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Original poster

What is Hell?

43 replies

skewiff · 13/02/2012 21:54

I'm interested in whether people think anything does actually exist after death.

Do you believe in Hell - this question is for Christians, I suppose - if you do believe in Hell, what is Hell like?

A hindu said to me the other day that Hell was life, here, on Earth.

OP posts:
IWishIKnew · 13/02/2012 22:28

I think that there is no "burning for all eternity" hell. I think hell is here on earth too.

I believe in re-incarnation. I think we keep coming back to work on our personality and beliefs til we get things right.

I could be 100% wrong of course Confused Grin

ValarMorghulis · 13/02/2012 22:29

Primark on the first saturday of a school holiday

IWishIKnew · 13/02/2012 23:07

If there is a hell though it'll be endlessly picking damp towels off the floor and hanging them on the bloody towel rail. Grrrrr

DerbysKangaskhan · 14/02/2012 00:27

Judaism doesn't really have a concept of Hell, though it does have the concept of the soul being cleansed in a painful matter. It isn't eternal (most sources say it lasts at most a year). What happens is also up to debate, but one belief on this that really strikes me as an idea of Hell is watching your life back with the out-of-body clarity to see exactly what you did wrong, how it hurt others, how we didn't reach our potential and seeing what our potential could have been. The idea of having to watch my mistakes over again, with even more clarity than hindsight, is certainly encouragement for teshuvah (this clears our mistakes as if they didn't happen -- some compare it to editing the tape when done properly).

AgnesBligg · 14/02/2012 00:37

Hell exists here and now within ourselves. War and anger, starvation, depression, poverty and decline. Allowing this to exist in our world creates Hell for all.

TheOldestCat · 14/02/2012 00:40

Other people?

Livinginoz · 14/02/2012 01:20

As a Christian I believe that hell is being out of God's presence, for ever.

AnnieOnAMapleLeaf · 14/02/2012 01:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

HerRoyalNotness · 14/02/2012 02:03

It is just the common grave. There is no fiery torment, it is simply nothingness.

DavidaCottonmouth · 14/02/2012 05:46

Hell is eternal separation from God.

It means you cease to exist.

DutchOma · 14/02/2012 09:08

Hell is where you put yourself if you separate yourself from God. You have to be hell bent to get there, you don't have to.

AMumInScotland · 14/02/2012 09:31

I don't believe in the existence of Hell - what purpose would eternal punishment serve? The threat of punishment may have its uses, to jolt people into thinking about their actions, though it's not a technique I approve of, myself. But actual eternal punishment just for not believing in God (or the right version of God) would be pointless and excessive.

I believe there will be "something" after this universe ceases to exist, and that we have an option on getting included in that. But for those who don't make that choice, death will just be death, and the consciousness which was "them" will just be gone, except in other people's memories of them.

HouseOfGrittyBits · 14/02/2012 09:45

It's a Very Bad naughty step from whence there is no return.

Oh and Katy from I Can Cook's 'singing' is played on a loop there.

frasersmummy · 14/02/2012 09:57

I was told this by a minister at a school service at approx age 11 and its stuck with me ever since.

Hell is just like heaven.. there are tables laden with beautiful food in both places. In both place the cutlery is taped to 10 feet long wooden poles which you have to hold right at the end to eat with

The people in heaven are all well fed and happy .. the people in hell are starving

whats the difference..???? the people in heaven have learned that if they feed their neighbour, their neighbour will feed them in return

I have passed this theory on to my son

headinhands · 14/02/2012 10:25

Frasers So we can ascertain who will go to the biblical heaven or hell by how selfless/selfish they are while they are on earth? What about selfless Muslims? Or god forbid selfish Christians? And what about the fact that no one is always selfish or selfless?

frasersmummy · 14/02/2012 11:10

I realise its a very simplistic view....I heard it when i was 11 for goodness sake .. i realise it probs leaves a lot of questions/ theories without answers

It just struck a cord with me.. to me it just means if you try to live by the principles of your faith then you will be rewarded ..if you dont you wont

I dont have the answers to what constitutes living by the pricniples of your faith the question was what is hell???

and this is the image that was implanted in my brain just before I went to secondary school

madhairday · 14/02/2012 17:45

I think along the same lines as Davida and AMIS - eternal separation from God being ceasing to exist. I don't know though. I don't believe in burning for eternity. Just doesn't make any sense. I believe everyone is given the choice though to believe.

headinhands · 14/02/2012 18:47

Thing about belief though is you can't believe through an act of will. At some point you feel something spontaneous? You don't choose to believe something. For example, if you're a Christian why don't you believe in Allah? My dad has been to church on and off since he was a child. One of his best friends is a full on walking the walk Christian and has had countless discussions with him but my dad says he has just never felt anything, not once, nada. How can god send him to hell if he just doesn't feel anything to even get him going? I do not wish to align myself to a god who saw it that way. Imagine someone you never met decided you should be tortured for eternity for you not believing they exist when they genuinely had never felt anything to suggest you did. How is he culpable? and for anyone to believe this to be his ultimate fate despite said god being a god of pure love? You think?

HouseOfGrittyBits · 14/02/2012 18:55

"I don't believe in burning for eternity. Just doesn't make any sense."

If you're talking about making sense though, using the threat of burning in hell to control the masses makes a lot of sense. Especially in an age when most people weren't really in a position to disagree.

DavidaCottonmouth · 14/02/2012 19:58

The notion of burning was from a parable, not literal burning.

Death was also likened to what happened to unclean Jews when they died - they were thrown on a fire in Gehanna, outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Jesus came to rescue people from this kind of fate.

HouseOfGrittyBits · 14/02/2012 20:14

Neither parable burning nor literal burning sounds particularly pleasant though. Not really something to aspire to.

DavidaCottonmouth · 14/02/2012 20:37

Aspiring to them wasn't the point. Quite the opposite, in fact.

frasersmummy · 14/02/2012 21:11

headinhands

I guess I am a christain because i was brought up as one. ie I was christened and went to sunday school and my parents taught me to pray using the lords prayer
Allah is arabic for God so I guess technically I do believe in Allah

i think you do choose to belief especially as the years go on and life throws problems and challenges at you .. you can choose to say a merciful god woudl never make me suffer like this. Or you can choose to say god says this is the way its meant to be.

LaurieFairyCake · 14/02/2012 21:17

Hell is not a punishment for those in it (as a concept) as it means separation from god - and if you already don't believe then it's no different than everyday life.

I don't believe in life after death as a Christian or heaven as people understand it, being with others that sort of thing - I hope there' s a kind of joining an ecstatic feeling?

But mostly I just believe you're dead - its just a hope for me.

Himalaya · 14/02/2012 21:26

Frasersmummy - I can see how you could maybe chose to continue to believe in the face of trials, as you describe, but you can't really chose to believe in something in the first place (as in the case of Headinhands' dad etc...) if you don't believe in it.

Have never understood why believing in the face of all evidence would be so important to god, and the thing that determines whether we go to heaven or hell (whatever they might be like).

On the otherhand it is obvious why belief in the face of evidence might be a defining feature of a religionin the competition between ideas.