Speculation on Hell

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For those religions (including Catholic) that accept the existence of a Hell after death, what is it like?

Is it a domain of punishment, it it a realm ruled by the Devil, is it a lonely separation from God, or is it something else?

I would assume none of us has been there, so that much of what we think would be speculation to some degree, so please feel free to speculate or quote Scripture.

Thanks for any posts, unless asking for clarification, i will just sit back and read the responses.
 
I’ve been reading a lot of books on Purgatory because I want to know more about the holy souls and how we can help them. In doing so, these books touch on Hell from the perspective of various Saints. After reading what the Saints had to say, I believe that when we die and are judged by God, we are confronted with everything we’ve ever done in our life, good and bad. When we stand in front of God, our entire soul is laid bare. We are totally and completely 100% honest about who we really are and finally see the true impact of sin in our lives.

Now, this is only my opinion so feel free to not to agree with me. When we stand in front of God during our particular judgement, I believe we will know deep down in our heart where we should be for eternity. We sentence ourselves and accept it completely, whether it be Heaven, Hell or Purgatory.

As far as what it like in Hell, I believe (again this is just my opinion) it is total abandonment and loneliness more than being on fire. After being in the presence of God and finally knowing what love and goodness truly is (ways we cannot understand while we are living), then knowing we will never feel that love again would literally drive me insane. Then on top of that, you never get to talk or interact with people for eternity…that’s pretty frightening to me.
 
Hello abucs,
Dogs are in charge of hell. For them it's heaven and for people it's hell. If we go there we take 8 hour shifts everyday with no days off doing one of several various jobs. Some of us will be assigned as ball throwers. Others will throw Frisbees. The lucky people will get to walk around picking up poop. If we break any rules we are tied down and the dogs get to come over and lick are face for a strait 24hours.
 
I think Hell is completely dark and you can’t see anything except what is torturing you (fire, demon, &c.). The damned are in a state of absolute hatred, despair, regret, and abandonment from God. Each of the damned receives different forms of punishment according to the way he sinned. The only sound you hear is the screams of torment from other damned souls, with your scream joining them. It’s an awful place.
 
brad90956 said:
I’ve been reading a lot of books on Purgatory because I want to know more about the holy souls and how we can help them. In doing so, these books touch on Hell from the perspective of various Saints. After reading what the Saints had to say, I believe that when we die and are judged by God, we are confronted with everything we’ve ever done in our life, good and bad. When we stand in front of God, our entire soul is laid bare. We are totally and completely 100% honest about who we really are and finally see the true impact of sin in our lives.

Now, this is only my opinion so feel free to not to agree with me. When we stand in front of God during our particular judgement, I believe we will know deep down in our heart where we should be for eternity. We sentence ourselves and accept it completely, whether it be Heaven, Hell or Purgatory.

As far as what it like in Hell, I believe (again this is just my opinion) it is total abandonment and loneliness more than being on fire. After being in the presence of God and finally knowing what love and goodness truly is (ways we cannot understand while we are living), then knowing we will never feel that love again would literally drive me insane. Then on top of that, you never get to talk or interact with people for eternity…that’s pretty frightening to me.
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The ideas you express here about hell, particularly those of self-sentencing and separation, are very close to Jewish views on hell.
 
superwimp said:
Hello abucs,
Code: 
Dogs are in charge of hell.  For them it's heaven and for people it's hell.  If we go there we take 8 hour shifts everyday with no days off doing one of several various jobs.  Some of us will be assigned as ball throwers.  Others will throw Frisbees.  The lucky people  will get to walk around picking up poop.  If we break any rules we are tied down and the dogs get to come over and lick are face for a strait 24hours.
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This recalls a Jewish notion that our pets may be asked to testify either for or against us in the heavenly tribunal, thus having significant (name removed by moderator)ut regarding our final destination.
 
abucs said:
For those religions (including Catholic) that accept the existence of a Hell after death, what is it like?

Is it a domain of punishment, it it a realm ruled by the Devil, is it a lonely separation from God, or is it something else?

I would assume none of us has been there, so that much of what we think would be speculation to some degree, so please feel free to speculate or quote Scripture.

Thanks for any posts, unless asking for clarification, i will just sit back and read the responses.
Click to expand...
Hell in western Christianity is often believed to be separation from God for all eternity. In eastern Christianity it is the opposite. Rather than being separated from God, sinners are in the very presence of God and his love is like fire and brimstone on a person soul. It is also closely connected with the eastern Christian concept of Theosis. In fact, it could be said a person can experience hell on earth when not in the grace of God. I don’t have a particular view on hell. All I know is that it is a state in which the soul is tormented.
 
meltzerboy said:
This recalls a Jewish notion that our pets may be asked to testify either for or against us in the heavenly tribunal, thus having significant (name removed by moderator)ut regarding our final destination.
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Meltzer, if it isn’t too much trouble, could you possibly direct me to a source that actually speaks of such a thing?

