Proposed: The Christian God is a tyrant determined to force everyone on the planet to convert to Christianity, and worship as a Christian, and the illusion of "Free Will" is a pretence that he created to convince you that observance was your own idea.
Otherwise, why fill the Bible with references of the eternal torture, and suffering that would befall non-believers after judgement, when one dies. Now, the first question that is going to be asked is going to be an attempt at a distraction: "Why should I care what the Bible says, since I'm an Atheist?" However, it doesn't matter what my theological position is, does it? "The truth is the truth," right? So, if the Bible is the Truth, then the things that are in the Bible are "the Truth" whether I believe them, or not. Which, brings us right back around to my question. If God is not a tyrant, and does not demand worship from everyone, then why threaten anyone who does not believe? If God does not care one way, or the other, if someone chooses to believe, or not, why bother with all of the threats?
Dear
Czernobog
Try substituting NATURE or LIFE for "God."
is NATURE a tyrant for its preexistent laws and ways of how the world works?
Is LIFE a tyrant for how we are born, go through stages of growth learning and development, before we die?
now, isn't our relationship with NATURE or LIFE
up to us to decide if we are going to work with it or try to fight against it.
isn't part of the learning curve making peace and learning to work with
laws of the universe, nature and life. And isn't that up to human conscience to deal with?
Except the Bible doesn't talk about living this life in harmony with God. It, repeatedly, talks about the eternal gnashing of teeth, torture, suffering, and damnation,
after death that comes to those who do not join in the cult of Jesus worshipers.
You want to make it sound as if Christianity is no different than Zen Buddhism, except we both know that's not true.
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I think you are exaggerating "according to the consensus opinion of modern Bible scholars, the word "hell" did not appear a single time,
not even once, in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament (OT). And the word "hell" is very hard to find in the New Testament (NT) as well. You can easily confirm this fact yourself, by using an online Bible search tool to scan various Bible translations for the word "hell."
"The word "hell" does not appear in the Bible because:
(1) The Hebrew word
Sheol clearly means "the grave," not "hell." Everyone went to
Sheol when they died, not just the wicked.
Sheol was not a place of suffering, because in Job 14:13, a much-beset Job asked to go to
Sheol to escape suffering! He clearly meant that if he died, his suffering would end in the grave.
Sheol was not a place where God was absent, because King David said in Psalm 139:8 that when he made his bed in
Sheol (i.e., when he died and was laid in his grave), God would still be with him. And
Sheol was not an eternal inescapable prison, because in Psalm 49:15 the Sons of Korah said that God would redeem them from
Sheol, by which they meant that they would be resurrected from the grave to new life. Furthermore, the prophet Ezekiel and the apostle Paul agreed that all Israel would be saved, and yet in Genesis 37:35, Israel himself said that he would be reunited with his son Joseph in
Sheol. How can all Israel be saved if Israel himself is in "hell"? In each case
Sheol clearly means "the grave" or "the abode of
all the dead, good and bad" and cannot be interpreted as "hell" unless "hell" is heaven!
(2) The Greek word
Hades also clearly means "the grave" not "hell." Everyone went to
Hades when they died, not just the wicked.
Hades contained heavenly regions like the Elysian Fields and the Blessed Isles. The Greek hell was
Tartarus, which is discussed below, in section 4.
(3) The place name
Gehenna does not mean "hell" because
Gehenna is a valley in Israel also known in Hebrew as
Gehinnom, or the Valley of Hinnom. Today
Gehenna is a lovely park and tourist attraction. Wonderful archeological discoveries have been made there, such as the healing pool of Siloam and the oldest Bible verses ever discovered, inscribed on small silver amulets. Those verses are the benediction "The LORD bless thee and keep thee; the LORD make his countenance to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee."
Those are wonderfully comforting words to have been discovered in "hell," don't you think?
(4) The Greek hell was
Tartarus. This is the
only word in the Bible that actually means "hell" in either Greek or Hebrew. But the word
Tartarus appears only one time in the entire Bible, in 2 Peter 2:4. And that verse is about fallen angels awaiting judgment, so its hell is
not eternal and is
not for human beings. The only verse in the Bible that contains a word that actually means "hell" seems to be about a place where Satan and other fallen angels await judgement."
How many times is hell mentioned in the Bible?