I think I would be fairly horrible.

I remember when I played simcity, you always built it up good...but c'mon...when you were "done" you started cheat mode and poured down disaster and had a blast.

Nobody (or atleast very few people) would play a strategy game that was about being as nice as possible. Havoc, violence, doom, punishment, revenge, winning...yeah!

lol. So true

i have no idea what the hell ^this^ is

are you saying yes to my question? jesus christ

Boyd does not believe in purgatory. The refining fire that he talks about is not purgatory. He even makes mention not to confuse the two, iirc.

And I would not make any certain statement on his theology based on that one sentence, that I must admit confused me.

But no, I do not believe that hell is eternal.

fine, fair enough.

lets go the other way with it then. is an eternity of bliss in heaven a just reward for believing in Christ?

I would not say that heaven is a reward. More so a gift. And this gift is extended to everyone equally.

So the idea that anyone is worthy is negligible.

srsly hardball what was that

fine. is it a just *gift* for believing in Christ? yes or no

edit: you seem to be saying no, we dont deserve it, but he gives us this gift anyways. so how is that a just god, giving us more than we deserve?

Apparently, It's every bit as reasonable to assume Hardball has the same level of knowledge about heaven and hell that you would expect a local to have about road conditions.

It's just food for thought. Don't upchuck, if it's too much.

LOL I see you're putting your PhD to some use, assuming what's written in your location is true.

I'm not a religious scholar, so I will state the obvious: If you want information about heaven/hell and what they would be like, as well as their entry requirements, scour the holy texts of the world's major religions and draw your own personal conclusions, but only after consulting with the respective authority of the religious description you're interpreting.

The less knowledge one generally has, the quicker they will tend to conclude on a particular matter. This is just the natural process. The more and more information you have available, the more reluctant you will be in coming to a conclusion.

If you wanted information on how astrology works you'd probably collect all the works from noted astrology experts in order to figure out exactly how it is that the way the stars are aligned when you are born effect your entire life. You'd of course be sure to consult with astrology experts to make sure your interpretations are correct.

If you did that would you expect to find anything with any truth value? What makes you think information about heaven and hell would be any different?

i seriously havent understood what you have been trying to say in a single post in this thread so far

Astrology is not a religion, and has no information on a heaven or a hell. Also, I said "information", not "truth." You probably didn't properly read what I said. I don't see what your issue is.

It's OK, don't worry too much about it; it's not a big deal.

I guess I'll take a stab at this. You're missing an essential question though - "If you were the creator of the universe, would you give people souls (in this case, defining the soul as a piece of being that persists after death of the body)?

If you did, what do you then do with the souls?

But, let's see.

Say I'm God. Then I make a place that's perfect. Totally, pristinely, for-all-time perfect.

Then, I put some humans down somewhere else. Somewhere I've made perfect, but then the humans screw it all up.

Then, they die. Think I'm letting them into my perfect place, when I gave them their own perfect place and they messed it up?

Hell (literally) no. No way I'm damaging my perfect dwelling for all time.

So that's my answer: If you want to hang out in the perfect place, be perfect, or gtfo.

I don't think this is true.

Isolating this premise and ignoring its implications (and assuming Chirstianity true), some people are born and indoctrinated Christian and basically guaranteed salvation while many are born and indoctrinated to an opposing theology and have close to no chance of salvation, and then there are those that live their entire lives without ever hearing of Christ.

Looks like some people are more equal than others.

Can you defend the position that everyone is given an equal chance of salvation?

But you're God, so you knew it all would happen like it did, but you chose to create the way you did anyway.