Re: The case for hell

> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/opinion/25douthat.html

> Bell’s book begins with a provocative question: Are Christians 
> required to believe that Gandhi is in hell for being Hindu?

Well, Gandhi wasn't just some Hindu villager.  He was an educated man who 
had read the Bible and made an educated decision.  So that arguably 
changes the stakes, somewhat.

> Atheists have license to scoff at damnation, but to believe in God and 
> not in hell is ultimately to disbelieve in the reality of human choices. 
> If there’s no possibility of saying no to paradise then none of our 
> no’s have any real meaning either.

Hmmm, Douthat doesn't seem to be allowing for the possibility that the 
souls of those who reject God might be annihilated.  In other words, he is 
assuming that the soul will continue in *some* conscious state beyond 
death, no matter what, exactly, happens to it.  But there are plenty of 
Christians who *don't* make this assumption.

> Is Gandhi in hell? It’s a question that should puncture religious 
> chauvinism and unsettle fundamentalists of every stripe. But there’s a 
> question that should be asked in turn: Is Tony Soprano really in 
> heaven? 

Heck, never mind Tony Soprano.  What about Satan?  A handful of Christians 
going back to St. Gregory of Nyssa (and maybe even earlier) have held out 
hope that *he* might be saved in the end, too.

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