Quote:
Originally Posted by infinitethoughts  1. How do you give your soul to something that is Infinite (Definition of god from a book called the bible.)?
2. What are the exact reasons for this eternal banishment to Hell? |
While not Christian, I may be able to answer these questions from within a Christian perspective (allthough my answer will not agree with all denominations).
By Infinite, all that is meant is that God is all things, and includes all things.
Your question seems to be, if God is infinite, and includes all things, how can you give your soul to something which already has it.
The answer is the purpose of God -- the mechanism of true love. God desires true love from the created, and to get it, true love is based on free choice, or free will. When you "give" your soul to God, you're not giving it your soul, it already has it, what you are actually doing is giving it true, freely chosen, love.
Or, you've found a conundrum...good for you...
Anyway, which leads to your second question. God does not damn people to hell, people damn themselves to hell. Hell is the one place where God has set aside to not contain itself. Yes, it is infinite, and this is a conundrum, but that which is infinite can define a sector where it is not by withdrawling, and still retain its infinite nature because it could choose to reclaim this "place". Now, if you do not truly love God, then God, being all-good, does not want to force you to be with it, and thus, simply answers your request by honoring your free will and your free choice. Thus, to hell you go.
Now, here you got a *lot* of variations, but the general conscensus is that there's a being called by many names whom God cast from heaven (i.e., the place where God is to where god is not -- hell ), and this being made Hell a bad, firey, tortuous place because he hates God and the people he loves so much.
So yeah, there's one answer of many. Not my thing -- but that's the "most clever" and "soundest" response I've found in the theological literature.