Originally posted by BigDoggProblem
One doesn't need to be schizophrenic to understand that schizophrenics do illogical things.
Parents punish kids to stop them from doing wrong things in the future. God's punishment of hell never ends, so it has no corrective value. In fact, one wonders what value it [b]has, other than vengeance.
If God is morally allowed to kill humans whene ...[text shortened]... r faith. You'd rather just believe by default and let the details take care of themselves.[/b]
But the Biblical God also punishes to help people stop from sinning. The Bible says that whom he loves he corrects just as a parent with a rod in hand. However, some do not heed such correction. Some continue in their wicked ways and wax worse and worse. This is problematic in that such wickedness has influence and sway over those who are exposed to it or who suffer from it. Perhaps allowing these people to be killed off is in itself an act to help preserve those who would be influenced by such wickedness or who may fall prey to their wickedness. Therefore, such corrective action has value in that although a percentage of the wicked may perish eternally, the greater bulk of humanity may be spared a similar fate had there been no such corrective action for such wickedness.
As far as your assertion that human life has no intrinsic value to God because he can kill human being at will, this is absurd from a Biblical perspective. After all, he had his Son killed to save all of humanity. Does his Son have no intrinsic value as well?
You may think eternal danmnation to be unfair. I think every believer has grappled with such an unsettling thought. However, punishment in general is never a pleasant pospect. Once one enters the spiritual realm, however, one enters into an eternal realm. Therefore, what you are when you enter is what you will be for all of eternity. Conversly, the material realm we live in currently is temperal and subject to change. This is the arena for corrective action, not the spiritual realm. Its known in the Bible as a the era of grace.