What is usually the goal of punishment ...
1. To teach the sinner a leason ... well hell is forever
So even if the sinner learns his lesson ... so sorry Charlie your here forever (I don't buy it)
2. To teach others what will happen to THEM if they don't do as they are told (re: my post about fear and intimidation)
My personal guess ... a sinner is put back here (or some other inhabited planet) to learn more till they get it ALL right.
BUT then again we all may just be parts of just one big consciousness ... each learning their own individual parts to be assimulated within the collective consciousness ... after all is not "God" all knowing ...
Just as time in prison is 'paying a debt to society,' hell is about paying a debt to God.
So, Hitler, having escaped paying for his wrongdoing by killing himself, should escape any punishment at all for killing 8+ million people, most by gassing them while naked, and letting their children die with them, then having his men pry the gold out of their teeth? How could a just God allow that? Punishment can also be for justice.
A little too much like "I am YAWH of Borg." I can't go there.
BUT then again we all may just be parts of just one big consciousness ... each learning their own individual parts to be assimulated within the collective consciousness ... after all is not "God" all knowing ...
606 posted on 08/13/2003 2:17 PM CDT by clamper1797 (Conservative by nature ... Republican in Spirit ... Patriot by Heart ... and Anti Liberal BY GOD, and Hindu by thought process)