LogFAQs > #980025428

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Canonically Hell isn't even that bad - it's just a place like any other. Early Church writers and Dante are the ones most responsible for the idea that Hell is a place of physical torment. And the idea of Hell being a place of psychological torment is even newer.

The original point of Hell was that it was just a place where you would exist outside of God's grace and God's love. Which is literally the worst thing anyone can experience. Just knowing that God has stopped caring about you is supposed to be the most soul-crushing feeling ever. Like the worst sense of depression combined with feeling worthless, broken, and empty.

But it's really hard for people to process the idea of that - so if you want to use the idea of Hell to terrify people into worshiping your religion, you kind of have to make it scary in a way they can understand and actually fear. So we got fire, stabby pitchforks, and torture of all kinds.

What? Care to get passages from the bible on this?

Yeah, the idea of pitchforks, and a lot of other common tropes aren't in there, but the fire and torment most definitely is.

Revelation 14:10
that person will also drink of the wine of Gods anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb.

Revelation 14:11
the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night

Revelation 20:14
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second deaththe lake of fire.

Matthew 13:50
and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth