The main thing... is that people choose to go [to Hell].
We can do a lot of damage in a short time. ...
I’ll sidestep the tangential (albeit immensely important) issue of abortion except to acknowledge you are against abortion and I go down on record as pro-choice.
You lead me to think about three very complex and fundamental issues:
1. The purpose of postmortem punishment.
2. The appropriateness of its scale viz a viz the sins which lead to it.
3. Our obligations to God for the penance by-proxy of the Crucifixion.
First, I’ll admit I can only conceive of the rationale for any punishment in earthly terms. To wit: “punishment” in this world is intended either to remedy some wrong (paying a fine, repairing damages, serving an injured party), as a purely punitive measure of justice (you hurt someone so it is only fair that you suffer in-kind), or as a deterrent or corrective against bad behavior. I cannot think of any others, but please let me know if any come to mind. It is easy to see the deterrence in damnation – its deterrent purpose is explicit in Scripture and in popular dogma. Damnation’s role as a punitive sentence is also fairly obvious. However, I personally abhor punitive punishment for punishment’s own sake. This is not to say when I am wronged I can’t help a desire to know the one who has wronged me is somehow made to suffer as I have, but it neither necessarily remedies my injury nor necessarily prevents the same harm from the same party in the future. In any case, I consider my animal instinct to vengeance one of the uglier aspects of my personality and I contend that any benevolent creator deity would be immune to such petty needs. I assume you feel differently. If so, please explain.
In terms of scale of just punishment, first let me acknowledge the wide range of perspectives on what is meant by punishment in the afterlife. For simplicity’s sake, let’s allow a postmortem judgment that eventually results in eternal consignment to a lake of fire, and anyone who does not meet the criteria (forget for the moment their specifics) cannot escape such judgment. You mention Mao and Hitler as examples of humans worthy of punishment in the afterlife. Fair enough. Where is the fair justice of Mao suffering 46 million years, or even 46 million lifetimes of torture if, after that, he is still to suffer an eternity in Hell? Full disclosure, I am definitely on the list of people who would have met with Hitler’s “Final Solution.” It’s easy for me to say Hitler was horrible and should suffer forever and ever and ever. But, thinking about it seriously for a moment, I do not see how I or my deceased relatives or their memories are served by subjecting Hitler and his cadre to 6 million lifetimes of torture, much less eternity. To be honest, I find such wonton excess horrifying. And I flatter myself it is one happy thing that differentiates me from people like him. If the rules stipulate eternal damnation for the Holocaust, I would plead with God and Jesus on Hitler’s behalf for mercy. At the very least, limiting his punishment to a mere 6 million lifetimes. But, for Pete’s sake, not all of the rest of eternity.
And, while the many horrible things you list are, admittedly, just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to humanity’s record of cruelty, at least under the above-described regime, there is no scale of appropriateness according to the sinner’s sins. If God is real, then I admit I am a sinner. I think I’ve already sinned today. I’m almost sure I shall do so before I turn in tonight. But I do not commit genocide. I do not steal – at least not knowingly. And I combat injustice when and wherever I see it and I can. I am not afraid of Hell. But if I get there and I see Hitler at my elbow and my “reward” is every bit as long and punishing as his, I will be perplexed. And I will see injustice in it.
Finally, I come to the issue of penance by proxy. I’ll set aside all the usual skeptical canards about the Crucifixion. For the purposes of this discussion, I’ll accept that God is omnipotent and that he had only one human child and that was Jesus Christ. Also that God, knowing all, has always known all the sins I will commit during my lifetime. If my sins are truly mine, if I am to be at all judged by the sins I commit by my own free will, then he can’t absolve me of my responsibility for them against my will. This is not a case of failed logic like, “Is God so mighty he can create a rock so big even he can’t lift it?” The guilt and responsibility of the wrongs I do are mine and I bear that burden. Period. Forgetting for the moment I had no conscious input into a state execution in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. If God came to me today and said, “Here’s my boy, Jesus. You know all that wicked stuff you’ve done? He’s going to be tortured to death and then I’ll forgive you for all of that.”
I know EXACTLY what my response would be (is), which is, “WHOA! PLEASE don’t. I mean, I’m bad, but there’s no reason anybody needs to be executed for it. Thank him for me. Very generous that he would even think of doing something so selfless. But tell him ‘absolutely not,’ and wish him well for me.”
As I understand, God’s reply, in essence, is, “Sorry. No. You get to choose, because you have free will, but my kid’s still going to die. And unless you accept responsibility for that, you’ll spend the rest of time in a lake of fire.”
Naturally, correct me if I’ve gotten that very wrong. But, if I am not, my final response is still: OK.