"why atheism is a burden not a benefit, page-97

Andrew:

"Christian dogma dictates in no uncertain terms that those who do not accept Christ as their saviour will perish in hell. No ifs, ands, or buts. If someone has not accepted Christ, it does not matter how good, nor how innocent they are: They cannot enter the gates of heaven (nor can anyone with personal wealth - something interesting to note on a stock trading forum)."

Most of what we believe about hell comes from Catholicism and ignorance of the Old Testament, not from the Bible. He actually use's the word perishing or vanishing more than the word "Gehenna" which has been incorrectly translated as meaning Hell. This website gives a better explanation of the greek word "Gehenna" which Jesus used 11 times in the gospels. Here is a Summary of the Twelve Gehenna Passages

http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/jesusteachingonhell.html

From these twelve gehenna passages, we learn that Gehenna would be the familiar valley on the southwest side of Jerusalem where an imminent fiery judgment was coming on the Jews of the generation in which Jesus was crucified. It was unquenchable fire on that generation in that generation. It was a national judgment against the Jews. Gehenna was to the Jews of Jesus’ day what it was to the Jews of Jeremiah’s day-where the term originated-the city dump! But it entailed all the horror of being rejected and abandoned by God to the merciless enemy who surrounded the gates and who would cause their dead carcasses to be thrown into the burning, worm-infested place. Thus, when Jesus used the term He used it in the same sense that Jeremiah did: as Jerusalem then was abandoned to Babylon’s invasion, so Jerusalem of Jesus’ day was about to be abandoned to Roman invasion-unless they repented. None of these hell passages say that anyone of our day can go to hell. None of them associate hell with Satan. None of them say that Satan’s domain is hell. Though they speak of men being killed and destroyed in Gehenna, none of them speak of men being tormented there.

"Now, some 8 million children die every year before the age of five. Most of these children, and their parents, by want of geography, believe in gods other than the Christian god. Depending on how literally people take the bible, these children will burn in hell for an eternity."


Luke 18:15-17

[15] People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. [16] But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. [17] I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

He states the Kingdom of God belongs to little children, not that they will burn in hell for eternity. These are your words not His.

"An all-powerful and all knowing deity has created them in predominantly non-Christian countries like India, or in isolated tribes throughout South America, where they may never be exposed to Christianity. Their geographical isolation, coupled with the desires of the Christian God means that through no fault of their own, they will be tortured for eternity for failing to reconcile original sin."

If you are as well versed as you profess to be then you would know that God's law is written within our hearts.

I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33b-34

Romans 2:14-16
New Living Translation (NLT)
14 Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. 16 And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.

The rest of your post is your opinion only and a complete contradiction to the Gospels and the teachings of Jesus and if you want to go into further I would be more than willing but that is for another time.