Tolerance of hell

[Malacandra]

@Anaamika

If there is a Hell, and you’re supposed to suffer, it would be easy enough to burn you until all your skin peeled off and then regrow your skin, repeat ad nauseum. But I don’t think a real Hell would only use fire. How about torture, over and over again - each time your “body” is regenerated and then they do it again? And if it’s actually a fitting Hell, then you pay for your sins. So if you have the (relatively) mild sin of littering, you spend the rest of your punishment cleaning up after other people, and the garbage never stops and the blisters on your hands never heal.

Take a peek at Inferno, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, for an entertaining science-fiction take on this (owing plenty to Dante, natch).

[Bible_man]

@Mustafa Al-Habib

Assuming that Hell is tortuously hot, and you were doomed to spend an eternity there, wouldn’t you just get used to it after a while like being in a tub of really hot water?

The hot topic of hell, as set forth in the Bible, was hashed out in another recent thread (ie, Do Christians believe that non-Christians are going to hell?) Be forewarned that the thread drifted off to other Bible issues such as salvation, how various denominations interpret the same verses differently (hermaneutics), the authority of Scripture, the accuracy of the Bible, resolving Biblical paradoxes (ie, apparent inconsistencies), and also the human factors regarding copying ranslating, etc.
But regarding hell, the main Bible verse regarding the fate of those who end up there is Matthew10:28 in which Jesus states, “…but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” This is a direct reference to the Lake of Fire which is also mentioned in Rev20:14-15 and it is termed “the second death”. These indicate that the Final Judgement and entering hell will result in eternal destruction, not a state of eternal, conscious, physical torment.

[Contrapuntal]

@begbert2

If you presume God to have free will and be a perfect being, then such beings are possible. If you presume him to also be all-powerful, presumably he could have made us similarly perfect, with free will intact.

Especially since he exists unconstrained by time, and is able to see the future and the past as well as the present. Giving humans free will, and constructing a world in which they always make the right choice, would be child’s play for such a god.

[OliverTwistofLime]

Since the latest discovery about cosmic rays which trace the origin of the universe,the universe is thought to be flat and for reasons over my head will pro ably cease to exist in less than 20 billion years from now.

If you are a believer the existence of hell probably would cease to exist. I believe the people “down” there build tolerance to the heat and to find pleasure talking to so many of the folks we know who are convinced are in hell.

d

[Mister_Rik]

When Jerry Garcia died, he woke up and found himself on a stage on which a number of instruments were set up. A door offstage opened and in walked Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, John Lennon, Otis Redding and Buddy Holly.

Each musician picked up his favorite instrument and began tuning up.

Jerry walked up to Jimi and said, “Man, so this is what heaven is like.”

Jimi looked at him and said, “Heaven? You think this is heaven?”

At that moment, Karen Carpenter walked in, took her seat behind the drums, and called out, “Okay guys, ‘Close to You.’ One, two, three, four!”