Why Would a Loving God Create Hell?

"... but we choose things that are often a detriment to ourselves for the benefit of others" Hmmm... Sounds like something Jesus would say, doesn't it? Well, if we atheists & agnostics(myself) are capable of doing good things for others and in the process sacrifice of ourselves, then are we necessarily acknowledging the existence of a higher standard(God)? No of course not! There is good reason to think that the 10 commandments were derived partly from the Code of Hammurabi. These 2 sets of laws are very similar in nature for instance. But did ol'e Hamm. get his code from the Judeo-Christian god? Nope! He got it from his own genious mind. Therefor we can confidently say that one can live according to a set of rules without requiring that our good actions are in "God's plan". What do you think?[This message has been edited by Prozacman, 11-12-2003]

If we are talking about the Judeo-christian god YHWH, I would NOT assign "loving" as one of his defining characteristics. So, of course YHWH could create HELL for those who didn't believe in him, since throughout the OT he deliberately does some nasty things to some innocent people(Job for instance). Besides, the only "Hell" in the OT that I know of is "Sheol", and I interpret that as either the grave, or a dark, dingy realm of spirits no different than the Greek Hades. I'm not aware that the ancient Jews had any concept of the after-life, until the Babylonian Exile. I think as time went on and things didn't get better for the Jews, they decided to demonize their enemies and send them to(sorry, I didn't get to finish my line of thought yesterday, I was the only person who got taken up in the Rapture).[This message has been edited by Prozacman, 11-13-2003][This message has been edited by Prozacman, 11-13-2003]

Alright, good; Then where in the Book of Job does it say or even imply that the Jews of Job's time believed in an afterlife? And by the way, I'm a fair dude, I'll look thru Job to see if I can find it, and if I do, then I'll post it! Then I will become AWARE.

Weeeelllll, aren't you proud of yourself! Hey everyone, giv'im a cookie!

Thankyou for quoting your original point because I didnot get a chance to read it.(I'm hurried for time.) Yes your ref.:Job 19:25-26 does appear to prove that Job was at least contemplating an afterlife. After reading thru Job myself(up to chapter 15), I also came to that conclusion. The proof is in the magnificent poetry of Job 14, where Job is openly questioning his God about about rising from Sheol(the grave) into another life! See 14:14 for instance. However, Job was not strictly a Jew, although he may be an ancestor of the Jews(my speculation). According to the intro. to Job and notes on pp.625-626 of my New Oxford Annotated Bible, Job was a foriegner from the land of "Uz", and the name of his god was "Eloah", not YHWH the Jewish god. But, maybe the two gods were combined at a later date when the Jews came into the land.What do you think? Eloah at the very least sounds like "Elohim" of Genesis 1. And since Job was thinking about an afterlife, it is interesting how much better he hopes it to be compared to the miserable condition he was in. He never seems to mention hell as a place of punishment. Perhaps he figured that life on earth was hell enough. What do you say?[This message has been edited by Prozacman, 11-13-2003]

As I have implied, I am only speculating about the sincretization of YHWH & Eloah by the Jews & the people who lived in proximity to them. I am studying Job & some notes & commentaries at the moment in order to gain more knowledge about thew issue.