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Does hell give life meaning?

advancedatheist

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I've noticed that when theists criticize atheism, they get hung up on the idea that in the absence of gods, life lacks an externally imposed "meaning," usually interpreted as the "eternal destiny" (ED) chosen for you by a god.

Maybe someone can clarify this for me, because if christians (especially Calvinists) believe that their god has chosen "hell" as the default ED of the overwhelming majority of humanity in the afterlife, then I see the following implication:

Major premise: The ED god chooses for you gives your life meaning.

Minor premise: God chooses hell as your ED.

Conclusion: Hell gives your life meaning.

So when the christian threatens an atheist with hell, should the atheist respond with, "Hey, if I go to hell, my life will have meaning after all. Thank you, god"?
 
advancedatheist said:
Let's say the standard christian hell, which combines graphic tortures with the allegedly horrific psychological anguish of "eternal separation from god."
Click to expand...

There isn't a Standard Christian Hell™.

There aren't agreed upon reasons for going to Hell.

There isn't an agreed upon duration of stay in Hell.

If we go by numbers alone, Catholic and Protestant beliefs vary greatly.
 
advancedatheist said:
Maybe someone can clarify this for me, because if christians (especially Calvinists) believe that their god has chosen "hell" as the default ED of the overwhelming majority of humanity in the afterlife, then I see the following implication:

Major premise: The ED god chooses for you gives your life meaning.

Minor premise: God chooses hell as your ED.

Conclusion: Hell gives your life meaning.

So when the christian threatens an atheist with hell, should the atheist respond with, "Hey, if I go to hell, my life will have meaning after all. Thank you, god"?
Click to expand...
No.

Point prologue: I find Christians threatening atheists with Hell a bankrupt approach to differences in world view.
I've noticed that when theists criticize atheism, they get hung up on the idea that in the absence of gods, life lacks an externally imposed "meaning," usually interpreted as the "eternal destiny" (ED) chosen for you by a god.
Click to expand...
If one fails to find meaning while living one's life, I don't see how anything in the afterlife will provide it.

As to "Hell giving life meaning" specifically, here are two thoughts to ponder:

1. Not all Christians are Calvinists, nor are all Christians convinced of predestination. I think you risk tarring all Christians with the same brush, which strikes me as a poor point of departure.

2. "Hell" happens after life, so Life's meaning (a nebulous term to begin with) has been overcome by events at the time one reaches to chance to arrive, in some afterlife, at Lucifer Acres Townhomes or the Heavenly Pointe Condominiums.

As has been pointed out, Hell being a physical place, rather than a metaphysical place or condition, is not an agreed convention among all Christians. The best description of Hell I ever heard is "being apart from God, knowing it, and knowing there is no remedy." That's not a physical place. :cool:

Not being a Calvinist, I defer comment on that position to those who are, or were.

DR
 
Beth said:
I was answering your question.
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That's a good first step. An answer is important. Do have a reason for your response or was it simply arbitrary? You see, a discussion such as this isn't advanced by a simple binarary response without context.

BTW, here are some sports scores from last night.

10 - 6
8 - 5
32 - 12
 
advancedatheist said:
Let's say the standard christian hell, which combines graphic tortures with the allegedly horrific psychological anguish of "eternal separation from god."
Click to expand...

I would think that if I was in that situation I wouldn't want to meet the guy to put me there. Or rather, I would want to meet him but not because I was his fan.
 
advancedatheist said:
I've noticed that when theists criticize atheism, they get hung up on the idea that in the absence of gods, life lacks an externally imposed "meaning," usually interpreted as the "eternal destiny" (ED) chosen for you by a god.

Maybe someone can clarify this for me, because if christians (especially Calvinists) believe that their god has chosen "hell" as the default ED of the overwhelming majority of humanity in the afterlife, then I see the following implication:

Major premise: The ED god chooses for you gives your life meaning.

Minor premise: God chooses hell as your ED.

Conclusion: Hell gives your life meaning.

So when the christian threatens an atheist with hell, should the atheist respond with, "Hey, if I go to hell, my life will have meaning after all. Thank you, god"?
Click to expand...

If we all banded together and refused to do this god's bidding, and he threw every single human into Hell, then he's not a very good god, is he? So why is he good if a handful of cowardly people kowtow to him?
 
Beerina said:
If we all banded together and refused to do this god's bidding, and he threw every single human into Hell, then he's not a very good god, is he? So why is he good if a handful of cowardly people kowtow to him?
Click to expand...

That's kind of one of the major problems with the concept of Hell and why people go there. If Hell is for all people who aren't baptized or it's for all people who don't accept JC, then that means Hell is filled with like 99% of all people who ever lived (minus some OT Jews).

Of course, what I'm saying doesn't make sense.. and what apologists say does make sense.... if the Earth is only as old as the Bible says and only contains the folks mentioned.

Which is why Hell is just yet another completely whacky idea once you start thinking about it.
 
advancedatheist said:
So when the christian threatens an atheist with hell, should the atheist respond with, "Hey, if I go to hell, my life will have meaning after all. Thank you, god"?
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's as good an answer as any and it will confuse christians because they're all ◊◊◊◊-scared of going to hell. (The ones who believe in the concept of a pit of fire, etc.)

Essentially, it doesn't matter what you say when talking to christians who would come out with gibberish like, "You're going to hell!" My usual answer is, "Thank god for that - all the catholics, fundamentals and other religious s**theads will be up in heaven and all my family and mates will be in hell, so at least I'll have good company."

Trying to find a clever, apposite answer is a waste of time, stick with the ridiculous, you can't go wrong.
 
The Atheist said:
"You're going to hell!" My usual answer is, "Thank god for that - all the catholics, fundamentals and other religious ...
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But, but, the Catholics, and the Fundamentalists cannot stand each other. If they ended up in heaven together, they would start killing each other for God's affection.

Then again, that might be fun to watch...
 
I love to oversimplify... so here I go:
God is the father figure
Hell is the spanking
Heaven is the unexpected trip to McDonald's for the good little kiddies.

Now, think back to childhood, was it the rewards and punishments that gave your life meaning or was it the experiences and discoveries? Speaking for myself it was the latter.
 
The Atheist said:
Trying to find a clever, apposite answer is a waste of time, stick with the ridiculous, you can't go wrong.
Click to expand...

I tend to say: We're all going to die. If there is no afterlife it's more of a reason to be good because all that's going to be left behind is memories of us. I'm sure that in many atheists "I must be a good person because I'm going to heaven" has been replaced with "I must be a good person because this is the only chance I've got".

You're right though, it rarely works with believers :(. Those sitting on the fence often concede I've got a point.

Edit: Changed 'reason to be as good' to 'reason to be good', because it was a typo and made no sense.
 
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