re: Over Half of Democrats Don't Believe in Hell or the Devil

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Suffering is not of God, but of the Devil.

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The bible would strongly disagree with you on that.

Sodom and Gamorrah- He burned the place to the ground and then turned lots wife to salt.

The Flood- how do you think all the people not on the ark felt?

Then there's Job....which is it's whole own fricked up thing.

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an action is moral if it promotes the general welfare or minimizes unnecessary suffering, or both.

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That's like, just your opinion, man (to quote The Dude).

Who are you to say that someone else's different opinion of what is moral is wrong?

John Wayne Gacy had no moral problem with torturing and killing young men for his own amusement. Who are you to say he was wrong?

And what basis do you have to say someone else "should" do anything?

what % of Republicans love their neighbors?
woke means compassionate and empathetic.

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I don't believe in either and I'm not a groomer and I'm voting RDS.

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His campaign is soulless so that fits!

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Squirrelmeister

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How do you define what is "evil" if there is no objective moral standard?

Do you think it's evil for the government to punish law-breakers? If so, why? Do you think there should be no consequences for society if laws are broken? If you think there should be consequences, how do you determine what is the right consequence? Who has the authority to define law and enforce it from your perspective, and why is it not evil for governing authorities to do things (like punish law-breakers) differently than a civilian (assuming you see a distinction between the two)?

I ask these questions because it seems there is a general double standard that flows from not having an objective moral standard as found in God. First, there is the rejection of objective morality, and then there comes statements of "objective" evil and goodness that should not exist due to the first statement.

There is another double standard, in that we generally recognize the rights of government to create and uphold/enforce laws differently than what the common person can do. For instance, if someone steals, we typically support the government (police) to arrest that person, put them on trial, and then put them in jail with due process. However, we don't typically support a common citizen being judge, jury, and executioner when they feel wronged by kidnapping someone indefinitely who has wronged them in some way. We recognize the difference in authority, yet we don't recognize the difference between the creator of the universe and His creations.

We act as if God is "evil" to end the lives of those very creatures that He gave life to in the first place, as if He doesn't have any authority over us to do with us as He pleases. We act as if God owes us complete autonomy to go along with life, health, happiness, and prosperity. Where do you get that God owes us anything at all?

I wonder if we can take our phones

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I’m not trying to be controversial or agree, but even I find it hard to believe there is something special when little kids get abused & killed daily on this earth.

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In trying to figure this out, it sounds like you emphasize with the group who doesn't believe in God.

But I think the point the OP is making, is well over half (up to almost two thirds) believe in God and a Heaven, but DON'T believe in Hell or the Devil.

Per the poll, 20% of Dems believe in God but not the Devil, and almost 10% believe in Heaven but not Hell.
That last number is concerning, because they think there's a Heaven, and everyone goes regardless of actions in life.
That's a lack of consequences.

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How about just letting kids be kids? Why does belief in Hell or whatever need to be a part of it?

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It doesn't really matter why. That is the way it is set up.

The church is corrupted. Same thing happened hundreds of years before Jesus and God’s punishment was to give the Israelites up to the Chaldeans (Babylonians), modern day Muslims.