While I don't pretend that God speaks to me much more or clearer than
to John or the average extropian, I don't believe that He ever
"endorsed" revenge or that He "invented hell" as an actual place filled
with sinners (this is an article of faith). Rather, today these ideas
are only known to be endorsed by fundamentalist Christian denominations.
Today, more often than not, Christian demoninations do not accept the
mostly Old Testament view that God is a God of revenge and punishment.
Rather, He is a God of love and forgiveness (and always has been).
Also, most believe that God (or his Prophets) used "hell" as a device
to scare immature, semi-civilized peasants living 2000 years ago into
behaving morally. While the threat of "hell" may have worked for those
peasants (Lawrence Kohlberg defines this as the "Punishment Avoidance
stage of moral development," today it works mostly on toddlers.
Like any idea (or technology), I believe His words have been perverted
by people for (dare I say) evil or other ends having nothing to do with
Him or His Word.
Mark Miloscia miloscia@sprintmail.com