In their traditional exclusivist, no-second-chance forms, Christianity and Islam preach as a final destination a Hell of eternal misery for those who fail to achieve salvation. Those who prefer not to subject others to eternal misery thus have no choice but to adopt antinatalism and condemn having children as a morally wrong act since this is exposes children the risk of eternal damnation. Opposition to having children, however, conflicts with passages from the respective sacred texts of these same religions imploring believers to procreate. But if Hell exists and a person has the subjective preference to minimize the risk of people, even hypothetical ones, going to Hell, they should adopt antinatalism and also wish for others not to have children. Any believer taking action to effect this result would thereby condemn himself to Hell.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has led many, whether believers or not, to consider how widespread suffering can be reconciled with a belief in a loving God. In this article, Shaw considers the arguments advanced by people of faith to square this circle, such as the idea that the novel coronavirus has been sent by God as a punishment.
"Banished from Eden" is the story of my efforts to find religious answers to the brutal murder of my son. It's an in-depth emotional and intellectual journey from my struggles to reconcile religion with reality to my rejection of religion as an answer to anything.
On a secluded ranch deep in the rural expanse of western Texas, over five hundred people have lived for years in an environment choked by ideological indoctrination and autocratic control of access to the outside world. The blinkered worldview which ranch leaders imposed upon their subjects, and the sexual crimes which they apparently inflicted, are not--according to the owners of the ranch--merely the caprices of depraved human beings. On the contrary: they were commanded by God Himself.
