Is it an error to point out that this supposedly infinitely-compassionate, omniscient being created humanity with the full and precise foreknowledge that billions of people would stray from His One True Path - and that he also created Hell in order to punish those (an eternity of torment for only a lifetime of sin) who strayed? Why create beings with the full foreknowledge that you wil just consign them to eternal torment? Does this perfectly reasonable exercise in logic have a flaw? Could someone please show me where that flaw might be? Or is it just “The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways” - that tired old cop-out. Why would anyone want to: 1) believe in a deliberately-malign deity, 2) Want to worship such a deity? I hear Christians always talking about the Creation as an act of Love - was it an act of Love to create Hell? I’d say it was the worst act of sadism ever if it was true.
Locke_2007,
With all due respect, I would assert that, yes, there are numerous errors of logic in your argument. First, let me be clear that I understand there are many who believe that suffering and evil in the world can be used to demonstrate that God does not exist, or at least, not the God described by believers (i.e., the God of the Judeo-Christian Bible). I do not agree with this position for several reasons.
First, because you do not understand something does not mean it cannot be understood. Moreover because you think something should not or cannot be so, it does not follow that you have discovered a fact or truth. I am sure you would agree with this.
In these cases, you could simply be suffering from a lack of understanding that is attainable and/or a misunderstanding of fact that can be corrected.
So, in the first place, you should at least entertain the proposition or hypothesis that there could be a God who is revealed as described in the Bible, and that there is a way to reconcile our pain and suffering on this earth with that revelation. (For the moment I’ll leave Hell and the hereafter aside, but will return to it, I promise.)
So, if you are willing to think clearly about any hypothesis involving concepts of infinity I think you’ll have to agree that your finite mind cannot, by definition, apprehend the Infinite. Yet, your arguments depend entirely on mixing the two. You treat the Infinite as though it is finite to make a point about the world you assert you know.
Let’s now talk about Hell, the ultimate eternal horrible fate. If God is infinite and eternal and omnipotent and omniscient, then His purposes may be whatever he decides they should be, and you have limited ability to understand that which you cannot possibly comprehend, since you are not God.
Ultimately, I would argue that you simply do not like the idea that there might be a loving God who exists while there also exists suffering and the possibility of eternal dmanation.
This gets to the central point associated with suffering and evil - free will. You do not want it to be so. You want, of you own will, to find that God does not exist. You are free to do so, but then you might not be free after all if the prospect of turning your back on God could account for the suffering and evil in the world. That would be too much to bear, like the thought of Hell is too much to bear.
But, if it is true, then it is true regardless of whether you like it or not. Thus, it would seem worth investigating whether your own feeble ability to think logically can really save you from the prospects of ultimate accountability, or whether True Love has felt the desire to let you know that there is A Way out of your dilemma.
In the end you must entertain the possibility that your will decides your fate. After all, you believe your will can decide not to acknowledge God. Yet, others in the same boat metaphysically, obviously believe that there is a God.
Of course, you might claim your conclusion is based on your knowledge that God cannot exist, but it is your will in the end that determines what you believe.
Ultimately, I only ask whether you want to trust to yourself alone? Are you so convinced of the power of your own thoughts that you are willing to bet eternity on this? Or, perhaps, should you investigate for yourself whether those who you may think are ignorant, superstitious, or whatever, might have stuggled with (are struggling with) the very same questions and concerns with which you are also struggling?
You might find after all, that many of the things you think you know are actually attributable to things others have told you. In fact, I would submit that you are relying on other’s testimony. Funny, that is one of the objections to believing the Scripture.
Technically, God created Hell to store the rebellious angels and their ringmaster Lucifer. The question is "Why didn't God make a new place of punishment for humans?" The existence of Hell doesn't necessitate its use for unrepentant humans.
Humans condemn themselves to hell. God doesn't. God has provided a way out of hell for man.