Infinite Punishment for Finite Sins—Justice of Tyrants

How eternal punishment doesn’t fit the crime of a finite sin…or world 🌎

The war on drugs is a failure. Mandatory sentencing is a crime.

Robert J. Riley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1993 for distributing LSD and psychedelic mushrooms to other fans of the Grateful Dead. The judge in his case counted the weight of the blotter paper on which the LSD was dissolved, upping the total weight and triggering the harsh sentence. 
A George H.W. Bush appointee, the judge told Riley “Congress was keeping me from being a judge right now in your case, because they’re not letting me impose what I think would be a fair sentence.” He later called the sentence the harshest he’d ever given and said it brought him no satisfaction that a gentle person such as Mr. Riley will remain in prison the rest of his life.”

While this is just one of few travesties in the US justice system, it is literally a drop in the bucket compared to what god will do to you long after you’re dead.

Christianity’s scare-tactics are among the worlds finest—life in prison would be a cake walk for Mr Riley compared to what’s happening after he’s dead. If you don’t take the plea deal offered by Jesus the writers, eternal fire, burning in hell torment—Physical punishment. Once again, as bad as it can be sometimes, punishment and torture are against the laws of the land and the Geneva Convention. Once again the morality of mere mortals trumps that of god. Who would even perform such cruel and unusual torture on someone to the endless precipice of wishing for death during eternal life—but a god, or one of his foot soldiers?

This, from Tom Ascol of Ligoniare Ministries—

“The punishment must fit the crime. The misery and torment of hell point to the wickedness and seriousness of sin. Those who protest the biblical doctrine of hell as being excessive betray their inadequate comprehension of the sinfulness of sin. For sinners to be consigned to anything less than the horrors of eternal punishment would be a miscarriage of justice“. That my friends…is tyrannical bullshit!

Author: jimoeba

Alternatives to big box religions and dogmas

55 thoughts on “Infinite Punishment for Finite Sins—Justice of Tyrants”

  1. Tyrannical doesn’t even begin to describe it. Think of some of our “sin.” Lust, coveting, anger, etc…. Normal feelings we can all have because of how we’re made. If we have a maker, then that maker made us that way. So does the punishment fit the crime when there really wasn’t a crime to begin with? When a supposed creator makes something or someone, that creator is responsible for what is created by them. We’re doomed from the start because of a poor design, yet somehow it’s our fault?

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    1. I do think the Mormon take on that is a sign that it didn’t make sense, even to a 19th century charlatan ( although his desire for multiple wives may have been an influence) but there they say man will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam and Eve’s. Possibly the funniest irony is without the law there is no punishment. It is the knowledge of the gospel that creates sin. Your miles ahead if you never hear of Jesus.

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    1. Murderers actually get less time, most of the time too. The entire war on drugs is an epic failure anyway and it should be over. There are sites dedicated to these people and it’s heartbreaking to see. Kids in their teens and twenties making dumb choices and locked away for life is ridiculous. Nobody was injured here. Crazy

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    1. Who are you to question the wisdom of god? Funny thing about the fruit story, it wasn’t even a “sin” but disobedience. Ben was right. “God ( the writers) created the scene as a set up guaranteed to fail in an a-moral act. Sex is the other. True there are consequences, and they can be taught, but abstinence doesn’t work on people. It only makes things more intriguing when you forbid it.

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    2. You’re right, of course, Lady, Original Sin, condemning the entire human race to being born into a life of suffering for the mistake of two people who died thousands of years ago, makes no sense. I recognized that even as a kid and I asked the parish priest about that when I was, oh, 12 years old. (This fellow was genuinely a nice guy who really believed what he was teaching. Well, except for the celibacy thing — he had a live in “housekeeper” (ahem). He didn’t believe in that so much. Interestingly enough everyone knew and nobody really seemed to care…)

      He told me the story was an allegory, as was much of the Old Testament. The concept of Original Sin, he told me wasn’t that Adam and Eve screwed up. The story actually symbolized how the human race, by its nature, wanted things that it shouldn’t have, things that were bad for us. It was intended to show us that our basic human greed and lust could send us down the wrong path without the guidance of the church.

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        1. I envision a bunch of guys at a beach party watching Jesus bathing in the Sea of Galilee while tripping out:

          “Oh my God! Dude! Look! Do you see that? Jesus is walking on water!”

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          1. I think most visions were chemically aided. The food supply man! Now that we have no ergot growing in our our barley, no more visions.

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  4. Even worse is what the Catholic church taught us when I was a kid – you don’t even have to actually commit the sin to be condemned to Hell. I don’t know what the doctrine is today, but back in the 60s we were taught that just thinking of committing a sin was the same as actually doing it physically. So you could theoretically go to Hell simply for thinking about something.

    George Carlin did a whole routine about this in his standup act years ago. “… thinking of going downtown and committing a sin? Save your bus fare, you just did!”

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    1. Lol. Yes! I’m thinking of a hitchens quote about god monitoring your every move and thought—even after your dead. There’s no getting away in monotheism. He see you when your sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, be good for goodness sake.

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      1. “Religion is a totalitarian belief. It is the wish to be a slave. It is the desire that there be an unalterable, unchallengeable, tyrannical authority who can convict you of thought crime while you are asleep, who can subject you to total surveillance around the clock every waking and sleeping minute of your life, before you’re born and, even worse — and where the real fun begins — after you’re dead.

        A celestial North Korea.

        Who wants this to be true? Who but a slave desires such a ghastly fate?

        I’ve been to North Korea. It has a dead man as its president. Kim Jong-Il is only head of the party and head of the army. He’s not head of the government or the state. That office belongs to his deceased father, Kim Il-Sung.

