineveh said:People aren't damned because of hate or ignorance, they are damned for unrepentant sin.
Really?Nineveh said:And no one is trying to take away your false hope the Creator God is lying to you about being judged on your own merit.
I think you are overlooking something here. If you believe that people exist in a condition of conscious torment forever, and that there is no possibility of repentance or salvation after judgment because God has closed the door on them, then God is an active "player" in their eternal suffering. He sustains them in that benighted condition forever, and actively chooses to ignore them in their suffering after a specific point in time. If people have the ability to repent in hell, and he ignores them, that's something he is actively doing. If people do not have the ability to repent or change, and he chooses to allow them to continue to exist consciously in that condition of torment forever and ever, that is also something he is actively choosing to do.Nineveh said:Once again, the cruelty you see is being misplaced. Men sin, men do not repent, men are judged guilty, men take that guilt with them into their eternity. Is it that you just can not understand that point or is it you don't want to?
I am saying that either choice is cruel.