Dante's Inferno Test. Options

[The Wolf]

Dante's inferno test.

I would go to the first level of he--hope-you-moderators-don't-mind-using-in-these-circumstances-ll, Limbo.

Charon ushers you across the river Acheron, and you find yourself upon the brink of grief's abysmal valley. You are in Limbo, a place of sorrow without torment. You encounter a seven-walled castle, and within those walls you find rolling fresh meadows illuminated by the light of reason, whereabout many shades dwell. These are the virtuous pagans, the great philosophers and authors, unbaptised children, and others unfit to enter the kingdom of heaven. You share company with Caesar, Homer, Virgil, Socrates, and Aristotle. There is no punishment here, and the atmosphere is peaceful, yet sad.

Don't take this too seriously.

This post has been edited by The Wolf: Nov 4 2005, 05:16 PM

[bbqplatypus]

Purgatory - You have escaped damnation and made it to Purgatory, a place where the dew of repentance washes off the stain of sin and girds the spirit with humility. Through contrition, confession, and satisfaction by works of righteousness, you must make your way up the mountain. As the sins are cleansed from your soul, you will be illuminated by the Sun of Divine Grace, and you will join other souls, smiling and happy, upon the summit of this mountain. Before long you will know the joys of Paradise as you ascend to the ethereal realm of Heaven.


Hooray for Purgatory! Not sure if I believe in Purgatory, but...yay!

Seriously, though, I'm of the opinion that we don't have really much authority to talk about what Hell is actually like. The "Hell" that we typically think of was only mentioned in a couple of verses - in the very last book, no less. Pretty much all other Biblical references to the word refer to "the Grave" when translated into its original language. I mean, it could very well be that the suffering of Hell refers to the state of separation from God or some such thing. Virtually none of what we see in depictions of Hell actually appears in the Bible. There's a reference to fire and general horrible unpleasantness ("weeping and gnashing of teeth" and all that), but that's about it.

So for that reason (among other ones), I really, REALLY hate it when people play the whole "believe the same things I do or you'll burn in Hell" card. It's resorting to scare tactics, which simply makes me want to vomit. People like these are why religion is considered by so many to be a destructive force.

Wherever else Hell might exist, it exists in the human mind - here, on Earth, when we give into fear and our worst habits. The way I think about Satan is not as a red man with horns and a pitchfork (or even as Al Pacino), but as the personification of our worst impulses, and the BS excuses we give to justify the terrible things we do to other people. Perhaps he is a literal being, but does whether or not he has a corporeal body (or even that he is an entity capable of thought) really affect your life? I contend that it does not. What matters is avoiding the things he stands for as a symbolic figure - greed, avarice, hatred, dishonesty, lust for power, and all that crap.

Really, the whole notion of being "saved," to me refers to a constant, ongoing process. It's a path that needs to be walked down - recognizing one's own fallibility, confessing it before God, and doing whatever you can to live virtuously. Some a-holes talk about going to heaven as if they're there already. As if they're somehow special or superior to anyone else who's still alive just because some guy in pajamas poured water on their head. I think Christians should focus on THIS life and following Christ's teachings in it. (This is why Matthew 25:31-46 is one of my favorite passages - it pretty much states exactly this).

Sorry if I went on a tangent there. Theology is just a subject I've done a lot of independent thinking about. I was agnostic for a brief period of my life. I can certainly see why someone would doubt things like divine revelation or an afterlife. God, however, is something I view as an undeniable force of nature - the very essence of existence itself (I don't exactly harbor a pantheistic view, though - I'm more of a panentheist). Call it whatever you want - Allah, Brahma, Nature, Steve from Accounting, or nothing at all. It's only the exact nature of it that we're arguing - is it just Nature or is it more than that?

Anywho, that's what I have to say about it. Well, in a nutshell, anyway. I could go on for a lot longer.

This post has been edited by bbqplatypus: Sep 10 2008, 07:07 AM