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Originally Posted by davem
No it doesn't. It would require God to just shrug His shoulders at the suffering of His children.
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At some point the Father must say, enough, you've made your choice, and though I love you, I will abide by your wishes, self-destructive as they may be. Does God hold us captive if we choose not to be with Him?
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Meister Eckhart posited that Hell is non-existence - God can only know the Good, & to the extent that he is aware of any Good in anything He will hold it in existence (or in Eckhart's theology He will 'continue to create it's existence') - therefore it is not in Hell.
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But God knows the Devil (they talk at times), and as the creator of all things, must have created this Hell as well. As you and Eckhart say, maybe Hell is non-existance, but what does that exactly mean to a being that is not limited by time or space? You once existed, and so must still exist somewhere in God's view. Maybe that what Hell is, being trapped in God's RAM.
Or does God dump you down the memory hole, and this begs the question: can an omniscient omnipresent god will itself to forget something? Sorry, but don't have enough coffee for that one.
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If, however, an individual were, through its own choices, to cease to have any good in it, God would cease to be aware of them & of their need to be constantly 'created' & they would simply cease to be. This would not involve 'punishment' or rejection by God, or damnation, etc, it would simply happen.
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The assumption is that God is absolutely Good, and so cannot fathom one degree of unGood? All of the Christian God's subjects/children are by definition ungood, yet exist. Maybe I'm just not seeing it.
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I'm sure the followers of all religions could show how 'rational' their belief is - it just depends on how you define 'rational'.
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Agreed. Great thing about this forum is that I've learned that people are so different. Why, some even think that Balrogs have wings.