What is it with Hell?

[John Wayne]

Why do people always asociate Hell with fire and brimstone? Why not Ice and snow? Cold seems to me to be a lot worse than heat.

[I Have a Clever Name]

Why do people envisage God with a white whispy beard? Why do people associate Jesus with a man with perfect, gleaming white teeth coupled with undeniably handsome features?

All images fed to us at an early age. However, I seem to recollect the passages referring to hell contain a lot of fiery doom and gloom, so thats probably where the whole visualisation stems.

[IamthePope]

Why do people envisage God with a white whispy beard? Why do people associate Jesus with a man with perfect, gleaming white teeth coupled with undeniably handsome features?

All images fed to us at an early age. However, I seem to recollect the passages referring to hell contain a lot of fiery doom and gloom, so thats probably where the whole visualisation stems.

I beleive the image of God with a wispy beard comes to us via the Greeks. Note that the concept of an elderly Jesus with terrible power originated in the middle Byzantine period and as such can be seen as a continuation of the the icon worship of a Zues-like figure. Previously Christ had been portrayed as the Son with an almost Apollo-esque look to him.

[LoZz]

Why do people envisage God with a white whispy beard? Why do people associate Jesus with a man with perfect, gleaming white teeth coupled with undeniably handsome features?

All images fed to us at an early age. However, I seem to recollect the passages referring to hell contain a lot of fiery doom and gloom, so thats probably where the whole visualisation stems.

true thats why everyone thinks jesus is white, even though he if he was real and for the context of this arguement he is, he wouldnt of been white.

we are fed that image being in a white western society that jesus should look like one of us.

[Tom Paine]

Its a matter of semi-indoctrination, I think; and a matter of automatic human traits that heat is worse than cold, and fire is a horrible death as we all know so it must be that that is how it is in hell

[MaximiIian]

Seems like an eternity of frostbite would hurt worse than just heat. I mean, frostbite is when the cold is so cold, it burns. It's the worst of both worlds,

[Handsome Huss]

I agree with all of the above, but might another reason be that Hell is down...Below the surface, and the core of the Earth is hot?
I think that all mythologies see/saw Hell as the same. Im thinking Hades and Niflheim here.

I mean, ancients probably saw a volcano erupt, realized that hot fiery magma is what lies beneath the surface, and since you'd go 'down' when you die, the Hellish afterlife must be hot.

[I Have a Clever Name]

I think that all mythologies see/saw Hell as the same. Im thinking Hades and Niflheim here.

I'm not entirely sure, but isn't the Greek/Roman afterlife either a merry skip in the Elysian fields or eternity in a gloomy uneventful cavern? I'll look into it.

Edit: No mention of fire and brimstone specifically in the Hellenic religion, there are three main sections; the planes of Elysium, the uneventful Asphodel Meadows and Tartarus the equivalent to hell.

However Tartarus, unlike hell, specifically adapts its punishment to fit the crime of the transgressor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartarus

edit 2: past tense is naughty and offensive.

[Isnogood]

Why do people always asociate Hell with fire and brimstone? Why not Ice and snow? Cold seems to me to be a lot worse than heat.

To my knowledge,in the original idea of hell, at least in the germanic/nordic mythology (refering to 'Hel':http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hel_%28realm%29) actually is a place of cold.

Probably it's a cultural thing.

[shenmueguru]

Well, Jesus reffered to Hell as the garbage of the city that was constantly burning if I remember correctly, have to check up on that one. Also, many people believe Hell not to be a burning lake of fire, but that is a metaphor for the complete absence of God, which is, well, Hell.

[Rush Limbaugh]

"Anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." (Matthew 5:22, quoting Jesus)

"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:40-42, quoting Jesus)

"Then he [the King] will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Matthew 25:41)


"The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." (James 3:6)

"The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:13-15)

LINK

[Richard]

It's based off Tartarus, isn't it?

[Sétanta]

It's based off Tartarus, isn't it?

Tartarus, or Tartaros (from the Greek tartarizo, meaning shivering cold)

If Hell was based of Tartarus it would be cold then. Not hot, as jesus calls it.

[Lord Tomyris]

Perhaps Dante helped popularise the belief that parts of Hell were fiery?

[Darth Wong]

Why do people always asociate Hell with fire and brimstone?

Well, they're not going to make Heaven full of fire and brimstone. So if Heaven is in the sky and is cold, then I guess Hell must be hot.

[Lee1026]

Also, Jesus lived in the middle east. Being cold is probably a foreign concept to him.

[Darth Wong]

Also, Jesus lived in the middle east. Being cold is probably a foreign concept to him.

Well, mountaintops are cold, and people back then thought that gods lived in the sky or on mountaintops, so they would have to assume that it's pretty chilly in Heaven.

[MaximiIian]

Zeus was cooler, though. Pimp-God of Lighting >>>> genodical tyrant.

[Sam]

Zeus was cooler, though. Pimp-God of Lighting >>>> genodical tyrant.

I believe that Palpatine as well, is much cooler than God, who couldn't even destroy some iron chariots. Palpatine would crush, fry, chop, and/or toss them away with a mere wave of his arm :original:.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Plus worshipping him was fun. You just had barbecues. Zeus, being a gentleman, only ate the smoke, and you could have the meat! Wonderful!