WHY I'M CATHOLIC - Ch. 2
BEYOND THE END
All of us experience pain. But at the root of our ability to endure pain is the belief that it is not permanent: that its intensity will be dulled with time, or if nothing else, that death will bring release. However, Eternal Damnation has no such hope. We are told that it is a living death, where one is always dying but never dies.
As already noted, a popular argument against such a fate is “What sort of God …?” The question is understandable. Both inexplicable pain and the idea of eternal damnation have driven many to atheism or to embrace cyclical religious forms where at least the tortures are not forever.
However, whether we choose atheism, Buddhism, or a version of a loving God that does not punish, the possibility of eternal torment, at least for the Intelligent, is diminished not a wit. So let us examine it … just in case.
We start with the religions that teach it. While most religious systems hold to some version of a state of post-death torment, most do not hold to its being eternal. For most, the suffering either ends with the annihilation of the soul or a release from torment after a period of purgation.
There are only two religions of any consequence that teach the existence of a place of post-death torment to which the damned are sent forever: Christianity and Islam. Of the two we will choose to examine Christianity for the following reasons:
Christianity predates Islam and there is reason to believe that Islamic teaching, relative to eternal damnation, is derived in part from Christian teaching.
The Christian ideal of witnessing to the infidels by dying for them versus killing them demands proportionately more credence.
The claims of the founders.
Point 1: Islam arose nearly 600 years after Christianity and in a part of the world largely infected by a Christian heresy (Nestorianism).
Point 2: Christ showed us how to die for our faith. Muhammed showed us how to kill for it. It is true that Christians have killed in God’s name. However, Christianity itself teaches no such thing. Islam does. While individual Muslims may choose a spiritual interpretation of such Muhammedan directives as “slay the infidel wherever you find them” (Surah 9:5), there is no question about how Muhammed himself meant that Surah to be “interpreted”: he slew the infidels wherever he found them.
Point 3: The claims of the founders. Whereas Muhammed ― and the founders of every other major religion ― either claimed to have heard from God, saw him, or found him, they did not themselves claim to be HIM. Only ONE founder of ONE religion made that claim: Jesus Christ. And he went to his death without changing his story.