I have a few Hindu friends that would be quite intrigued by what you just said. 🙂
 
Confiteor_Deo said:
I think Hell is completely dark and you can’t see anything except what is torturing you (fire, demon, &c.). The damned are in a state of absolute hatred, despair, regret, and abandonment from God. Each of the damned receives different forms of punishment according to the way he sinned. The only sound you hear is the screams of torment from other damned souls, with your scream joining them. It’s an awful place.
Click to expand...
Don’t try to take the fire and brimstone imagery too literally. Though, this does not necessarily contradict the Catholic view of hell, theologians throughout the ages have believed hell to be more of a spiritual state of suffering rather than an actual place with fire and brimstone.
 
Not that it is Cannon or anything, but Dantes Inferno does seem to give Hell a reasonable structure. either way, I see it as a place that one can only go to by selfish motives, or rather that one sends themselves to hell.
 
Abucs wrote above:

*For those religions (including Catholic) that accept the existence of a Hell after death, what is it like? Is it a domain of punishment, it it a realm ruled by the Devil, is it a lonely separation from God, or is it something else?
*

The Baha’i view of “hell” as I understand it is that it a condition of the soul/spirit rather than a locale or place or domain. Hell is remoteness from God.

See:

bahai.org/beliefs/life-spirit/human-soul/heaven-hell

There is no ontological being such as the “Devil”. Devil is more of a symbol of the lower nature of man:

*The reality underlying this question is that the evil spirit, Satan or whatever is interpreted as evil, refers to the lower nature in man. This baser nature is symbolized in various ways.
*
(Abdu’l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 77)
 
How can I express my thoughts on this without sounding completely mental…? Okay, here goes an attempt… :rolleyes:
We are made in the image of G-d. The Scriptures speak of those who are cast into the “fire” or into “the pit”, Hell. Consider what part of our body is “fire”. Where might that be? Are we to completely separate Hell from life; because if it is completely separated from G-d, who is Life, wouldn’t it cease to even exist? I could continue with this analogy, but would rather not without any feedback. 🤷
 
thephilosopher6 said:
Don’t try to take the fire and brimstone imagery too literally. Though, this does not necessarily contradict the Catholic view of hell, theologians throughout the ages have believed hell to be more of a spiritual state of suffering rather than an actual place with fire and brimstone.
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The Catholic Encyclopedia says that the fires of Hell have been believed to be a real, material fire by the greater number of Theologians, and that Scripture & tradition provide no sufficient reason for questioning this. The fires of Hell cause the pain of sense of the damned.
 
I don’t know what hell is like. We promised that the resurrection includes the righteous and unrighteous in Daniel thus there will be some physical character to hell. Yet does it include physical suffering? If it did what is that eternal suffering to being forever separated from God? It would be paltry compared to that eternal knowledge of forever being separated from goodness by one’s own choice and righteous determination of God.
 
Confiteor_Deo said:
The Catholic Encyclopedia says that the fires of Hell have been believed to be a real, material fire by the greater number of Theologians, and that Scripture & tradition provide no sufficient reason for questioning this. The fires of Hell cause the pain of sense of the damned.
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And a great deal of theologians have thought otherwise.
 
Confiteor_Deo said:
I think Hell is completely dark and you can’t see anything except what is torturing you.
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Pope St. Gregory the Great.
“Although that fire will give no light for comfort, yet, that it may torment the more it does give light for a purpose, for by the light of its flame the wicked will see their followers whom they have drawn thither from the world.”
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St. Faustina
The fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and, despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own.
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superwimp said:
Hello abucs,
Code: 
Dogs are in charge of hell.  For them it's heaven and for people it's hell.  If we go there we take 8 hour shifts everyday with no days off doing one of several various jobs.  Some of us will be assigned as ball throwers.  Others will throw Frisbees.  The lucky people  will get to walk around picking up poop.  If we break any rules we are tied down and the dogs get to come over and lick are face for a strait 24hours.
Click to expand...
😃 Phewwww that’s a relief, licking …;… is not part of the possibilities. Probably reserved to the doomed belligerent contortionsists. I would guess fire hydrants don’t exist there either; or maybe reserved to the better(worse?) behaved. The remainder walking around with over inflated bladders.

Ok, enuffs enuff.

Funny post though.
 
Sister Lucia’s memoirs:

…we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright. The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals.
 
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