# Is Hell Hot Or Cold? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 30, 2021, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351 "2021-06-30T18:39:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/1 "2021-06-30T18:39:45Z")
Strictly theologically speaking, is hell hot or cold? I know when I was in RC grade school, they used to say the heat of hell was just a metaphor. We got punished there, cut off from God. And that basically is what that meant. I’ve also heard some people say heaven and hell are just a ‘state’. Anyways, as I once read in a book on philosophy, both assertions are wrong. If heaven/hell really exist, they must be a place. And places have space and dimensions. And therefore they would have to have things like temperature too. This is a theological question as I said. But atheists and agnostics are invited in the conversation too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/2 "2021-06-30T18:42:16Z")
False choice. It’s Hell. It’s going to be both. Also, wet & dry. …without relief. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/3 "2021-06-30T18:52:19Z")
Hell is hot but heaven is [hotter](https://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/hell.htm). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/4 "2021-06-30T18:57:30Z")
Both, at least according to Dante. The Bible mostly mention heat, however. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/5 "2021-06-30T19:01:50Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > But atheists and agnostics are invited in the conversation too. Well obviously. We’re the ones with a compelling personal interest in the answer, right? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/6 "2021-06-30T19:02:53Z")
Read _Inferno_ — you get the full tour. Not sure how much of it might be based on the Bible as a primary source. But, it doesn’t matter: everybody’s read that poem, so that’s how people picture Hell _now._ > [@Czarcasm](#): > > If it is in another dimension, then we don’t know what the rules are there. Still on the Dante subject, another dimension would be too good for the sinners because Hell is buried deep within the bowels of the Earth. Which does suggest a bit of surrounding heat from the earth’s core, except for the aforementioned frozen lakes and similar bits. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/7 "2021-06-30T19:09:59Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Strictly theologically speaking, is hell hot or cold? Strictly theologically speaking it depends on the theologian. Some say hell is “the absence of God”, in which case you could possibly derive its temperature by knowing whether God is hot or 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:** [June 30, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/8 "2021-06-30T19:10:45Z")
If it is in another dimension, then we don’t know what the rules are there. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/9 "2021-06-30T19:16:57Z")
Does it matter? Do we get to take our bodies with us? I’m not sure my soul has the capacity to feel hot or cold. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/10 "2021-06-30T19:25:20Z")
I read the scientific answer to this many years ago. There are several versions of this essay being circulated, so I’ve chosen to give the line to the Snopes version, because they provide so much background and source material about the author. Click here: [Is Hell Endothermic or Exothermic?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hell-endothermic-exothermic/) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/11 "2021-06-30T19:48:36Z")
hell can’t be cold, because if it was, I would’ve gotten to date that cute redhead in high school, according to her criteria. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/12 "2021-06-30T19:57:07Z")
Perhaps she lost your contact information? ---
**Author:** ![Kzbre5m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kzbre5m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kzbre5m)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/13 "2021-06-30T20:04:31Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > It’s Hell. It’s going to be both. Once I was working in a chilly air conditioned building, at a very sunny window. I had the sensation of shivering and sweating at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Sponge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dark_sponge/32/121_2.png) [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/14 "2021-06-30T20:13:17Z")
In the story Jesus tells about hell an occupant describes it as “agony in flame.” The story also makes it clear the person suffering is both conscious and able to think/reason. Interestingly, the person never claims they are innocent or the punishment is unjust. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/15 "2021-06-30T21:48:19Z")
My 89 yr old Aunt always told us “you can’t take it with you, because it will burn if you do”. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/16 "2021-06-30T21:51:02Z")
“Hell is other people.” ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/17 "2021-06-30T22:04:58Z")
I almost quoted that same link, but it annoyed me too much that the version of the legend they gave _didn’t actually answer the question_. ---
**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:** [June 30, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/18 "2021-06-30T22:11:27Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Anyways, as I once read in a book on philosophy, both assertions are wrong. If heaven/hell really exist, they must be a place. And places have space and dimensions. And therefore they would have to have things like temperature too. What a peculiar assertion. Happiness surely exists, does it not? Would one say that if happiness exists, it must be a place? Or that happiness must have a temperature? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/19 "2021-06-30T22:19:41Z")
> **[Pinckney, MI 10-Day Weather Forecast - The Weather Channel | Weather.com](https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/fb2bc4083a67b0f1f0378f44424093187e1092040680bb0ce18577453068fcde)** > > Be prepared with the most accurate 10-day forecast for Pinckney, MI with highs, lows, chance of precipitation from The Weather Channel and Weather.com ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351/20 "2021-06-30T22:27:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Happiness surely exists, does it not? Would one say that if happiness exists, it must be a place? Or that happiness must have a temperature? Absolute or relative happiness? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hell-hot-or-cold/945351.md?page=2)