What is the point of eternal suffering?

@fmf said
My neighbours' "desire for communion with God" is satisfied by Islam, their religion. There are Hindus living down my street, originally from Bali, whose "desire for communion with God" is satisfied by their religion too.

The desire for the communion with God may feel satisfied due to ignorance or error, sure, and they will be held accountable for their own lives in a very different manner than Christians and atheists.

But it is not actually satisfied fully. This is because Islam & Hinduism do not actually possess the Gospel which saves, and we should be a light to them and encourage them toward Christianity. Our religion has provided the basis for human rights, dignity, and progress, and the continents of Europe and the Americas are what we have to show for it, and to show for its glory and the blessings that it has received.

God bless all of those people -- I pray for them, and celebrate their cultures, and I will even encourage them in their moral teachings and practices which line up with my own as signs of their rationality and the fundamental goodness injected into their traditions and even (incorrect) theologies....

God does have a plan for them, and loves them, and I hope that we generate good grace and can be an example to them.

But -- they do not have communion with God in the proper way, and what this means for them is different. I cannot speculate about it.

@fmf said
And what is that "end"?

It is the end in the sense that nothing comes after it; it is the conclusion.

@philokalia said
free will refers to our ability to choose repentance for our sins and a desire for communion with God, and our ability to deny the above.

People cannot repent to a god figure they do not believe in.

@philokalia said
It is the end in the sense that nothing comes after it; it is the conclusion.

Destruction by fire?

@philokalia said
The desire for the communion with God may feel satisfied due to ignorance or error, sure, and they will be held accountable for their own lives in a very different manner than Christians and atheists.

By "ignorance or error" you simply mean different from your beliefs - for which you can offer only your own certainty and sincerity - "faith" - and no proof as such to those you think are afflicted by "ignorance or error", is that right?

@fmf said
What is the reason that hell exists in this sense: who created it?

God is light, like a burning fire, and on the final Judgment He appears as such, and we believe that it is like a fulfilling love that burns away the purities of those who desire communion with God and who have prepared themselves for the final judgment.

To those who have rejected God, it is a burning fire of pain and rebuke.

Here is an interesting description of the process as well -- this perhaps differs a bit from other descriptions that I have shared in the past:

The iconography of the Second Coming of Christ shows what Paradise is and what Hell is.

"Please go and find the icon of the Second Coming, and you will see that around Christ are those who are in Paradise. They are in a golden light; the light surrounding them is golden. This same golden light, as it gets further away from Christ, begins to change color, and gradually, the further away it goes, it turns from gold to red; and in the red light are the damned. The saved see Christ in a golden color, and the damned also see Christ from a distance, but they see the Light of Christ as red, because for the former it is the glory of God and for the latter it is the eternal fire, outer darkness and 'the consuming fire.'"

From this point of view, therefore, we Orthodox Christians agree with the most liberal people in the world. No message can be more liberal than that of the Holy Fathers of the Church, who not only stress that, 'Son, we'll all go to the same place', as an old lady told me, but also emphasize that God loves everyone equally: the damned and the saved, the glorified and the saints, Angels and devils, good and bad, prostitutes and chaste...God loves all human beings equally, He loves everyone without distinction. From God's point of view, God saves everyone. He wants the salvation of all human beings, and he has preordained salvation for all.

How do we know this? Because even Hell is salvation (the human being is preserved) and Hell is a way of making perfect, but it is Hell and not Paradise. Because the one who is damned is incapable of progress, he is unable to accept progress towards perfection. Why? Because his conscience has been hardened, his heart has grown hard. He remains so egoistic and self-centered that his personality cannot develop from selfishness to unselfishness. Since he cannot develop anymore, he is perfected in his selfishness. Even Hell is evil for him. Although it is not punishment from God's point of view, it is punishment from the human point of view.

In other words, the man has remained uncured. Why? Because his heart needed to be cured, his heart or his nous (soul) was sick, and they did not receive treatment. But where does this treatment begin, how does it take place and how a human being secure it? In the Orthodox Christian experience, treatment begins here in this world."

http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2015/4/17/paradise-and-hell-according-to-the-orthodox-church

@fmf said
Torturing, burning, inflicting pain, keeping a victim alive or not allowing him or her to become unconscious, overseeing the torment etc. these are all actions taken by the god figure in your ideology. How can such actions be taken while having no moral purpose?

Where do you get this description?

@philokalia said
God does have a plan for them, and loves them, and I hope that we generate good grace and can be an example to them.

Does "God" have a plan to torment them - some of them, many of them, nearly all of them - in burning flames for eternity even though you say he loves them?

@fmf said
Why would Jesus oversee the administring of torture for eternity if it had no moral purpose? Does Jesus have a moral purpose in overseeing it?

Isn't the word in the passage of Revelations present?

I do not see something about oversee.

I also seem to recollect that even in the Western Christian traditions, the concept is something like Satan provides over hell.

@philokalia said
Where do you get this description?

You.

I got it from you.

You talked about the "torment in burning flames for eternity".

That means torturing/tormenting

by burning, in a way that means the flames keep going

it involves inflicting pain

if they are not destroyed by the burning flames, it entails keeping victims alive or not allowing them to become unconscious

Your religious scripture talks about God?Jesus overseeing the torment

As I say, these are all actions taken by your god figure.

How can such actions be taken while having no moral purpose?

@philokalia said
Isn't the word in the passage of Revelations present?

I do not see something about oversee.

Present but not seeing? There but looking away?

Why would Jesus do that?

@philokalia said
To those who have rejected God, it is a burning fire of pain and rebuke.

This inflicting of pain and the rebuking have no moral purpose? Are you sure?

@philokalia said
Here is an interesting description of the process as well -- this perhaps differs a bit from other descriptions that I have shared in the past:

If whoever wrote it comes here and reposts it and is willing to fight his or her corner, I will read it.

@philokalia said
But it is not actually satisfied fully. This is because Islam & Hinduism do not actually possess the Gospel which saves, and we should be a light to them and encourage them toward Christianity.

These assertions are simply narcissistic.

@philokalia said
Our religion has provided the basis for human rights, dignity, and progress, and the continents of Europe and the Americas are what we have to show for it, and to show for its glory and the blessings that it has received.

This is not proof of supernatural causality. Perhaps save this for a different thread. Your preference and admiration for the effects of Christianity on world history do not answer the question 'What is the point of eternal suffering?'