        It’s a necrocracy, a thanatocracy. It’s one short of a trinity I might add. The son is the reincarnation of the father. It is the most revolting and utter and absolute and heartless tyranny the human species has ever evolved. But at least you can fucking die and leave North Korea!”

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            1. I love the hatless Philip Marlowe pose in the top video!
              Could one say he was the Christian Bogey man?

              Hitch has gone to The Big Sleep. Damn those cigarettes.

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            4. Out of the dark water (Doug) and into the light of fresh mountain air, where it’s no longer a panic when you left your matches behind.

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            5. Now that is very clever!
              Yes, I know the meaning of my name, but surely you must have known the meaning beforehand.
              I can’t believe you would have Googled it on the off-chance.
              Family member, friend with the same name?
              Or is it one of your other names?

              And yes, there was always the Pat-the-Pocket routine before leaving the house to check my lighter was with me!

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            6. I googled it quickly after the thought. I do enjoying learning name meanings Mine means supplanter, one that is designed to supplant or overthrow. Sounds about right (at least here)

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            7. Mine is of Scottish origin.

              Lots of dark waters up there, y’ken?
              An odd choice on the face of it considering my surname, Pearce is of Cornish descent.
              (apparently).
              My Dad’s late brother was called Douglas, so that’s where the connection is.
              I have distant cousins in the States, according to my family tree, but I forget where.

              I may have to hop off the Net for a while . A storm is closing in and we get some serious lightening up here.
              Catch you a bit later.

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  5. As you said Jim, you are indeed “miles ahead if you never hear of Jesus.” Current Catholic doctrine is that if you’ve never heard the “good word”, never been preached at, never heard of Jesus or the church, never had your children baptized (and possibly molested) by the Church, you can still be saved if you live a good life. So yeah, you’re a lot better off if you never heard of it at all. A lot of christian sects don’t believe that, though. I know some people who believe anyone who hasn’t been converted goes straight to Hell no matter what kind of life they’ve led.

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  6. If they don’t believe it it’s due to the keen ability to ignore biblical contradictions and create your own neuropathways. The art of being a true Christian.

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    1. If a woman grabs a man by the secrets, its off with her hand, if a man grabs a woman by the pussy, he gets to be president.
      Deut 25:11-12
      11: When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: 12: Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.

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      1. He murdered Ananias and his wife Sapphira for lying. But… Abraham’s wife, Sarah, lied to Yhwh, but did he execute her? No. Abraham lied to Pharaoh and to Abimelech, but did Yhwh execute him? No. Jacob lied to Isaac, but did Yhwh execute him? No. Laban lied to Jacob, but did Yhwh execute him? No. The Potifar’s wife lied, but did Yhwh execute her? No. Rahab lied to everyone in Jericho, but did Yhwh execute him? No. Saul lied to David, but did Yhwh execute him?

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        1. That’s no secrets! Good point. The only time most people notice injustice is when it happens to them. “Only through faith can a man excuse god”

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  8. Add all the lies and deceit of the government and politicians and system of justice becomes tyrannically unjust. I recall a woman who was devastated that there might not be a hell to punish all those she judged as needing to suffer. To her, hell was more important than heaven. “I created you that way so that I may burn your nasty ass for eternity. I work in mysterious ways. Deal with it, human.”

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    1. It is a driving force in evangelicalism. You’re gonna get it! Burn baby burn! I think Sam Harris has it right. When you realize how little freewill we actually possess, it’s easier to forgive, not harder. Bad luck happens, but the organisms will do what they will do. Sure we remove them from society to protect us, but neurological studies show how little choice some of these offenders actual,y have.

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  10. Simply, a sin is an act of disobedience, disobedience of God’s “will” or God’s commands. They are painted as heinous (vide the quote above) when they are not. And there is no inflation of a “sin” to such epic levels of evil, when they can be washed away by a change of heart … not a life dedicated to good works and a change of heart, but just “believe in Jesus as your Lord and savior and “all of your sins are washed away.”

    They can’s have it both ways: sins can’t be unforgivable heinous acts and simultaneously minor misdemeanors that can be waved away with a few hours of public service. Consignment to Hell is virtually the ultimate injustice, not part of a justice system, a place where Hitler is in the next grotto to someone who ate beef on Friday.

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    1. Ha! That’s funny (and sick) The ability to accept such gambits is truly a religious life form of its own. Have faith. God is in control. Complete, dominating, Kim Jung style control. God is love.

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    1. Oh it gets worse too. After the resurrection and you have a glorified perfect body with all the nerve endings and perceptions in their perfect state, beautified and immortalized in the image of god, only then does the torture begin. With fully perfected faculties in every way, eye hath not seen nor ear heard what god can do. It’s like raiders of the lost ark. “Good evening Fräulein, well now, what shall we talk about?”

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  14. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
    That’s the response of course.
    We can’t possibly understand the magnitude of God and therefore the magnitude of transgressions against god.
    When you cite divine incomprehensibility, however, you must then STFU. Immediately.
    But they always keep talking…

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    1. If jaywalking is that offensive to god, I’m not sure that’s the world I want to live in anyway. It resembles political fake-outrage. Really petty if the natural man is so offensive, it’s obvious we were then created in his image.

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  15. Was told I’d be going to Hell the other day by one of my Christian friends, neato! Voltaire has some great quotes, I like “Faith consists in believing what reason cannot”, and “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”. A very witty and smart individual.

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      1. I had an extended break away from work (four weeks). Part of that was just seeing family and friends in various places, but I also did another trip to Samoa with my girlfriend. It was a great break and now my first day back at work today. Given the nature of my blog posts, I didn’t really feel like thinking about that stuff while I was away, or blogging about it. But now I’m getting back into posting again.

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