Thanks for all the thoughts. Yes, you're right about Christianity. I had in the back of my head the extremist Puritanism ("everyone deserves to be damned") that is the religious underpinning of so much of American secular culture (and that I am so utterly exhausted by living with).
More generally, what I was aiming at and failed utterly to express (will edit) is the idea that someone who doesn't repent--that even one person--could justly deserve an eternity of damnation, torment, separation from God, etc. because they didn't learn enough to repent in that short lifetime. For example, that if they'd lived another ten years or met a different person at a different moment, they might have seen they should repent, but they didn't, so they get hell for eternity. I'm sure a theological response to that is that God is omniscient and will account for all those variables, but I'm talking about how that translates into how mere humans regard/treat each other, which, as Jesus observed, should not really be wielding judgment as if it were God's.
I love that scene between Londo and G'Kar so much, and basically their whole arcs and the arc of their relationship. One thing I really admire about JMS as a writer is his ability and drive to deeply sympathize with (empathize with? characterize?) views he doesn't hold and experiences he hasn't had. For example, as you say, he's an atheist, but he can write religious faith with such insight and sincerity. His dialogue can be clunky. His walk-on parts can be cardboard (so much so I privately call all such characters "JMS thugs"), but I love him as a writer because he gets dialogism, the art and the value of writing different people as different and understanding and valuing their difference.
Re. Shives' video, to be honest I haven't seen it in a couple years--it's just stuck in my mind--so I don't remember how much he focuses on the Nazis vs. other war crimes. I do recommend the video, though. While I didn't agree with all of it, it was fun and very thoughtfully put together. I agree DS9 did a great job presenting fascism (as did B5, for that matter, with a kind of different feel).
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More generally, what I was aiming at and failed utterly to express (will edit) is the idea that someone who doesn't repent--that even one person--could justly deserve an eternity of damnation, torment, separation from God, etc. because they didn't learn enough to repent in that short lifetime. For example, that if they'd lived another ten years or met a different person at a different moment, they might have seen they should repent, but they didn't, so they get hell for eternity. I'm sure a theological response to that is that God is omniscient and will account for all those variables, but I'm talking about how that translates into how mere humans regard/treat each other, which, as Jesus observed, should not really be wielding judgment as if it were God's.
I love that scene between Londo and G'Kar so much, and basically their whole arcs and the arc of their relationship. One thing I really admire about JMS as a writer is his ability and drive to deeply sympathize with (empathize with? characterize?) views he doesn't hold and experiences he hasn't had. For example, as you say, he's an atheist, but he can write religious faith with such insight and sincerity. His dialogue can be clunky. His walk-on parts can be cardboard (so much so I privately call all such characters "JMS thugs"), but I love him as a writer because he gets dialogism, the art and the value of writing different people as different and understanding and valuing their difference.
Re. Shives' video, to be honest I haven't seen it in a couple years--it's just stuck in my mind--so I don't remember how much he focuses on the Nazis vs. other war crimes. I do recommend the video, though. While I didn't agree with all of it, it was fun and very thoughtfully put together. I agree DS9 did a great job presenting fascism (as did B5, for that matter, with a kind of different feel).