Hate Mail/NormalBobSmith.com

Bob,
I've seen in your hate mail section that you are very open to questions, and I appreciate that. You said in your last email that there was a lack to very basic questions about the Bible. Would you share those questions with me? I'm sure you will since you're very adamant about people thinking through what they believe. I do have another question about your beliefs... despite you being forthright with your unbelief in God, are you generally a person who thinks that each person is entitled to his/her own beliefs?

Thank you again for the continuing discourse.
Kirk

Kirk,
Of course people are entitled to their own beliefs! In fact, we really have no choice in that. People will have their own beliefs whether it's permitted or not. Everyone has their own beliefs, and there isn't anything anyone can do to change that fact of life.

As for unanswered questions. Here's one:
How can there be a heaven when there's a hell? How can anybody have any sort of paradise while their fellow humans suffer eternally? I sometimes have trouble sleeping at night when I think about one of those soldiers in Iraq having his head sawed off. It keeps me up at night, the ugly thought of someone else suffering to that extent. How could anybody be so heartless as to sit atop a throne in paradise and not dwell on those who are tortured for not believing the bible? It's horrible to think any Christian could imagine forgetting their loved ones here on earth so that they can enjoy their eternal paradise in peace.

How horrible heaven must be, huh?
Bob
kirk

An interesting question. Have you gotten the tried and true "we're all accountable for our eternal destination answer"? lol, I'm sure you have. I actually read your version of tracts, and you do say yourself that we need to take responsibility for our own actions, own up to them and be men, right? We are accountable to something...whether it be ourselves and our conduct, or our God by both our conduct and decisions. The problem that I see with the type of reasoning is this:

There was a man put to death yesterday by lethal injection in Texas. He was known as the Railroad Killer and was convicted of murdering one woman, and had links to other murders during the same time as well. Before this man died yesterday, and be honest, were you sick with saddness over the possibility over his death...and even the possibility that he may suffer once the injection was given?

I do admit that I don't know you or your stance on the death penalty. I don't know if you were one of the people lobbying for and extension of the sentence. I do believe that there is something inside of us all that says, "There should be consequences for our actions, and someone to be accountable to. This man killed, and due to the law of the country we live in he was deserving of the sentence that was brought upon him.".

I wonder what you felt toward this situation. Did you feel badly, take action and work for this man's freedom...or were you thinking the same as most, even if it was subconsciously, that his actions brought him to the place he was in.

Bob, we as Christians aren't excited about the death of those around us. That's the reason that we choose to speak to everyone everywhere... the thing that gets your blood flowing so heatedly. We choose to tell people about
what Jesus did for us because it's not God's desire for men to choose death.

He desires life and He's provided the way for that life. But just as there is a law in the United States that tells us if we murder we may be sentenced to death, there is also the law of God that tells us if we don't take the opportunity to accept the truth of His love and accept His forgiveness we will be sentenced as well. Because we are all indeed accountable.

A bit lengthy, I know. I hope that you may be able to see my reasoning, even if you don't agree with it. If you have questions about it, feel free to email me.
Kirk

Ah but Kirk, here is a problem with your reasoning. Not believing in the Bible is not equivalent to a murderer who kills women and gets the death penalty. A child who is raised in a Muslim home, grows up to be Muslim and dies a Muslim, never having killed anybody, does not deserve to be tortured for the rest of eternity. A child who was raised in the Waco Texas Compound, who's been taught that David Koresh is God and dies a man still believing does not deserve eternal suffering. A logical, reasoning atheist like myself, who is accountable for his actions on a daily basis, who reads the bible and sees all of its flaws and misinformation does not deserve eternal suffering for the act of thinking reasonably. Living in New York, looking around at the hundreds of different people with different beliefs, one can not help but realize that these people do not deserve eternal torture for believing the wrong book. They are only human. No?

You can try to convince me that you believe I am not accountable for my actions, or those other people know deep inside that Christianity is the true way, and choose to hate and reject your God, but even that does not deserve eternal suffering. I am even prepared to argue that a man who kills somebody doesn't deserve eternal suffering either.

It is the eternal suffering that keeps me up at night. It is the thought of one having his head sawed off for the length of eternity that would ruin my peace, wether it was a family member, a stranger, or a murderer. Eternal torture, human beings choking on their own blood, women and men screaming in agony for mercy is the scenario that would ruin heaven for me. I am not heartless enough to sit back and say "They deserve what they get. They were not accountable for their sins, praying the prayer I prayed that got me this golden throne in paradise."
Look around you Kirk. You really see believing in the bible an act worthy of eternal paradise while Gandhi burns in hell?

And to think that you can imagine such a paradise is disturbing.
Answer me this, logically, because it is logical thinking that has destined me to hell.
Thank you.
Bob