re question about hell in article may athos rutgers edu wytten umn cs cs umn edu dale wyttenbach writes what is the basis of the idea of hell being a place of eternal suffering if it is biblical please reference here s my train of thought if god is using the earth to manufacture heavenly beings then it is logical that there would be a certain yield and a certain amount of waste the yield goes to heaven and the waste is burned destroyed in hell why is it necessary to punish the waste rather than just destroy it luke talks about the rich man and lazarus matthew talks about the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels revelations and reference this fire as the place where unbelievers are thrown matthew talks about being thrown into the eternal fire and the fire of hell it seems quite clear that there is this place where a fire burns forever from the revelations passages it is clear that the devil and his angels will be tormented there forever from the matthew passage it doesn t seem abundantly clear whether the punishment of unbelievers is everlasting in the sense of final or in the sense of continual from dale s question i come away with the suggestion that hell if it were short might be an acceptable alternative to living forever with the source of life peace and joy i e the unbeliever ceases to exist whereas if punishment goes on continually then one should have a greater motivation to avoid it it definately seems to me that hell is something we want to avoid regardless of its exact nature there seem to be two main questions in dale s thought what is god s main plan on earth why is continual punishment a necessary part of hell as opposed to simply destroying completely those who refuse god i believe that god s main plan is to have a genuine relationship with people the nature of hell and the reasons for its nature seem a lot more difficult to ascertain it does seem clear that hell is something to avoid at a minimum hell is the state one is in when one has nothing to do with god in the bible i am not aware of any discussion about the specifics of hell beyond the general of hot unpleasant and torment for instance it is not discussed how if at all the rich man can continually stay in the fire and still feel discomfort or pain or whether there is some point at which the pain sensing ability is burned up if you can forgive the graphicalness if you throw a physical body into a fire assuming the person starts out alive at some fairly quick point the nerves are destroyed and pain is no longer sensed it is not stated what occurs when at the judgement the unbelievers who are already physically dead are cast into hell i e they no longer have a physical body so they can t feel physical pain what could be sensed continually is that those in hell are to be forever without god the lazarus rich man parable is told with the idea of having the listener think in physical terms in order to get the point that some people won t listen to god even after he rises from the dead the point of the parable is to reach the hard hearted here who are not listening to the fact of the resurrection nor the gospel about jesus christ it seems reasonable to also draw from the parable that hell is not even remotely pleasant peter white disclaimer none of what is written necessarily reflects a view of my company phil i want to know christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in niv his sufferings becoming like him in his death
