Despite My Fundie Psychopath Bro, Why 'Hell' and 'Satan' Can Be Dismissed

I admit to having a laugh attack that had me ROTFL to the googolplex power, after seeing my image inserted several times in the former Pastor Mike's recent blogs. He has me there with flames shooting all around, as well as his usual 'tick, tick. tick' bullshit, as if that is supposed to scare me or anyone with a grain of sense or gray matter. (Especially as his display of HATE, including racial, cannot possibly be reconciled with a spiritual person of any kind! So we must conclude he's a hypocrite).

Well, I return the favor, of showing the squallering brat that he is, in demanding so many take his codswallop seriously. But why should they? In the end 'Satan' is a mythical confection, actually one invented originally by the Mithraists, but stolen by Christians in order to account for apparent sin in the world....oh, and also to run 'Hell'.

"Hell" is likewise a fantasy creation of deformed minds. Sadly, its assorted promoters and Elmer Gantrys aren't even able to see the very possession of such a vile doctrine puts them in league with blasphemers, assuming a God actually exists as they describe It ('infinite, all loving, omniscient, omnipotent etc.)

Philosopher Alan Watts ('Behold The Spirit') has aptly noted that any true belief in 'Hell' would amount to the grossest blasphemy against any divinity alleged to be infinite or omnipotent. As Watts puts it (op. cit., p. 244):


Taken literally as a doctrine of everlasting torture, 'Hell' amounts to blasphemy itself- for if it were in the power of human freedom-choice to produce a consequence of this kind there must be something radically diabolical in the order created by God, and in God himself. Such an interpretation may vindicate human freedom but at the cost of demonizing God.

Watts’ words are important to understanding the mind of the fundagelical Hell monger. He's telling us that this person is so unsure of his own beliefs that he requires a place of eternal torment to vindicate them, i.e. in order to burn up those that don’t share them. But he doesn’t grasp that he ends up demonizing his own deity as a beast, mass torturing maniac no better than an omnipotent Jeffrey Dahmer!  In the process he blasphemes his own deity in other words, but is too blinded by his hate, fear and paranoia to see it.

IF "God as infinite"  is taken literally, this can only mean there is no place where he isn't. Either he is infinite or not infinite. If he is infinite, and HELL also exists, then Hell must be part of the same infinity. It cannot be isolated from it or else we have a condition where Hell is apart from God's being. In other words, the Xtian Hell mongers are identifying God with HELL! Hence, they are identifying all "Evil doers" in the cosmos with God and putatively "Satan". In a word, this is insanity!   So, we have these ineffable logical conclusions:

1) EITHER - Hell exists but GOD is not infinite.

OR

2) GOD is infinite, and Hell must exist WITHIN God, so literally GOD IS HELL

Up to now, no fundie or evangelical has been clever enough to resolve the Hell-God=infinite paradox. There could be two reasons: 1) none of them is smart enough to do it, or 2) they know deep down in their little atavistic pea -brains that the paradox is logically insoluble because their assumptions are in error. (Or, just as bad, they allow the blatherings in an ancient book to trump the importance of examining the assumptions.)

Thus, if they want to preserve their "Hell" they will have to admit their God isn't infinite. If they demand God to be infinite, they will have to jettison their "Hell'. If one grants that "infinite" means extended to or pervading all of Being then there is literally no place left where - whatever it is- doesn't exist.

Hence, if applied to "God" it means all inclusive of reality. However, IF Hell is inserted, it contradicts the proposition by adding a separate entity which limits that which is already claimed "infinite". Thus, if Hell is asserted to exist and is claimed to be "eternal" then God cannot be infinite. If God is maintained to be infinite - meaning all inclusive of Being- the only conclusion is that Hell must be a part of God's Being!

Now, let me grant that the odds are none of these idiots, despite their hellfire screeching, have the necessary IQs to deal with the preceding ...so let's go more into their "territory": i.e. their bible-punching and quoting.

In truth and fact only Matthew 25:46 makes any mention of eternal punishment: (“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal".(KJV)) This is the only place in the entire Bible where we find these two words (everlasting and punishment) together AND only in some Bibles.

For example, the Weymouth New Testament has:

"And these shall go away into the Punishment of the Ages, but the righteous into the Life of the Ages."

But my point is that the entire concept of eternal or everlasting punishment hinges primarily on the single verse of Matthew 25:46. Now let's look at it more closely! Again, this is where an acquaintance with Greek comes in handy!


