What do you think about people who are born destined to not believe?
I've grown up with going to church, praying, and earnestly trying to get some communication with Jesus/God going or to feel anything at all that might hint at there being a God and have me believe.
After all these decades, I think believing in the specific God described in The Bible is not going to happen. If that means I'm going to hell when I die I find that unfair, unjust, and evil. Just because I lack a sense that those who believe seem to have.
Imagine you have a child, and if that child's not able to meet you expectations you torture them. Or you allow them to come to harm by not feeding them, so by your inaction they come to harm. If they can't meet your expectations due to a disability, is it fair to punish or harm them for it?
That's how I see it when it comes to the idea of God punishing people eternally for things they were destined to not be able to do.
If someone can be born without the ability to see, surely someone can be born without the ability to sense God, or feel that there's anything special about the words in the Christian Bible compared to any other religious text from other religions. For anyone unable to believe due to such a disability, how is that different to never encountering The Bible or hearing about Jesus?
If someone would've been saved if it wasn't for the world of God reaching their ears, then spreading the word of God is doing harm, and logically we should burn all the books and forget about Christianity in order to make sure everyone is saved in the future.
It only makes sense to keep spreading the word if people will go to hell even if they never hear about God. I think that means God's evil if they'd do that to people who never had a chance.
It'd be like torturing a child with no legs because they can't run, that's as fair as sending someone to hell because they can't believe despite trying to. Perhaps according to God it's all just, but by human standards it sounds evil.
"God is infinite so any insult to God is infinitely severe etc"
I think a claim like that is insulting to God. It's a claim about God having a fragile ego and needing revenge for the 'crime' of not stroking God's ego by believing in them.
Is God really like that? If so that's an abusive God. If a human acted like that we'd think they weren't good, and God should be held to a higher standard.
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"People can choose what to believe"
That's false. Those of us who have hope but no certain belief will know it's false for a fact.
We can try to believe things, but it's like sleep, most of us can't choose to fall asleep. We can lie down and hope for sleep to come, but most people can't choose to go to sleep. Some people have insomnia.
Imagine if you get sent to hell forever if you're not asleep 5 minutes from now. That's how I feel about being sent to hell for not being able to believe. That's how unfair and ridiculous that feels like.
I hear a lot of things about love, but also about eternal torture of people who can't manage to believe or die before they're able to, and the two are not compatible. You can't torture people eternally or allow it to continue if you have the power to stop it and still be considered 'good'. I think that's an extreme misuse of the word good.
>"we're born evil and sinners and we deserve eternal hellfire etc"
We're just kids and God's the responsible adult here. It's never justifiable to eternally torture your children. It's likely that 'original sin' stuff was just to scare and control you, because if God is loving and all knowing they wouldn't punish you just for being born the way you are. Or send you to hell for not being able to meet their expectations due a disability that made it impossible to believe.
I think there are two separate religions within mainstream Christianity. One worships an evil God, and the other worships a God who wouldn't send anyone to hell due to a disability of belief, or not hearing about God. Two separate religions praying to two very different Gods.
What are you thoughts about God sending people to hell if they're born unable to believe?
e.g. Not being born with eyes, ears, or a sense of touch. Or not being born with the ability to believe, or sense that The Bible is anything special. Both are effectively the same thing.
If you take for granted (even if you disagree) that it's true we can't choose what to believe even if we try, do you think it's be fair for such people to go to hell just for being born without that ability? Why didn't God make sure no such people were born?
If someone is born destined to be unable to believe for whatever reason, is eternal torment a fitting punishment? If so, that's not very "live laugh love" of God.