Eternal Torture

I did a little rambling in the beginning of this podcast but eventually got to my point: the idea of eternal torture in Hell.

Yeah, nice topic huh?

It sprung up on Free Talk Live today and I happened to hear a podcast of Stephan Molyneux’s today (Freedomainradio.com) that mentioned religion so it felt like a sign.

Several callers on Free Talk Live talked about religion and stated a commonly held belief: those who believe in God and believe Jesus is their savior will make it to Heaven and those who don’t believe will go to Hell.

The hosts, Ian and Meg, then asked for confirmation that if someone is “evil” and repents right before they die but someone else leads a relatively good life and doesn’t hurt others but doesn’t believe in God they automatically go to Hell?

Several callers confirmed this.

Now of course this is all speculation – no one really knows what happens after we die.  But what Ian and Meg had issues with, and it’s hard to argue against them, is that through this belief bad people can end up in eternal paradise and good people can suffer eternal torture.

And then Ian stated that he doesn’t think anyone deserves eternal torture.

My first thought, as I’m sure many would jump to this conclusion, would be to ask myself, “what about Hitler?”

But the thought sunk into my head too.  Torture.  For eternity.  Never ending.  Not just 100 years of torture.  Not just 1,000 years to make up for your sins.  Eternity.  And your sins that result in eternal damnation could be as simple as not believing?  Or not going to church enough?  Or going to the wrong church?  Seems pretty steep.

But it also makes you wonder about the worst people in the world.  No one is pure evil (except the devil himself if you believe in him).  Even murderers, rapists and thieves still lead another life that is “good” – family and friends and donating to charity and whatnot.

So the question remains: what exactly does it take to deserve an eternity of hellish torture?