Hell and Eternal Punishment II

In response primarily to Kristor and Bonald, we have:

“I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other thing in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

First Corinthians 13 – possibly the most profound and beautiful passage anywhere, including all philosophy and all literature.

The story of the Prodigal Son. God as the Father who forgives the truly repentant son and welcomes him home. I remember identifying with the “good” son as a kid and feeling a bit resentful on his behalf.

I was lost but now I am found. (Luke)

Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.

To which we can add:

Matthew 18:21-35

21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23″Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26″The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will

Hell and Eternal Punishment

Three of the most beautiful things in the Bible are:

Romans 8:38-39

“I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other thing in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

First Corinthians 13 – possibly the most profound and beautiful passage anywhere, including all philosophy and all literature.

And the story of the Prodigal Son.

Mystery and not knowing or understanding everything is just fine. In fact, it is good and beautiful. People who say things like, “I just don’t understand how free will is possible,” as grounds for not believing in free will, are just annoying. And really they say that because they are committed to materialism as a matter of faith, and materialism and free will do not mix.

It does seem that concerning some moral matters God has not left us in the dark. The assertion that our conscience is a direct link with God seems true, though not infallible. And, one thing our conscience prevents us from doing is being overly punitive and aggressive in our reaction to perceived wrongs. You give me a disparaging look and I burn your house down. Not cool! Avicenna points out that a God who tortured you with scorpions, whips and red hot rods in an act of vengeance for all time would be doing precisely the sort of thing that He forbids us from doing. God the Hypocrite is not an appealing character – Vengeance is Mine or no Vengeance is Mine.

Good or Good Enough

“Those who preach faith, or in other words a pure mind, have always produced more popular virtue than those who preached good works, or the mere regulation of outward acts.”

Sir James Macintosh, Diary (July 17, 1808)*

Although his opinion was perhaps colored by a Scotsman’s protestant pride, the famous liberal Sir James Macintosh is almost certainly correct in saying that the doctrine of salvation by faith yields, at least in its first bloom, an exceptionally virtuous society.  Calvinism is particularly conducive to popular virtue .  It certainly puts a damper on carousing in alehouses, hooting at bawdy shows, betting on cock fights, or cavorting like Peter Pan around a maypole; but it at the same time significantly curtails a man’s chances of being cuckolded, murdered, or robbed.

Let’s Wait for God 2.0

Giambattista Vico thought the dominant point of education should be to foster creativity and imagination. What a heaven that would be. He aligned poetry with the human soul and considered rationality to be a mere element of it and not the most important at that. He was worried that applying the scientific method to humans would be dehumanizing, as indeed it often is. Recently, an academic podcast guest said that he could not possibly believe that cats and dogs have emotions merely by observing them. When he told his friends the result of his scientific examination, that those animals do in fact have emotions, they replied, “D’uh. We could have told you that!” The academic insisted that such intuitive knowledge was no good at all. While meditating, an image came to mind of the academic strapping his wife to an examination table to find visible signs of her love for him. Vico, on the other hand, would like to include, as contributors to knowledge, “sense perception, rumor, myth, fables, traveler’s tales, romances, poetry and idle speculation.” Better to deal with someone with emotional depth than the robotic mode of being of the self-made autist.

Vico coined the phrase, translated into English, as the “Barbarism of Reflection.” In Vico’s cyclical view of history, this occurs during a period like the Enlightenment when science and rationality prevail and claim to offer a path to a perfected society. First religion is discarded and then morality, based as it is on religious principles. Man plans to make himself in his own image, throwing off the shackles of social institutions and using freedom of speech and thought to question them all. Equality and democracy must reign, not unchosen bonds of family and flag. Each man must be free to explore his random desires and anyone who questions that should be put to death, or at least imprisoned and canceled. Man becomes a wolf to man.