Richard Swinburne - What Would God’s Judgment be Like?

What happens in God's judgment? If God really exists, and the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are in any way true, what are the scriptural descriptions of God's judgment? How long does it take? When will it occur? Does God do it all? Are discussions permitted, second chances given? Should we fear God's judgment?



Richard Swinburne is a Fellow of the British Academy. He is Emeritus Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at the University of Oxford.


Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[jamesconner]

I don't understand why they continue to interview Richard Swinburne. His logic is so convoluted and he speaks in double talk. It is painful to see him squirm to justify his flawed belief.

[davidcasagrande]

If this GOD you believe in is-- ALL KNOWING ALL PERFECT-- then we are-- Exactly -- what we are supposed to be . To judge us for being exactly what we are created to be is like taking a pot, filling it with all the ingredients for chicken soup, and then damning it for tasting like chicken soup.

[indricotherium]

"The fires of hell are only a metaphor". They don't feel like that when images of hell are planted by swivel-eyed vicars into the consciousnesses of children. They terrify.

[anotherhenchman]

I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a universe governed by this dude’s idea of God.

[polarisnorth]

How does this guy know the keys to God's mind while no one else on the planet does?

[patbrennan]

I'm happy to report that the question is what WOULD god do? and not what WILL god do? I don't understand why we are still stuck with 1st century thinking in the 21st century. We know the earth is round now, well, 'most of us anyway'.

[sensereference]

Swinburne doesn't really acknowledge the very valid point that circumstance plays a large role in shaping character. His example of a soviet prison guard "choosing" to be evil and going to hell ignores the fact that most people that "choose" to be good have simply never been tested in that way. Swinburne has spent his life sheltered in the halls of academia, so it's not like he gets credit for not succumbing to the culture of evil and brutality that those guards were surrounded by. Also, it could be argued that G-d already imposed a character on that prison guard by placing him in a place and time that would foster the development of his worst qualities. If that same guard was born into a loving household in a culture that valued human life and compassion, then we have no good reason to believe that they would have developed the same evil character.

[Graybeard_]

This discussion doesn't take into account mental illness, victims of long term mental and physical abuse. It utilizes examples that are black and white and assumes the person can see clear choices and has time to objectively examine all the possible choices. This is so narrowly focused, it is rendered not very useful. Life is messy. Most people have past experiences that influence our responses, often steering us in ways we might not choose had our previous life experiences been different. Life is not linear in this sense. Sometimes we make choices based on what we think is best only to learn later that it wasn't. We have good days and bad days, good years and bad years, years where we grow, others where we drift and perhaps a few where we fall back. This has always been one of my biggest criticisms of organized religion. They always strip away the messiness of life and try to reform it in a simple black and white, straight forward perspective. It's not.

[TheUltimateSeeds]

Swinburne is boxing with the shadows in Plato's cave. Like most humans he has no idea that he is sleepwalking through life.

[oskarngo]

How can you analyze God’s behavior when you haven’t even established his existence yet?

I guess they are assigning God whatever features they want!

Ridiculous !

[ChuckBrowntheClown]

God has already provided that hope through Jesus Christ and his death and Resurrection by his blood.

[callistomoon]

What this man says must be dismissed for the simple reason that human beings have no free will.

[tashriquekarriem]

God does not present you with challenges beyond which he thinks you cannot overcome.

[Apoplectic_Spock]

This is quite literally the most insufferable rubbish I've had to endure thus far all week. A terrible guest to be sure.

[thekman]

We will judge ourselves. I've listened to hundreds of near death testimonies. The dominating consensus is that we evaluate our entire lives in the presence of other advanced beings. If this makes you WHY!! Do you want to see millions of people who believe differently than you wind up in a hell?

[syz]

When there is no evidence of existence of God, what is the point of asking this question?

[PAULSWorld]

God's don't judge. Gods only exist in the endless fantasies of the human mind.

[One_In_Training]

It would be infinitely more valuable for Closer To Truth to bring in Buddhist scholars instead, to tickle their tastebuds for 'religious debate' (although Buddhism is poorly described by the Western epithet of 'religion'). If you want to have a conversation about the nature of consciousness and of ulimate reality, as seen from a non-materialist viewpoint - please bring in the experts of an ideology that literally wrote the book on these topics 2.5 millenia ago.

The proper balance to a viewpoint on consciousness/free-will/self etc. would be lent by Eastern philosophy which pretty much exclusively revolves around these themes, and has been unbelievaly informative to moden day ways of thinking.

Having an Abrahamic religious view on this debate is utterly futile, since these are not concepts that it is equipped to deal with. It would be like bringing in a Euclidean-geometry teacher to teach a class on Calculus.

[sseoen.gssaikone]

This guy has no idea what he is talking about regarding buddhism

[raulcheva]

I lost that world view at 7, right after I was removed from catholic school terror tales.
Now I'm a good person with no guilt, nor fear.