# Hell -- hot or cold? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 13, 2017, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020 "2017-01-13T09:51:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bertzpoet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@bertzpoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bertzpoet)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/1 "2017-01-13T09:51:16Z")
In Dante’s epic poem, The Inferno, there were nine circles with various horrible punishments. The final circle had sinners embedded in a frozen icy lake. Those who committed more severe sin were deeper within the ice. Judas Iscariot was in the deepest layer. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/2 "2017-01-13T10:10:38Z")
Can you link to the column? I tried to search for it, but I couldn’t find it. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/3 "2017-01-13T10:42:09Z")
Possibly this Staff Report? [Who invented Hell?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1853/who-invented-hell) ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/4 "2017-01-13T22:20:53Z")
If the temperature of Hell is proportional to the number of souls it consumes … then we can certainly say Hell is getting hotter … and over these past few centuries we’re looking at an exponential increase in temperature with all the heathens and what-nots croaking … I’d say anything frozen in Hell quickly thawed around the time television became widespread … the internet has set it to boiling … with such sin upon the land, a snowball has no chance … and I do mean a probability of zero … ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/5 "2017-01-13T22:26:13Z")
I have heard that ‘outer darkness’ is cold, by comparison Hell is a vacation spot and a act of divine mercy. From revelations regarding Matt 8:12, 22:13, 25:30. Possible that Dante just lumped them all together as they are the negative sorts of afterlife stuff. (for those who are interested, outer darkness has been revealed to be a universe that the victim is placed in with nothing in it - yes it is cold) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/6 "2017-01-13T22:33:14Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > (for those who are interested, outer darkness has been revealed to be a universe that the victim is placed in with nothing in it - yes it is cold) Revealed where? By whom? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/7 "2017-01-13T22:33:27Z")
Hell froze over in 1994 when the Eagles reunited. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/8 "2017-01-13T22:35:18Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > for those who are interested, outer darkness has been revealed to be a universe that the victim is placed in with nothing in it - yes it is cold 1.) Revealed by who? 2.) “Hot” and “cold” are measures of the kinetic energy of matter. An empty universe would have no temperature. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/9 "2017-01-13T22:36:35Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Hell froze over in 1994 when the Eagles reunited. Hey, literally went there and got the t-shirt! ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/10 "2017-01-16T18:53:57Z")
Is it just me, or are the immortal hell worms more frightening than the eternal hell fire? ::shudder:: ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/11 "2017-01-16T19:04:32Z")
> [@Karen\_Lingel](#): > > Is it just me, or are the immortal hell worms more frightening than the eternal hell fire? ::shudder:: Don’t worry, they are being driven into extinction. (I don’t remember where I read it, but some speculate that the biblical worm that “dieth not” was [the guinea worm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis). I’m guessing you wouldn’t be [pro-wormist](http://www.deadlysins.com/guinea-worm/).) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/12 "2017-01-16T19:31:02Z")
There is the classic answer to the question “[is hell exothermic or endothermic?](http://www.alphadictionary.com/fun/hell.html)” ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/13 "2017-01-16T21:26:02Z")
In a similar vein, there is the classic physics proof that [heaven is hotter than hell](https://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/hell.htm). ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/14 "2017-01-17T00:58:03Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Revealed where? By whom? Probably revealed by the internet, the modern equivalent of the Pythian Oracle at Delphi (and just as untrustworthy.) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/15 "2017-01-17T01:03:43Z")
A very belated correction necessary to this column: The reference to worms that will not die and fire that will not be quenched is in fact from the Old Testament, specifically, Isaiah 66:24. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/16 "2017-01-17T02:09:58Z")
But the passage is also present in the New Testament, Mark 9:44, Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. So the column is perfectly correct. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/17 "2017-01-17T05:09:37Z")
In Dante, Hell has different flavors for different sinners, but the very lowest part, where the traitors go (not just political traitors, but all kinds), is a frozen lake. It’s made of Satan’s tears (he’s in it up to his waist), and it’s kept cold by the wind of Satan’s wings as he continually beats them in a vain attempt to escape, not understanding that it’s his efforts to fly away that are imprisoning him. (Yes, I know the thermodynamics are wrong; the middle ages didn’t know diddly-squat about thermodynamics.) Most of the traitors are in the ice, but the worst of all, Cassius, Brutus, and Judas, are being used by Satan as everlasting Slim Jims. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/18 "2017-01-17T13:24:14Z")
It’s clear why Dante selected Judas as one of the three for Satan to munch on but I wondered about Brutus and Cassius, whether this reflected a particular veneration for Julius Caesar on Dante’s part or he was merely echoing something traditional. After a little googling I found [this page](http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/inf3402.html) which, given its UT provenance, I assume is accurate. > [@](#): > > Brutus and Cassius, stuffed feet first in the jaws of Lucifer’s black and whitish-yellow faces respectively, are punished in this lowest region for their assassination of Julius Caesar (44 B.C.E.), the founder of the Roman Empire that Dante viewed as an essential part of God’s plan for human happiness. I thought that interesting. I haven’t read Dante’s great work since I was in my youth, I must get back to it (and this time with a well-annotated edition.) BTW there’s an absolutely marvelous depiction of this scene in the 1980s Thames TV and NHK Japan co-production of Una Stravaganza dei Medici. The singing is simply heavenly too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/19 "2017-01-17T14:46:42Z")
The bit about the temperature of Heaven is flawed, since it neglects the effects of albedo. For any given light input, one can produce a suitably-comfortable temperature just by setting the albedo sufficiently high, and the albedo of Heaven is universally regarded as high. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020/20 "2017-01-17T15:00:46Z")
aldiboronti: > [@](#): > > But the passage is also present in the New Testament, Mark 9:44, Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. So the column is perfectly correct. I guess so. I imagine Mark must have himself been quoting Isaiah. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-hot-or-cold/777020.md?page=2)