What is Hell?

E

euphrosene

Delusions of Divinity?
Registered Senior Member
Did a swift search and cannot find one on 'hell', so I thought I'd start one.

Is hell really 'other people'?

It was someone in another thread mentioning wallowing in mediocrity till heaven or bliss beckoned (I'm badly paraphrasing, sorry). Sounds like a partial description of hell to me.

Hell to me is the seeming imbalances in the world.
Hell is petty-minded bureaucrats.
Hell is trying to level everyone 'down'.

Actually I have a long list of hellish items but in a nutshell, Wilde*, or whoever said it, was right - hell is other people.

Divine paradox really, since we are supposed to love everyone.

Do atheists have a 'hell'?

*It was Sartre
 
'Hell is the suffering of no longer being able to love' to quote Dostoyevsky. I believe in Hell but not in any material sense...that being that some people go to Hell when they die. For me, Heaven/Hell is on earth and at any given point in one's life and is in relation to the spiritual life a human has. If we feel bitterness or hold lack of appreciation for the world as we sense it (our environment) it is the work of something we as humans have decided to name hell. Paradoxically, to be happy and respect to world we find ourselves in, is the work of the (also concieved) idea of Heaven. I'm not an atheist but essentially the words Hell & Heaven are exactly that - words.
 
Kendall said:
Its hot in hell!
Click to expand...
Sure is!

I consider Hell to be the state of misery that some people seem to live in. It's like they've been placed into some kind of inner "realm" of suffering that causes them to have a very pessemistic outlook on themselves, people, and life in general. Hell is the state of intense suffering, combined with hopelessness and an unwillingness to believe that one's problems can, or should, be fixed.
 
I don't believe in a concious and sentient afterlife, but if I did it would still be nothing like the common perceptions of them are. I truly do not believe that it would "look" this way, and "feel" that way. Simply put, you are dead, you do not have eyes to see with or an entire nervous system to feel with. Nor could you hear, smell, etc. In my opinion this is indisputable because it is an absolute fact that the body is dead/rotting/destroyed; no longer yours. I cite every dead body as proof.

It is through this course of logic I have come to reason that were one sencient and aware in the afterlife it would not have the vain, artificial trivialities of being really hot or cold, stabbed a million times, or hearing screaming, or seeing the devil. I simply think that hell would be the unfortunate case of knowing that you are dead, or perhaps not knowing that you are dead when you are.
 
Hell is the inability to satisfy one's desires - so the whole material creation is esentially hellish to a greater or lesser extent - but when it gets totally ridiculous something is designated as hell - that said there are certain situations (like animals in slaughter houses) on this earth that fit the bill as well as atmospheres (hellish planets) dedicated to such an outlook
 
Hell is relative.


whatever you hate and fear most is there, X infinity, for ever.



and its also really fuckin hot
 
Hell is when you are not in harmony with your environment and yourself, which essentially is the same thing.
 
Hell was made up so that people can feel "someone bad" will be punished, especially if he wasn't caught and punished in his lifetime.
 
Can we get an admin to move this semantical slop to the Religion forum??
 
Redefine91 said:
whatever you hate and fear most is there, X infinity, for ever.
Click to expand...

What if someone hates and fears Jesus?
Will jesus be there?
I am sure the devil hates and fears jesus, God, etc, more than anything, so the devil's punishment would be lighter, even though the devil is the most horrible - the whole hell thing is not so simple.

And yes, please move this one to relig when someone has a sec.

Edit - I think this has less to do with semantics than most philosophical discussions - it is more about perceived information and/or lack of it.
 
hell doesnt exist, as heaven does not exist, and life is just an illusion too. Life is like this dream that has no end and no beginning. In fact I doubt anything exists, existed, and will exist. There is no world, no void, there is no nothingness. In fact I dont exist.
 
Actually from what I head from mortals, they say hell is this hot place and its red and all, so I guess its like a sauna with red light inside for more comfort.
 
If you want a biblical view-point of hell then ill try to tell it as the bible does. First of all hell was not created for mans disobidence to God but for the devil's and hes angel's rebellion against God in Heaven when lucifer decided to dis-obey God and even said in hes heart that "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God"

The bible doesent give much detail's as to the fall but it talks about how lucifer forsoke his wisdom for his beauty. They were cast out of Heaven and then the devil decieved man inspite of being kicked out of paradise and then man become by nature "sinful". Its our fallen nature inherited from Adam, and now the devil is pretty much at work in the world i reckon, trying to lead people astray from God and keep those people already blinded, still blinded.

The bible even calls him the god (small g) of this world

2Co:4:4
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

There is a hell descibed in the bible as a place of darkness and even says those angels that left their proper dwelling place He is keeping in hell in darkness untill the day of judgement.

Then on judgement day hell delievers those who are lost and died and everyone is judged according to what was recorded of our lives here on earth. The main get outta jail free card as such would be in accepting Christ, then ur covered from facing your sins without Christ and anyone's name not found in the Lamb's Book of Life is cast into the lake of fire (which is the second death) and then strangely the lake of fire is eternity rather than hell as hell and death are thrown into the lake of fire also.

Sorry for being very preachy but thats a rough account of a biblical viewpoint of hell. I personal believe in the bible but admit that this earth seems almost a half-way house between Heaven and Hell where we can experience the powers of darkness in our life and the powers of Christ

But if you want my adivce hell aint gonna be a rock concert with ozzy osbourne rocking on, but try and get some reservations where the pavement is pure gold and peace passes understanding.
 
glaucon said:
Can we get an admin to move this semantical slop to the Religion forum??
Click to expand...

You may have a point, but it was certainly not my intention.

As I stated, hell to me is 'other people' (ie what they do). It is of course a state of mind, as others have pointed out, and therefore should fit into a philosophical board.

Presumably, hell to an atheist is having everything turned into something religious :rolleyes:
 
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