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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
I meant "orthodox" to indicate mainstream Christianity (not LDS, Unitarian, JW etc) rather than "Orthodox". Sorry for the confusion.

It's still true in Catholicism and Protestantism that a mass murderer can go to heaven while his tortured victims burn in hell. Kind of puts a different spin on all that "we need God to establish standards of right and wrong" talk.

63 posted on 05/06/2012 6:51:11 PM PDT by Notary Sojac (Ut veniant omnes)
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To: Notary Sojac

Actually a mass murderer *might* go to Heaven, while his victims *might* go to Hell. Religion is always careful to include a disclaimer that anticipated results may vary from actual results.

It boils down to “who is in charge of things.”

The singularly most effective way to get God’s attentions, and not in a good way, is a recurring theme in the Bible, which is for men to play God, to say that they are in charge.

Even the ancient Hebrews were aware of this philosophical necessity, and to a very developed and nuanced degree, even by modern standards. Secular philosophy was incredibly handicapped by this until Descartes, who parodied “I AM THAT I AM”, to create the axiom that man can define reality as well.

But as secular philosophy needs this concept to function, religion does not, and just accepts that one way or another, God is in charge, not man. So it is not up to us to decide who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell, nor is it up to us to call Heaven hypocritical for not doing what seems to us to be the right thing.

Heaven may decide to forgive Hitler, or Jesus might be as depicted in Michael Wigglesworth’s Day of Doom, sending almost everyone to Hell, and in batches.


65 posted on 05/06/2012 8:02:08 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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