Christians are worse than Nazis
That’s all I said, and lo! I get complaints about it in my student evaluations! Who could be offended at that? Apparently many students at Southern Methodist University.
Seriously, though, there was an argument, modeled after the article by David Lewis and Philip Kitcher (see selection from Harper’s here.) I think the offhand version of the argument I rather flippantly posed in class was “At least the Nazi’s only thought the Jews should burn for a few minutes. Christians think they should burn for eternity.” Ok, neither subtle nor particularly smooth. But I’ve always believed that those who believe in damnation (which, of course, is not all Christians by a long shot) should belly up to the bar and face the troubling consequences of the following syllogism: 1. If you believe an all good being does something, you believe that thing should be done. 2. Brimstone christians believe God, an all good being, sends non-believers (such as yours truly) to hell for eternal hotness. Therefore… you get the idea…