Hell is the Absence of God

[West]

That's the name of a story I just read by Ted Chiang. I thought David and the readers of the various religious philosophy threads here might find it interesting and/or amusing if they haven't read it before.

[coffeecrazy1]

Well, no matter how many people hang on to the Middle Ages notion of Hell being fire, brimstone, red devil w/horns, pitchfork, etc...Hell being the absence of God is actually the way the Bible describes it. It was not until Dante Aligheri came along(among others) that Hell began being a barbecue pit for the damned.

[Quaalude]

No Holy Wars, no killing for Jesus, no burning witches, no suicide bombers for Allah, no justification for the subjugation of women, etc... beautiful.

I think John Lennon said it nicely:

[ QUOTE ]

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...


[/ QUOTE ]

Now that I've quoted John Lennon, I feel like I need to take a shower... yeesh. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

-Travas

[WWJFergusonD?]

Lots of times, I think Sartre was right "on the money" when he wrote, "Hell is other people." (From _No Exit_)

[Bodhi]

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