The Greek for "everlasting punishment" in Matthew 25:46 is "kolasin aionion."  Kolasin is a noun in the accusative form, singular voice, feminine gender and means "punishment, chastening, correction, to cut-off as in pruning a tree to bear more fruit." Meanwhile, "Aionion" is the adjective form of "aion," in the singular form and means "pertaining to an eon or age, an indeterminate period of time." (Note: the two words in many, not all translations become reversed changing the Greek into English.)

Many people unfamiliar with Greek, as they are with Latin (i.e. Sippy cup hell monger Mike) don't realize (as with the preceding case of "Aionion" vs."aion," that the endings of the same word change, i.e. inflection) to indicate its mood, case, gender, etc. Therefore, "aionion" may appear with different endings. "Aionion, aioniou, aionios," for example, are all different inflections of the adjective form of the noun "aion."

Ditto, in the case of Latin, one might see: fructus (nominative case), fructui (dative), fructum (accusative) and fructu (ablative) and for which meanings can range including for 'fruit', 'profit', 'enjoyment' and 'benefit'. Once again, when one has no acquaintance with the underlying language, one will tread dangerously close to self-deception and this is the case here for Matthew's hellfire verse!


Now, further background: The noun "aion" in Greek literature (e.g. Iliad, Odyssey) has always meant "an indeterminate period of time. " It could be as short as the time Jonah spent in the belly of a whale (three days or nights), or the length of a man's life, or as long as a very long age - say the "age of Socrates".Critical examination discloses the Bible speaks of at least five "aions" and perhaps many more. If there were "aions" in the past, it must logically mean that each one of them have ended! When one uses terms such as "past", "present" or "future" he's no longer referring to anything that's everlasting because the latter concept admits of no temporal distinctions! The New Testament writers spoke of "the present wicked aion" which ended during that very generation. Obviously then it was followed by another "aion"-e.g. the "aion" in which we presently live, which will be followed by a future aion.

The point? If there are "aions"past, present and to come, it must mean that aions don't last and the one we live in will also end. Thus, these "aions" are in no way never-ending or everlasting.
There are also verses describing "the consummation of the aions" (from which eons is derived) showing that each "aion" (nee, eon) ends, hence again can't be eternal! Why is it the hardheaded, blustering fundies don't get this? That they can't or won't distinguish a finite from non-finite amount of time? Well, maybe because they never took Greek or Latin!


Other notable examples:

"the coming eon" (Matt.10:30, Luke 18:30)
"the present wicked eon" (Gal.1:4)
"the oncoming eons" (future) (Eph.2:7)
"the conclusion of the eon " (present) (Mt.13:39,40)
"the secret concealed from the eons" (past) (Eph.3:9)


Obviously, the Greek word "aion" transliterated "eon" cannot mean "eternal." A study into the Greek of the Biblical period and before will bear this out. Thus, Matthew 25:46 which embodies the Greek, "kolasin aionion", cannot mean "eternal punishment" but rather a "temporary punishment" or "temporary chastening". (Which would be more akin to a punitive 'timeout' like the old Catholic purgatory concept).

More to the point, and this is critical since I pointed it out to do with Bart Ehrman's studies of later additions by assorted scribes (link on the blog above), if we find that the translations show "eternal punishment" when the authors or copyists likely had to be familiar with these Greek forms (disclosing that "aion" is NOT eternal) then we have prima facie evidence for a deliberate copyist insertion to alter the meaning. In other words, a FRAUD!

Since "Aionion" is the adjective of the noun "aion", then this argument applies to ALL forms, passages, words that contain these words, no exception. Are the fundies bright enough to grasp this? Doubt it, if they can't even solve the Hell-God-Infinite paradox.  But then, these morons were never the sharpest knives in the drawer anyway, if they really believe everyone that doesn't believe a specific piece of mistranslated hokum is forever doomed to the "lake of fire" (term stolen by early Xtian scribes, copyists from the Mithraists in Ized 4, of their Zendavesta).

And finally, since grammar rules mandate an adjective CANNOT take on a greater force than its noun form, it is evident that "aionion" in any of its adjective forms (ios, ou, on) CANNOT possibly mean "everlasting" or anything remotely indicating eternity or unending time.  Hence, we must conclude that either: a) Matthew 25:46 is a bogus later addition, or b) Matthew 25:46 represents the deliberate, fraudulent alteration of an original text in which the Greek forms were changed to reflect an "eternal" as opposed to non-eternal duress or punishment.

