It's about Hell. Why the religious right likes Trump.

[Girard442]

Imagine that some years after the end of World War II, you had had an encounter with a still-living Hitler. (This couldn't happen now. Hitler would have been 100 years old in 1988.) You decide that the man had been insufficiently punished for his crimes and so you decide to kidnap him and torture him for the rest of his life. Let's assume that you somehow have the expertise to inflict continuous excruciating pain on him without actually shortening his life.

It would seem to me, that most people, even if they started to do such a horrible thing, would soon be overcome by the screams of agony and the constant pleas for mercy and would say to themselves, enough, even if it is Hitler.

Now think about the Christian doctrine of Hell. What the most hard-edged Christian beliefs say about Hell is that it is unending eternal torment inflicted on those who do not accept Christ as their personal saviour. Not just for evil dictators who inflict agony and death on millions of innocent people, but for all those are unbelievers or who aren't "born again". And not just for a day or a month, or a lifetime, but forever.

A lot of people have problems with this and the more liberal denominations have managed to rationalize or de-emphasize the idea of Hell in one way or another whereas the sects most closely associated with the religious right tend to embrace it. If you Google the various denomination's writings on Hell, you can see exactly what I mean. I'll avoid linking to specific examples lest someone think I'm cherry-picking.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that the theology of the religious right directly appeals to people who want and need to see cruel vengeance wreaked on anyone who they think has done them wrong. In other words, haters. It's not hard to see how someone like Donald Trump would appeal to people like that.

[Sculpin Beauregard]

1. The religious right

is a superstitious death cult that would drag civilzation back to the middle ages. They are exactly the flip side of the coin of ISIS, if not in exact deed, then definitely in ideological extremism. Free of civilizing constraints, I have no doubt they would behave like ISIS.

[trotsky]

2. Back in the old days, I used to debate fundies on message boards.

I used to attack on that angle, asking them to think about hell. I'd ask if they were in heaven, and knew a loved one was suffering in hell, wouldn't they feel sad about that? How could heaven be enjoyable if you knew people you loved were being tortured?

I stopped asking those questions once I encountered answers like, "In heaven I will have a perfect understanding of God's will, and no, their torture won't bother me, it instead will please me as it pleases God."

Too fucking scary.

[TlalocW]

5. I've used that argument

As well as just a general one that you can't call their god loving and just if part of his schtick is eternal torment for a finite crime. Half of the people I argue with get pissed at me for that, and the other half try to rationalize it like the ones you describe, and then they get pissed off when I call them out on rationalizing eternal torment, telling them you're a better person than that because you wouldn't wish eternal torment on me (usually already established in the argument). That makes you better than your god, etc.

TlalocW

[gopiscrap]

3. Exactly

also there is direct correlation with education and adherence to a fundie theology. Most dumb fucks go with the fundie theology

[vlyons]

4. It just shows how far a-field the RW christian cult has strayed

from the compassionate teachings of Jesus, assuming Jesus was even a historical figure and not a composite. The RW Christian Cult, and it is a cult, got kidnapped by prosperity Christianity aka the love of money. In that cult, God proves how good a Christian you are by blessing you with prosperity. So poor people are therefore immoral and sinful, as proved by God not blessing them with prosperity.

As a Buddhist, my take on Hell is that we are all already in Hell. It's called "Samsara," or the realms of suffering. Suffering that we bring upon ourselves through the 3 poisons of ignorance, greed, and hatred. These negative emotions and our constant desires for self-satisfactions keep us locked in samsara. Not matter what desires we are able to achieve, they are ultimately impermanent. So then we search to fulfill the next desire, and the next and the next etc. There is a way out of samsara, and it starts by being a kind person and working for the benefit of others. In other words, practicing compassion, generosity, patience, tolerance, ethics -- exactly the stuff that Jesus taught. So I tell my RW bible thumpers, to stop waving your Bible in the air to prove what a good Christian you are. And instead actually read the red letter verses in the New Testament (what Jesus is reputed to have actually said) and do what Jesus says to do. Feed the poor, heal the sick, practice peace, and love thy neighbor.

BTW: Some Buddhist traditions also have hell. A burning Hell and a Freezing Hell. A few Buddhist traditions talk about 18 hells. These are scarey stories to enforce upon little children the traditional social ethics of no killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, harsh abusive speech, etc. But once children reach an age of reasoning, they should be taught that taboo actions tend to have bad outcomes of unhappiness and suffering for themselves, their families, and others. So it is in everyone's self interest to stay within the social ethical codes and norms.