Talk:Responding to Sam Burke's Argument That Christianity Entails Anti-Natalism

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Given that[edit]

Most of 'this sort of doctrine' condemn most people to hell, most of them are unlikely to have to endure more than '15 minutes in a slightly warm room every few centuries' (as them running Hell cannot afford to pay that much for the power needed, and they are in dispute with (a large number of) energy providers over costs and quantities).

And what is the likelihood of God escaping to hell every so often to hide from the God-botherers? Anna Livia (talk) 17:06, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

That phenomenon where children hate their parents so much that they deliberately mold themselves into the opposite of what their parents are and stand for[edit]

In the section of this article entitled "Secondly, He Is Assuming That Parents Have No More Say in The Eternal Destiny of their Children Than Birthing Them.", I have recently added the following note:

In many cases, children of evangelists/fundamentalists will end up becoming atheists precisely because their parents were strict and controlling to the point of being (borderline) abusive (not to mention being excruciatingly bigoted and overall unpleasant), creating a powerful incentive for the children to virulently reject and oppose everything their parents stood for. Children who are raised by more reasonable Christian parents who emphasize the loving, warm aspects of God's stated personality and Christianity's lessons on compassion, empathy, and charity, as well as encouraging them to form their own relationship with God and think for themselves, are more likely to stay Christian throughout their lives.[citation needed]

Initially, I had the "creating a powerful incentive for the children to virulently reject and oppose everything their parents stood for" bit hyperlink to the Backfire effect page, but upon looking at that article, it actually isn’t the effect I'm thinking of. I've searched the entire Psychology category and I couldn't find an article describing this phenomenon… so, what is the name of the situation where a person despises their parent(s) so thoroughly and absolutely (usually due to abuse, [perceived] hypocrisy, criminal activity, and/or other relationship-killing factors that don't come to mind right now) that the person deliberately adopts behaviors, ideals, political affiliations, etc. that are the exact opposite of the hated parent(s) in as many ways as possible? (Examples of this would be an abused child going to extreme lengths not to abuse their own children, the child of an obnoxious (or worse) [religious] fundamentalist becoming an atheist (or vice versa), the child of someone on the far left or far right (and incidentally a terrorist) going to the opposite end of the political spectrum, and so on.) I really want to link to that, and it's driving me nuts that I don't know the formal name! --Luigifan18 (talk) 04:04, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

Bad arguments against annihilationism[edit]

I removed this paragraph, as I believe it to be entirely wrong:

However, the main alternatives – annihilationism and universalism – are minority positions that are widely regarded as highly heretical, and are contradicted by the Nicene Creed as well as by numerous Bible verses such as Matthew 13:42, Revelation 20:15, Revelation 21:8, and Mark 9:43. These views are probably products of cognitive dissonance among Christians who are uncomfortable with the less savory aspects of their religion, which is undoubtedly the same motivation behind the Protestant idea of the "age of accountability", and Christians' near-universal rejection of the concept of infant damnation, which any even remotely unbiased reading of the Bible suggests.

Other than the fact that these are minority positions, the rest is not true at all. Many mainstream Christian denominations do not consider ECT as a central part of their doctrine, and there exists room for belief in annihilationism or universalism. Indeed, many influential theologians, even in the early church, taught universalism, including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa. Neither the Nicene Creed nor the cited verses contradict annihiliationism at all (some even seem to support it), and this section also ignores other verses that 'support' annihilationism or universalism (Romans 14:11, Romans 11:32, 1 Timothy 4:10; 1 John 2:2).

Many Christians believe in annihilationism or universalism because they believe ECT is contrary to the nature of God, not because they are "probably products of cognitive dissonance among Christians who are uncomfortable with the less savory aspects of their religion". YXTQWFclimbTheStairs 22:27, 8 April 2023 (UTC)