Underlying all such salvation-coveting greediness (as exemplified in Mike's blogs) is an embedded religious fanaticism, and a cultish tendency to embrace an unquestioning submission to a god that's caricatured in their own minds, which is largely a magnified version of their own mean-spirited, covetous selves. To question their cartoon god is "arrogant" and so they regard anyone who dares to do so as a "spoiled baby" trying to get his own way as opposed to an adult striving to rise beyond anthropomorphic creations of stupid humans. Thus, even the most innocuous intellectual challenges are seen as "human arrogance" and the elevation of our finite intellects in opposition to the infinite wisdom of the divine. But shrouded in the cloak of their own humility these fanatics fail to notice the arrogance that undergirds their conviction.

Ultimately, as we see time and again with these infantile people, they refuse to recognize that their beliefs about "God’s word" could be wrong, as well as their very deity conceptions. The fanatic treats any questioning of his own beliefs as if it were a challenge to the word of God. But in fact, this is a god created by him in his own image, conceived from his own mental delimitations and prejudices, though he quotes chapter and verse of a bible he doesn't really understand (since he never parses for the underlying Greek meanings, for instance.)

Fanatics in this sense needn’t be violent, nor do they necessarily express the kind of extremes hateful (“God hate fags”) vitriol spewing from such idiots as Fred Phelps. But there is, in this insular faith fanaticism, a dangerous combination of humility and arrogance that hermetically seals blind believer fanatics from reason and evidence. Point of fact then, it's impossible to reason with them because they don't trust reason (though they claim to have a boner for logic). They are instead hostage to their own preconceptions and assumptions, including an arrogance to fit the putative deity into the mental thimble they believe is all they need to conceptualize it.

This is why as many times as I've patiently explained how and why they are wrong (including the basis for their false beliefs), they will never, ever get it. I could present a one hour web video complete with entertaining Geisha girls and assorted props and these bozos would never grasp it, so wedded are they to their singular reality, or rather unreality! Probably no one has put the central issue better than Alan Watts, in his 'The Wisdom Of Uncertainty' (p. 143):

"The misunderstanding of religious ideas is vividly illustrated in what men have made of the doctrine of immortality, heaven and hell. But now it should be clear that eternal life is the realization that the present is the only reality, and that past and future can be distinguished from it in a conventional sense alone. THIS moment is the "door of heaven" the "straight and narrow" because there is no room for a separate "I" or ego"

Doubtless, the crazies,  including infantile, fundie psychos like my brother (and I use that term very loosely)  will never grasp that, just as they'll never ever figure out the infinite-Hell-God paradox, or see why Matthew 25:46's "eternal punishment" is totally bogus!

Pseudo-Christian Nuts Get Their Butts Kicked: Will They Now Be Humble?

One of the other casualties ( less mentioned),  in the wake of what we now behold as a major electoral clobbering of the Repukes and their kind (Obama now with 332 electoral votes after grabbing Florida) was the scope of how the Faux-Christian nutbag extremists and their ilk had their collective butts handed to them. Even now you can discern and hear their whimpering, pouting and pissing ...over how the nation "has turned so secular" and "fallen into Satan's grasp". They're even ramping up their hell-mongering and attendant hellfire threats but are too dumb to perceive - as Philosopher Alan Watts once pointed out ('Behold The Spirit') that any such true belief in 'Hell' would amount to the grossest blasphemy against any divinity alleged to be infinite or omnipotent. As Watts puts it (op. cit., p. 244):

"Taken literally as a doctrine of everlasting torture, 'Hell' amounts to blasphemy itself- for if it were in the power of human freedom-choice to produce a consequence of this kind there must be something radically diabolical in the order created by God, and in God himself. Such an interpretation may vindicate human freedom but at the cost of demonizing God." 

But never mind, these pseudo -Xtian morons are as detached from reality as the Southern, pro-Confederacy types who rioted after Obama's Tuesday night victory - as at Ole Miss. One would have believed our public universities in this country would allocate more critical thinking courses - but evidently not.

According to the morning after assays via exit polls, Christian evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Romney,  matching the presidential vote of Mormons: 78 percent for Willard and 21 percent for Mr. Obama, according to exit polls by Edison Research.  According to long time Christian Harpy gadfly Ralph Reed(who helped pioneer religious voter mobilization with the Christian Coalition in the 1980s and ’90s, and is now founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition).


