Heaven vs. Hell, Forgiveness vs. Justice

In my post, The False Illusion of Free Will, I talked about the concept of free will in Christianity, more from a fundamentalist perspective, and how it was a horrible illusion. The can not truly be any free will, any free choice to accept or reject god, if the threat of hell is hanging over our heads as the consequence of rejecting Christianity.

It’s a false illusion of a choice, how does it make god any better than an abusive spouse? God can not possibly be a loving and just god, if you believe god is like that, that he would send people to hell not just for what they have done wrong to other people in their lifetime, but also because they chose to reject Christianity for whatever reason they chose to do so.

In that post, I put up a disclaimer that I was talking about the concept of god strictly from a fundamentalist Christian perspective and that some more liberal Christians, especially Christian universalists, who believe that god’s grace covers all wrongdoing, and that everyone is going to Heaven, do not even believe that hell is a literal place, it simply doesn’t exist to them.

To me, however, such a viewpoint also raises quite a bit of questions about the just and loving attributes of god. At least in the fundamentalist perspective of god, there is a sense of eternal reward and punishment. Although people do go to hell simply for not believing in Christianity, they also go to hell as punishment for wrongdoing, for what they have done to other people in their lifetime.

I can see how this view would appeal to some people, it gives them closure, and it gives them hope that people will receive their just dues for what they have done in this life in the afterlife, whether they are rewarded or punished.

 I think it’s one of the biggest aspects of religion that really appeals to people, and there have been times in the past where I have wished it was true myself, but reality sets in. It seems strange to me that someone could believe in a just, merciful god when they look at the suffering in this world, much of it happening to people who didn’t do anything to deserve it.

If you take the perspective within Christianity that there is no hell at all, to me, all sense of final justice is gone. Is it fair to let someone who has committed horrible crimes against other people and has went unpunished in this life receive no punishment in the next life?