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The Pitiless Arithmetic of Hell

LAST JUDGMENT: THE DAMNED SOULS
Sanctuary Notre-Dame des Fontaines, La Brigue

How Many Will Be Damned, With a Population of 7,600,000,000?

JESUS: MANY WILL GO TO A LAKE OF FIRE AND FEW WILL BE SAVED

SINCE ‘MANY’ IS MORE THAN ‘FEW’, OUR CHANCES OF GOING TO HELL ARE GREATER THAN 50%. WOULD EVEN 80% STRETCH THE MEANING OF MANY?

Jesus promised:

  • …broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! (Matthew 7:13-14)
  • I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who after he has killed has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you fear him! (Luke 12:5)

But, did he really mean it?

  • For I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and ­Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5-20)
  • …better…enter life maimed, …than to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. (Mark 9:43)

Well, he often said very hard things in the most solemn way:

  • If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own mother and father and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)
  • You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

“YOU MUST BE PERFECT AS YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER.”
IF THIS DOES NOT SCARE US TO DEATH

it can only be because no one has the slightest frame of reference to understand the meaning of an eternity “in a fire that never shall be quenched”; or, maybe, “I am among the few!”

WHAT QUALIFIES YOU FOR HELL?

Not doing right when you could; not believing right when you could; not loving God when you could; or not repenting serious sins before you die, when you could [if you are very lucky].

These ‘coulds’ come from the only quality all humans everywhere are claimed to share equally: free will—the ability to make deliberated moral decisions, including knowing what is right and doing right—completely free of all that made you what you are!

Consider the breathtaking enormity of that claim. You make these moral decisions without any decisive influence from your:

Genetic Inheritance • Life in the Womb • Parents • Nurture • Infancy and Childhood • Year and Place of Birth • Religious Training • Education • Spouse • Relatives • Race • Gender • Health • Intelligence • Sex Drive and ­Orientation • Personality • Stature • Looks • Smile • Voice • Wit • Ability in Sports, Music and Dance • Family Income • ­Cultural Influences • Prevailing Customs • Random Events • Political and Civil Rights • and the Blizzard of Experiences in Life Which Changed You!

WHICH OF THESE DID YOU CONTROL?

Imagine how different your life would be today if any or several of these factors had been quite different for you! Suppose you had been born Egyptian, drug addicted, or a slave? Same you as now?

Does this mean no accountability? No. It is ridiculous to think it. Nothing would change except regarding anyone—who, after all, had no say in being born—as deserving the ultimate cruelty—suffering forever!

If we truly understood this, it would be impossible to sustain the hatred plaguing our lives, beyond the instant anger we all feel in certain situations. After calming down our intellect would compel us to see the truth, “there but for luck go I”. As the neuro-scientist, Sam Harris, said in speaking of free will, “Aren’t you lucky you didn’t get the brain of a psychopathic killer?”

This would compel us to try to find the right way to force wrongdoers to experiences—argument, praise, education, admonishment, embarrassment, rebuke, punishment, whatever seems most likely to work—which might cause them to see the light. Experience always causes change—and sometimes as we want it to be.

Beyond this common sense case, there is a far more compelling one: the tons of scientific, psychological, and social science evidence—added to every week—which points to the conclusion that free will is an illusion.

An illusion very easy to believe because we all know we make choices every day—we do what we intend! Yes, of course, so do the utterly insane and children! Why do we choose as we do? There are countless reasons, many beyond our control.

In the Christian religion you must have free will in order to be guilty. You were even born guilty because of the sin committed by Adam and Eve! Why? To need salvation. If you are not guilty, you have no need of a Savior.

IF GOD HAD INFORMED YOU OF HIS TERMS AND THE ODDS, WOULD YOU HAVE JOINED THE LOTTERY OF THE SAVED AND DAMNED? ESPECIALLY KNOWING THE ODDS AGAINST YOU?

Wouldn’t you think kinder, more loving, more just and a lot more merciful to give us the choice?

But the priest-ministers insist, it really is loving, just, and merciful, because all humans everywhere and at all times innately—irrespective of the advantages and disadvantages they may have been born with and into—know the right course when confronted with a serious moral question. If they don’t take it, they deserve to suffer forever!

This is the merciless, man-made, doctrine of the Christian religion stripped of all its sentimental encrustations.

It is the unyielding bottom-line beneath their endless talk of love, justice and mercy from the Father in Heaven who knows, watches, hears and cares for each of us 24/7.

You must believe rightly to stay out of hell. Even if, from the cradle, you have been taught another religion or have little or no information about Jesus, you still must believe in him.

The Roman Catholic Church is not content for you to just believe in Jesus, you must be Catholic to be saved! It still proclaims the Athanasian Creed:

“Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith, which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.”

Is not such fanatic extremism, simply embarrassing?

YOU MUST ALSO LOVE GOD TO STAY OUT OF HELL

Must love? Do you decide, on-off, whom to love? Or, is it an irresistible result? What is the quality of love that is extorted under the threat of hell? Or the bribe of a paradise in a heaven—never described or painted as hell was, countless times?

Those you love, you know from your senses and love them for your interactions with them. It is inhuman to demand real love for an all-knowing, never-seen and untouchable, everyplace-at-once, yet-at-no-place, something, without a shred of personality.

Requirements like this cannot be from a loving, merciful and forgiving Father. Isn’t it far more likely to be the work of men—men who, over the centuries evolved this story—and stood to gain as the sole “interpreters” of God’s will?

SO, ON JUDGMENT DAY CHRISTIANITY DELIVERS
INSATIABLE HATE
FOR MOST OF MANKIND

YOU ARE HATED FIRST, FOR A SIN COMMITTED BY OTHERS.

IF YOU AREN’T AMONG THE LUCKY FEW WHO ARE CLEANSED OF THAT SIN, AND OTHER SINS BEFORE YOU HAPPEN TO DIE, YOU WILL JOIN THE MAJORITY IN HELL FOREVER.

THERE IS EVERY REASON WHY A CHRISTIAN SHOULD EMBRACE THE IMAGE AND MESSAGE OF JESUS THEY FIND IN SOME OF HIS WORDS AND HIS ACTS OF LOVE, MERCY AND FORGIVENESS.

AND THERE IS MORE REASON TO REJECT
INFINITE CRUELTY FOREVER
SLANDERING THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT