Quote Originally Posted by TamTam View Post
I don't think that there is a litteral hell for people like Adolf Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacey, etc. I think it is very possible that they could go to a "mental" hell in an after-life... a hell of their own making, one that is in their mind because of the distortions in their mind while on earth but I do not believe in eternal torture (as the Bible describes) for all eternity. My personal view is that people like those stated are above are severely mentally ill to even do the things they do and therefore, they don't even have the ability to think and reason like "normal" people do. I believe the terrible things they have done are horrid and disgusting and it doesn't make much sense to me but I do not see how anyone could be anything but completely mentally deranged to do such things in the first place. I just can't see a loving god ( or gods) eternally punishing someone who is so extremely mentally sick. Perhaps these type of people are forced to incarnation repeatedly without mental illness to have a chance to "make up for" what they did in previous lives but then again, I don't know.

I don't believe in any belief system that is based on "get even" or "suffering". I suppose this is why my beliefs are eclectic and I refuse to "belong" to any one relgion.
If an individual is "born with" a tendency toward mental illness, how come? Do you think maybe God just up and arbitrarily decides that one segment of the population shall be His "nutcases" who shall have free reign to act as predators on the remainder of society, and have no ultimate accountability before God or human society? Are you content to leave questions like this an unsolveable "mystery", and will you pick and choose delicacies from the colorful smorgiasbord of religious eclecticism, going with whatever "seems right" to you at any given moment- or wll you not rather, in humility, concede that there is greater wisdom available than your own immediate thoughts and inclinations, and having made that concession, why would you want to make it any less than your personal lifetime desideratum to align yourself with that wisdom? .....even if that wisdom accomodates suffering and finds usefulness for it as an educative tool?

ys,
bmd.