“We did our job!"

He claimed that his organization outdid itself this year, putting out 30 million voter guides in 117,000 churches, 24 million mailings to voters in battleground states and 26 million phone calls.

But if this is true, then the Feds and namely the IRS ought to fine the sonsabitches for everything they're worth and then retract any tax exempt status for violating federal statutes that require churches or churchy organizations not to embed themselves in politics, especially by producing "voter guides".

To reinforce that, Reed later bragged:

“Those voters turned out, and they voted overwhelmingly against Obama! But you can’t be driving in the front of the boat and leaking in the back of the boat, and win the election."

Yeah, duh! Because your stupid faith-based jerkoff beliefs won't work with sensible voters! Reed then continued (as quoted in The NY Times, 11/11):

“You can’t just overperform among voters of faith. There’s got to be a strategy for younger voters, unmarried voters, women voters — especially single women — and minorities.”

Well, Ralphie, you can keep on threatening all those groups with hellfire or warn about 'em all better getting "saved" but if you place all your trust in a stupid, archaic book (KJV bible) that is laden with contradictions and scriptural foul-ups, mistranslations, e.g. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-king-james-bible-cannot-be-trusted.html then you damned well better be prepared for continued rejection.

Meanwhile, another Xtian extremist, R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Louisville, Ky., said in an interview:

“Millions of American evangelicals are absolutely shocked by not just the presidential election, but by the entire avalanche of results that came in. It’s not that our message — we think abortion is wrong, we think same-sex marriage is wrong — didn’t get out. It did get out!  It’s that the entire moral landscape has changed! An increasingly secularized America understands our positions, and has rejected them.”

Oh, Boo Hoo Hoo and cry me a river, you self-righteous twerp. The point is your message was received loud and clear but rejected by the thinking people of this country, that is, the ones not suffering from the brain disease of belief, e.g. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2010/10/true-belief-as-disease-of-mind.html

These mainly white male preachers, including fossils like Billy Graham, are yapping and moaning not only about the loss of the presidency (since they now have to wait to try to overturn Roe v. Wade via Supreme court picks) , but from what many of them see as a rejection of their agenda. They lost fights against same-sex marriage in all four states where it was on the ballot, and saw anti-abortion-rights Senate candidates defeated and two states vote to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Maybe the real problem these turkeys and their blinded followers have is with R-E-A-L-I-T-Y!

To underscore that, these extremist fool Christian leaders have said that they would intensify their efforts to make their case, but were only now beginning to discuss how to proceed. According to Bob Vander Plaats, president and chief executive of The Family Leader, an evangelical organization in Iowa.


“We’re not going away, we just need to recalibrate,”

Yeah, well good luck on that, bozo! Try to "recalibrate", but may I suggest instead recalibrating your BRAIN, to reality!

 Meanwhile, the ever-out-of-touch Catholic hierarchy was also chastened, and in particular, the election outcome was sobering news for Catholic bishops, who this year spoke out on politics more forcefully and more explicitly than ever before. The bishops and Catholic conservative groups helped lead the fight against same-sex marriage in the four states where that issue was on the ballot. (In my state, Colo., the RC morons actually took out a full page ad in the Denver Post which probably marshaled more voters against them!) Nationwide, they undertook a campaign that accused Mr. Obama of undermining religious liberty, redoubling their efforts when a provision in the health care overhaul required most employers to provide coverage for contraception.

Despite this, Mr. Obama retained the Catholic vote, 50 to 48 percent, according to exit polls, although his support slipped from four years ago. Also, solid majorities of Catholics supported same-sex marriage, said Dr. Jones, the pollster.

Here's reality in a nutshell for all these officious religious extremist jackwads and their brain dead followers: America is changing and evolving to become LESS religious and more secular over time. Americans who have no religious affiliation — pollsters call them the “Nones” — now make up one-fifth of the population over all, according to a study released last month by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.


The younger generation is even less religious: about one-third of Americans ages 18 to 22 say they are either atheists, agnostics or nothing in particular. Americans who are secular are far more likely to vote for liberal candidates and for same-sex marriage. Seventy percent of those who said they had no religion voted for Mr. Obama, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research.

So go ahead, Righty Religious 'Pukes and Whiners, keep bringing it on....and yeah, when you run out of rational arguments - as you surely will, go appeal to the hellfire-salvation nonsense. Which proves you're all ready to be strapped into chairs and administered electro-convulsive therapy!