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.

**well, I have to admit that in my younger days, the answer would have been
an arrogant but confident yes he is.  Now I am less assured.  But most
evangelicals would have trouble here.

> 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. 

**ala the Jehovah Witnesses?  Not sure any other Christian or quasi
Christian faith goes there.

 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.

**as I said, not sure how many.  But I am not up on the various sects,
so....

> Is Gandhi in hell? It's a question that should puncture religious 
> chauvinism and unsettle fundamentalists of every stripe. 

**Why?  I mean, yes it is hubris to believe that your faith is "the one true
faith" and therefore everyone else's choices are measured against your
faith, but then again, almost all faiths do that in some degree anyway.
Isn't that one of the reasons so many people drive for evangelism, to
prevent those they love from eternal damnation?  Back in the hell and
brimstone eras that was all there was.  

**I had a debate with a guy a long time ago and he was aghast that any
Christian would say so, but in my mind, any evangelical or fundamentalist
would be remiss in not saying so if their doctrine really teaches hell.. 



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