Sin is worse than hell

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Pfaffenhoffen said:
I tried to ask first.
The sentence is saying that there are 2 pains in hell:

  1. *]fire
    *]the absence of God

    Fire may be bad but it has nothing to do compared with the absence of God, which is trillions of times worse.
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  1. But I thought the those in hell choose it, ie, they reject God. As such, they wouldn’t give a hoot about God, no? Am I mistaken?:o:o:o
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
But I thought the those in hell choose it, ie, they reject God. As such, they wouldn’t give a hoot about God, no? Am I mistaken?:o:o:o
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You are mistaken. They see their repulsive grave sin on His Perfect Arm (left). They reject His Salvation, His Strong Right Arm. Hell is awareness and rejection of His Perfect Love. Many may need to overcome the aversion of ourselves and humbly accept Jesus Christ as Our Fathers Simple Plan.

your mistaken about the hoot.

peace
 
hazcompat said:
You are mistaken. They see their repulsive grave sin on His Perfect Arm (left). They reject His Salvation, His Strong Right Arm. Hell is awareness and rejection of His Perfect Love. Many may need to overcome the aversion of ourselves and humbly accept Jesus Christ as Our Fathers Simple Plan.

your mistaken about the hoot.

peace
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Wait a sec.😃

If they reject Him, they give a “negative” hoot (hey God, go away I don’t need you) but not a “positive” hoot (ie, they have rejected God completely, and couldn’t care less what He thinks–if they did, they couldn’t reject Him).

My point is God doesn’t send people to Hell–they send themselves by rejecting Him…an act of free will, infinitely sad though it obviously is.
 
fakename said:
I never knew this but I think the Summa Theologica pretty much says it and I thought I’d share it cause I don’t know if anyone else knows it.

“Fault has the nature of evil more than pain has; not only more than pain of sense…but also more than any kind of pain , thus taking pain in its most general meaning, so as to include privation of grace or glory.”
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Yes, you are reading it correctly. And it makes sense in Aquinas’ theology (really, in Catholic theology) as a whole. Of course if hell were a greater evil than sin, we would have to ask, “What was God thinking?” which many people do - and they do, because they think of hell as the greater evil. The reason for thinking that way is that hell is something we suffer, while sin is at least sometimes something we enjoy, so the self-centered view is to see hell as worse. But correctly understood, sin is worse than *any *suffering. And just punishment is actually a good.
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
If they reject Him, they give a “negative” hoot (hey God, go away I don’t need you) but not a “positive” hoot (ie, they have rejected God completely, and couldn’t care less what He thinks–if they did, they couldn’t reject Him).
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Even though they reject God, they still have to suffer His absence, which is the greatest misery there is. It doesn’t matter whether or not they “care.” You could not care that your heart was ripped out, but you would still die if your heart was ripped out. Those in hell may not “care” that they are losing God, but they will still suffer the agony of being deprived of Him.
 
Student09 said:
Even though they reject God, they still have to suffer His absence, which is the greatest misery there is. It doesn’t matter whether or not they “care.” You could not care that your heart was ripped out, but you would still die if your heart was ripped out. Those in hell may not “care” that they are losing God, but they will still suffer the agony of being deprived of Him.
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This is an absolutely brilliant explanation! Thanks so very much.🙂
 
Sin is a disordered/wrong relationship with God and possibly others. But like many other things in our lives we have the ability to change this through confession.

Hell is the permanent supernatural absence of God, an absent relationship. ie NO relationship. This is the end result of unrepentant perpetual sin at the end of our lives.
 
user "Student09":
Yes, you are reading it correctly. And it makes sense in Aquinas’ theology (really, in Catholic theology) as a whole. Of course if hell were a greater evil than sin, we would have to ask, “What was God thinking?” which many people do - and they do, because they think of hell as the greater evil. The reason for thinking that way is that hell is something we suffer, while sin is at least sometimes something we enjoy, so the self-centered view is to see hell as worse. But correctly understood, sin is worse than any suffering. And just punishment is actually a good.
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I think this attitude is from people believing that a punishment is supposed to be worse than the evil that one commits because then, it would be an incentive to not do the evil.

That’s actually in part, how I think about punishments. In this case, hell would be worse than sin. So where did I and apparently many others go wrong?
 
Jesus is chained to a pillar. Which is worse to scourge Him or go to hell?

peace
 
fakename said:
I think this attitude is from people believing that a punishment is supposed to be worse than the evil that one commits because then, it would be an incentive to not do the evil.

That’s actually in part, how I think about punishments. In this case, hell would be worse than sin. So where did I and apparently many others go wrong?
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There’s probably a more theologically intelligent and subtle way to explain this, but I’ll do my best with what I’ve got.

Sin is bad because
  1. It offends God
  2. It turns us away from God and (if mortal) destroys the divine life in us.
Hell is bad because
  1. Is causes suffering to those in hell
  2. It is separation from God
Of course, the (2) for hell is actually caused by the (2) for sin. So in this respect, sin is worse because it is the source of what is really the worst thing about hell.

With regard to (1), which is worse - offending God, or suffering? An earlier poster mentioned Jesus being tied to a pillar. I would refine the example a little and say: Jesus is tied to a pillar. You can choose to scourge him or be scourged yourself. Which do you do?

It is natural to human beings to prefer to avoid our own suffering. So, punishment that causes us suffering seems worse to us than whatever misdeeds we may do. But if we look at things from a less selfish perspective, we can see that obviously it is worse to scourge Jesus than be scourged ourselves. It is worse to offend God who is goodness itself and the source of all good. So the (1) for sin is also worse than the (1) for hell.

I hope that makes sense.
 
To: Student09

That’s an actually very lucid explanation.

Thanks 🙂
 
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