Why Atheists Go to Hell

If an atheist made it to heaven, he would want to be conscious. Some say that people aren’t really conscious in Heaven. They say that only the soul or spirit goes up, and that we really won’t be aware of where or what we are. As far as the atheist can see, that would mean we’re as good as dead, which can’t possibly be the case.

If an atheist made it to heaven conscious, he would want to have free will. Without free will, God could indeed make us act (and even think) perfectly and without sin, but we wouldn’t be us. We would be in terrible pain if we could not control the movement of our limbs or the thoughts in our head. We must therefore have free will.

If an atheist made it to heaven conscious and with free will, he would want his reasoning faculties intact. Without that, he would be incomplete, he would be someone else, someone who could do all kind of crazy, superstitious, nonsensical things. The idea of Heaven as a place without the light of Reason is absurd.

If an atheist made it to heaven conscious, with free will, and with the faculty of reason intact, he would commit the same freaking sins on earth as on heaven. He would doubt and disbelieve in many of the commands and instructions of God. The atheist would still tell white lies, get angry from time to time, and some may even participate in homosexual activities. The atheist would still be himself: created sinful and commanded to be perfect.

That’s why atheists go to hell. Because they mess it up.

Now, what do Christians do when they go to Heaven?

Taking Apart the Soul

Religious people insist that we have souls. For example, Rabbi Wolpe, when he looks into the eyes of another human being, can’t help but conclude that the person he is looking at is more than just a collection of atoms. He insists that there must be something immaterial about us. Whatever the “soul” means to you, it is clearly something that goes beyond the material, something that we have that other things like chairs and trees don’t.

This question of the soul really came to my attention after I watched Never Let Me Go, a very somber movie based on an Ishiguro novel about human beings who were made to be organ donors. A central theme, of course, is on the question of whether such cloned humans have souls.

Suppose I had a atom/molecule printer, and I “scanned” and “printed” you exactly, molecule by molecule, atom by atom. I would be reconstructing your material existence, and only that. Having no supernatural powers of my own, I could not possibly breath a soul into such a clone of you.

Yet, if we ever interacted with such a clone, how could we possibly tell the difference? How could we deny that his/her ability to think, to reason, to love, to feel pain and sorrow, to erupt in joy, to cry, to laugh, to form bonds, to live a fun and exciting life–all of this is merely a result of a “collection of atoms”?

However, we are just atoms. There’s no evidence that there’s anything spirit or force that exists independently of the body (something that we have that other objects don’t). And that’s okay.

We don’t need special supernatural, supermaterial properties to have value. A clone is just as spiritless as all of us, but he/she is just as human, and just as worthy of respect and dignity.

Einstein says it very nicely.

The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion. Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seems to me to be empty and devoid of meaning.