The Atheist Blogger

As an atheist I get told “You are going to Hell” quite often, whether it be from a person I know or in an anonymous email through this blog. I get quite offended by this which many might consider odd seeing as I believe that “Hell” doesn’t exist. My reasoning for my offense is quite simple though, and I suspect many atheists feel the same way about things like this.

If we go by most religious beliefs, Hell is a place where sinners are sent if they do not repent. A lot of religions believe that a murderer can get into Heaven if they repent their sins before they die, or sacrifice themselves to save another. In short, there are quite a few “get out clauses” that one can consider. My “crime” though, isn’t murder, nor is it rape or thieving. An atheist’s crime is simply thinking, or reasoning. So by this definition, I am offended that someone would believe that a murderer, rapist, or thief who has said they are sorry for their crimes would get into Heaven, whilst a person who has done nothing but think would go to Hell.

Conversely, if we take the religious belief that Hell is a place that all sinners go to regardless of whether they repent or not, I am still offended. It seems that whilst a god may or may not have given us free will (depending on what you believe), we do have it. Therefore it seems ever so slightly unfair that a person should be sent to Hell for using a mental ability that doesn’t cause harm to anyone else. By this definition, I am offended that anyone (gods included) would consider murder an equal crime to using free will.

As I have said, I do not believe Hell exists, but it can be assumed that anyone telling me I am “going to Hell” believes that it does. Therefore if they believe that I am going to Hell, they must also believe that I deserve it, since their beliefs are based on religion which claims to be the truth, and to question the truth would be a crime equal to my own. By this definition, I am offended that someone would believe that I actually deserve such a punishment for using my own questioning abilities.

Continuing this line of argument, we get to the believers who say that God doesn’t want us to go to Hell because he loves us. They claim that Hell is only for those who don’t repent, but this entire argument is based on their own questioning of scripture. To appear more neutral in the eyes of an ever-growing secular world, they have questioned their own interpretation of scripture, resulting in the conclusion that a loving God would rather have people in Heaven that Hell, and that some scripture shouldn’t be taken literally. The only difference between us is that I have concluded that the scripture is hypocritical, and they have concluded that the original interpretation is wrong. By this definition, I am offended that others would claim their own questioning isn’t a crime whilst my own is, based solely on the outcome of said questioning.

There are a lot of reasons why atheists should be offended when told they are hell-bound. Ist doesn’t matter if you personally don’t believe in the place, but that someone does and thinks that blind faith is the only way to get there. It’s not like atheists hate the idea of god, or that if faced with such a being after death would give him the finger. Surely any being who created free will would be more impressed by an honest skeptic than an unquestioning dogmatist?