Common sense makes eternal conscious torture blasphemous when all these are considered. Since our God is rational and sensible and we should be also as his children must also be sensible and rational. Let's abandon the eternal conscious torment concept all together and take him at his word, trusting that he knows what he's talking about.
But consider this:
MORE PEOPLE LOOSE FAITH IN GOD BECAUSE OF THIS ABSURD AND BLASPHEMOUS DOGMA THAN BECAUSE OF ANY OTHER!
That is, more atheists are made over this Hell dogma than any other doctrinal flaw in all of Christendom. How do I know this? Well, just take a close look at the life of Charles Darwin. He was attending the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, pursuing a medical career from mid-October 1825. There he learned taxidermy, though he never got used to the sight of blood.
His taxidermy skills would prove invaluable on his voyage to the Galapagos Islands in 1831. He met biology majors like John Edmonstone, who discussed with him evolutionary ideas they read about from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) and Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875).
He became close friends with Robert Grant, a Scottish zoologist, who went on many walks with Darwin discussing evolution. In 1827, Darwin quit medical school. He was apparently pushed by his father to study Theology to pursue a career in the clergy, so he arranged for his son to study at Christ’s College at Cambridge. But he was not serious about it because it wasn’t his dream. He’d rather collect beetles and study specimens.
I’m just hitting the highlights, but he met Fanny Owen in the summer of 1827 and they became boyfriend and girlfriend. They broke up and he went on his famous voyage. He spent the next several years fighting illness. In 1839, Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgewood at St. Peter’s Church in Maer, Shropshire. Also in 1839 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
Emma became worried about Charles’ salvation as she saw him spending a lot of time studying transmutation instead of his Bible. In the winter of 1840, Charles Darwin was having migraines, heart pains, nausea and stomach problems. The slightest excitement made him ill, so he became somewhat of a recluse.
In December of 1839, Charles and Emma had their first child William Erasmus Darwin. In 1841, their second child Anne Elizabeth Darwin was born. Mary Eleanor Darwin was born September 23, 1842, but died on October 18. In 1848, Charles’ father Dr. Robert Darwin died, but Charles was too ill to attend his funeral. In August of that year, Charles and Emma had another son, Francis. Charles health began to worsen with bouts of depression, dizziness, twitching and seeing spots before his eyes. He feared death was imminent. All this took its toll on his biological research and writing.
Emma and Charles had another son, Leonard in January, 1850. Charles had by this time recovered from his illness, but around late June of that year his affectionate daughter Anne became ill. In 1851, Annie died and was buried at Great Malvern. Charles had cherished his beloved daughter and may have blamed God for her death.
This seems to be the turning point in his life. As the story goes, he went to his priest to find out what happened to Annie’s soul. The priest asked if she had accepted Jesus as her Savior and he said no. Then he apologetically informed Charles she’d be burning in eternal conscious torment for all eternity. That’s when it all exploded. How could a loving God do that to his beloved Annie? He quit seminary and the Church and turned his back on Jesus and his Bible.
Then he wrote his books on the ‘Origin of the Species’ and the ‘Decent of Man’.
Another son Charles Waring Darwin was born in1856. Around 1863 Charles Lyell’s book ‘Antiquity of Man’ was published, but Darwin thought it too ‘old school’ and set out to take his evolutionary theorizing a notch further. Meanwhile his health took a turn for the worse. The church was becoming more and more disturbed by Charles and his writings. So were some of his friends and his wife, who was a devout Christian.
I think Charles was too mad over the Hell doctrine to ever return to the Anglican Church of England. That’s his incentive for much of his work on evolution.
Charles Darwin died April 1882. He was honored with a State Funeral and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Hershel and Sir Isaac Newton.
(For more information on the history of Charles Darwin, visit: http://www.aboutdarwin.com/timeline/time_03.html and http://www.churchofengland.org/our-views/medical-ethics-health-social-care-policy/darwin/church.aspx)
Darwin is the ‘chief priest’ of the religion of evolution. In my view, after studying his life and works for years, he did what he did because of the eternal conscious torment in Hell Fire doctrine promulgated b the clergy. Had Darwin only known it was all a giant scam, things would not be in the mess they are in due to his work. And, no doubt, instead they would have come to faith in Jesus as their Savior through Darwin's ministry!