Unconditional Love?

Because they want nothing to do with God -- and God won't force them to change their minds -- and Hell is the only place where God is absent -- so Hell is where they go.

Finally! someone who understands!

God doesn't send us to hell. We choose to go there ourselves. If you commit a mortal sin you attempt murder on your soul and hell is eternal death.

"Unconditional love" is never mentioned in the Bible. It didn't even come into the lexicon of Christendom until the 1960's.

Well, since he was already sitting there in front of Nicodemus, yeah.

Amen, alleluia, Vatican II in the 1960's was an equivocating mess.

Being a young person that has refused the new age innovations expected of my generation and returned to the old traditions, they don't call me RebellingFromRebellion for nothing.

I love athiest-esque memes. Theyre so refreshing.

Well I mean, Im an athiest. So...

Sorry my friend, I said it was none of my business.

favoritism

The Bible says that God does not show favoritism between humans. Such does not equate to unconditional love.

Epicurus' nightmare: The Problem of Goodness

The imperfect people are purged. Ever hear of Purgatory?

The point was that without a complete, miraculous change of a person's essential nature, no one could possibly be "fit for Heaven." A person who goes to his grave denying that -- and denying that he "needs" God for anything -- is a person who's certified himself a rebel to the end. He may be a polite, friendly, gol-darn likeable rebel, but he's still a rebel. He will never look God in the face and say "Thy will be done." So what choice does God have, but to look on that rebel and say "THY will be done."

Ah, well spoken. I would caution that that philosoraptor meme might be misleading to some people, that is, if you did not make sure to post the explanation to the paradox (when I first saw the meme, I was like "wut?").

Yeah, it's more of a counterpoint to the soft-mushy theology many people hold to, that "If you're a good person you go to Heaven." People don't stop to think that we've got plenty of misery in this world being perpetrated by "good" people with their "good" excuses for their own wrongdoing. Put a bunch of souls with that kind of character into Heaven, and Heaven won't be Heaven for long. At best it'd just become another broken messed-up place like earth. At worst, it'd turn into Hell.

Purgatory was an invention of the church to explain why a loving god would kill infants before their first birthday.

Purgatory is strongly indicated in the Bible - it is not the invention of the Church.

Purgatory is a place of punishment for sins that do not deserve Hell, and infants do not go there because they have never personally sinned. However, they cannot enter into heaven unless they were Baptized, and cleansed of original sin, (inherited by all the human race because of Adam/Eve.) Therefore baptized infants go right to Heaven, and unbaptized infants go to a sort of paradise, where all possible happiness is present except for the vision of God (reserved for those in Heaven).

According to RC doctrine unbaptized infants spend eternity in Purgatory, as their orinal sin has never been forgiven.

As a traditional Roman Catholic, I have not heard or read about that before. If it was common doctrine, I certainly would have heard of it before. To me, a place of natural happiness but no beatific vision makes more sense than a place of purgation for those who were not baptized through no fault of their own.

Oops looks like traditional traditional RC doctrine says anyone who dies unbaptized goes straight to hell:

"Be assured, and doubt not, that not only men who have attained the use of their reason, but also little children who have begun to live in their mothers' womb and have there died, or who, having been just born, have passed away from the world without the sacrament of holy baptism, administered in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, must be punished by the eternal torture of undying fire; for although they have committed no sin by their own will, they have nevertheless drawn with them the condemnation of original sin, by their carnal conception and nativity."
—Bishop St. Fulgentius

Just because a saint believed it doesn't make it Catholic doctrine. I do know that a person who has written anything heretical cannot be made a saint, but there is a difference between heresy (which contradicts an established doctrine) and personal, probably inaccurate opinions about non-doctrinal matters of religion.

Since it is not Catholic doctrine that everyone unbaptized, including unbaptized infants, goes straight to Hell, it is possible for Fulgentius to be a saint and still probably be wrong about this issue.

the afterlife is confusing. yet since love and morality have to do with making of a pretty good society and lifestyle, i choose to stand on it. Also believing Jesus was as reported.

He wasn't.

God's love doesn't cancel out the requirement for justice.

Many people don't even have to go to hell, they're born into it. Yeah, unconditional love is a great dream.

Some love isn't as unconditional as others

Where'd you hear that God hates all atheists?

It's part of a saying that dates back a long time ago. The saying is, "All atheists go to hell". I'm unsure who originally created it, but I believe the saying was created to scare people into believing in God to not be forever fated to end up in hell.

Hm, I never heard it. I stopped believing in God when I hit my late teens. But by the time I turned 30 I realized I didn't have any good reason for not believing, just a bunch of angry prejudice against religion and religious people. (It's not God's fault that religious nuts make up their own crap about Him.) When I gave up that prejudice and started looking for the real God, things turned around.

Cool I suppose, hope you have some feeling of fulfillment.

As for me, I grew up in an atheist household. I was never raised to feel that I need a higher up being to be happy with myself. If anything, I was raised to not care about anyone's religion and instead focus on what kind of a person they truly are.
While down the line I might feel like an empty void (well, more of an empty void than I kinda already am), I know there's other ways to fill it. Such as focusing on my work or creating new fantasy worlds and ideas for comics. While I may feel a bit empty (one could say even a tad bit broken), I wouldn't want it any other way.

[Moral of this comment, I don't care about life and I'm happy the way I am XD]

So what I'm reading is that you feel a void, you feel a little broken even, but you're happy. Not trying to be a jerk here (sorry if I succeed) but I've seen "happy" before -- that's not it.

But anyway, being happy or fulfilled wasn't the reason I turned back to God. The reason I did it was to stop living a lie, and start being the person I was made to be.

It did change me. Little by little I've stopped being what I was (a snotty smug self-absorbed egotistical a**hole) into what I am now. When someone I know looks at me now they see someone who's a likeable "good guy." But that's just a side benefit, the main thing is wanting to be close to God just because he's God. (It's not about "religion", it's about God.)

[Moral of this comment, I still like getting on a soapbox. I'll shut up now. :) ]

[One last comment then Imma shut up too. btw have a nice day! ^-^]

I've always been accepting of my void feeling, since to me it's just another part of my life. I've always had it, I can't imagine what it'd be like without that feeling. Now don't be mistaken that because I feel a bit a void that means I'm not very emotional. I'm actually quite the personality, which makes people like me so much. I'm kind, respectful, energetic, and a bit random at times; being like that makes it easy to gain love and respect.
I just take life as it comes, not caring about where I am but more so the consequences of my actions during that period of time. I've gotten on well so far, so I expect very little drastic change to my life.