Pope Francis - Hell Does Not Exist

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/pope-francis-there-no-hell

Pope Francis says, "They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls."

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This is going to cause some fur to fly.

However, there seems to be some backtracking going on now.

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* In a statement released on Mar. 29, after Scalfari's report garnered worldwide attention, the Vatican said:
"The Holy Father Francis recently received the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica in a private meeting on the occasion of Easter, without however giving him any interviews. What is reported by the author in today’s article [in La Repubblica] is the result of his reconstruction, in which the textual words pronounced by the Pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father."

 

[Ramaraksha]

He is right - Hell is a barbaric idea - so you are a racist - will torture help enlighten you? Which side of the abortion rights are you on? So, torture will help you decide that you are wrong?
This idea has to do with the religion that was born when Kings/Dictators ruled and they made God in his image. Get down on our knees and beg the King for mercy & he will reward us(Heaven) or else!(Hell) - very simple & primitive ideas, sad to see such ideas being blindly followed even today

The concept of Hell reduces God down to a Master - obey or else! - and the Master will punish his slaves. The idea that God is our Father, a Parent is encouraged by faiths such as Hinduism - a Father would never divide his own children, no mother would torture her own son, no father would rape his own daughter, but a Master will gladly do all the above

Dump Hell and elevate God to a Parent and ourselves become Children of God - the concept of Hell means God is a Master and we in turn reduce ourselves down to slaves/servants

Amazing, just amazing how religion can brainwash the best of us to follow brain-dead primitive ideas

 

[Lion IRC]

...so you are a racist - will torture help enlighten you?

Lucky there's no racism in the Hindu caste system.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

For the Christians, which would you think is worse? Eternity in Hell or soul annihilation?

With Hell, sure you’re getting tortured forever, but at least there’s still a you. Would you consider that a better fate than just not being anymore?

 

[LordKiran]

Hell exists more in a poetic sense I find these days. After all when people are needlessly cruel to each other create their own sense of hell around them. Being poor sucks, but being poor while you and your boyfriend are filled with self destructive tendencies that drive you to drink, fight, beat the shit out of each other, damage the house, traumatize your daughter, call the police on each other out of spite, and then engage in a prolonged custody battle for no reason other than because you hate each other is definitely what I'd call hell.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Hell exists more in a poetic sense I find these days. After all when people are needlessly cruel to each other create their own sense of hell around them. Being poor sucks, but being poor while you and your boyfriend are filled with self destructive tendencies that drive you to drink, fight, beat the shit out of each other, damage the house, traumatize your daughter, call the police on each other out of spite, and then engage in a prolonged custody battle for no reason other than because you hate each other is definitely what I'd call hell.

No, that’s not even close to what’s meant by Hell

 

[LordKiran]

Hell exists more in a poetic sense I find these days. After all when people are needlessly cruel to each other create their own sense of hell around them. Being poor sucks, but being poor while you and your boyfriend are filled with self destructive tendencies that drive you to drink, fight, beat the shit out of each other, damage the house, traumatize your daughter, call the police on each other out of spite, and then engage in a prolonged custody battle for no reason other than because you hate each other is definitely what I'd call hell.

No, that’s not even close to what’s meant by Hell

I don't particularly care tbh. I found my own meaning.

 

[Politesse]

Hell exists more in a poetic sense I find these days. After all when people are needlessly cruel to each other create their own sense of hell around them. Being poor sucks, but being poor while you and your boyfriend are filled with self destructive tendencies that drive you to drink, fight, beat the shit out of each other, damage the house, traumatize your daughter, call the police on each other out of spite, and then engage in a prolonged custody battle for no reason other than because you hate each other is definitely what I'd call hell.

No, that’s not even close to what’s meant by Hell

By whom? The idea that "hell is other people" (to paraphrase Sartre) is one that has much currency in modern society.

 

[braces_for_impact]

Pope Francis is kinda like Trump. He spouts something off the cuff that is against the party orthodoxy, and someone is quickly dispatched to walk that shit back. Rinse and repeat.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Pope Francis is kinda like Trump. He spouts something off the cuff that is against the party orthodoxy, and someone is quickly dispatched to walk that shit back. Rinse and repeat.

I think he does it more for constructive purposes than does Trumpy.

My take on these remarks is that he certainly understands there is no hell, and knows that future christians will view hell like we today view succubi. But he wants to bring the ignoramuses along at their own speed by planting rational thoughts in their tiny brains.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Hell exists more in a poetic sense I find these days. After all when people are needlessly cruel to each other create their own sense of hell around them. Being poor sucks, but being poor while you and your boyfriend are filled with self destructive tendencies that drive you to drink, fight, beat the shit out of each other, damage the house, traumatize your daughter, call the police on each other out of spite, and then engage in a prolonged custody battle for no reason other than because you hate each other is definitely what I'd call hell.

No, that’s not even close to what’s meant by Hell

I don't particularly care tbh. I found my own meaning.

That's fine, but it's not actually relevant to discussions of Hell. It's like saying that a teenaged girl's tweet about how her dad's such a Nazi because he doesn't allow her to use her phone during dinner actually makes her father comparable to Hitler. This is OK as an analogy to overemphasize a point but is out of place when talking about the actions of the Third Reich.

 

[ideologyhunter]

To state the obvious:
Jesus credentialed hell. Where in the Bible, previous to JC, is there a fleshed-out vision of eternal torment, with no provision for escape? What a miserable, sadistic teaching -- you're not like us, so you will be kept in a state of pain, forever.
Furthermore, orthodox Jesusism would seem to shovel a minimum of 67% of earth's population into the hell furnace. That's what a loving faith it is. (Professed Christians make up about 33% of the 7.8 billion.) And since we know that many a "believer" is just along for the ride, some of those folks deserve a burnin', too. Forgodislove.

 

[Learner]

To state the obvious:
Jesus credentialed hell. Where in the Bible, previous to JC, is there a fleshed-out vision of eternal torment, with no provision for escape? What a miserable, sadistic teaching -- you're not like us, so you will be kept in a state of pain, forever.
Furthermore, orthodox Jesusism would seem to shovel a minimum of 67% of earth's population into the hell furnace. That's what a loving faith it is. (Professed Christians make up about 33% of the 7.8 billion.) And since we know that many a "believer" is just along for the ride, some of those folks deserve a burnin', too. Forgodislove.

The concept of Hell was there before the forming of the OT, long before the NT even mentioned hell to which I would say; the Ethiopians got it right from the biblical perspective when they included the Book of Enoch, which is a much older hebrew text. There's a lot more to it regarding hell imo but in short: Hell was not originally for man by the theology.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

To state the obvious:
Jesus credentialed hell. Where in the Bible, previous to JC, is there a fleshed-out vision of eternal torment, with no provision for escape? What a miserable, sadistic teaching -- you're not like us, so you will be kept in a state of pain, forever.
Furthermore, orthodox Jesusism would seem to shovel a minimum of 67% of earth's population into the hell furnace. That's what a loving faith it is. (Professed Christians make up about 33% of the 7.8 billion.) And since we know that many a "believer" is just along for the ride, some of those folks deserve a burnin', too. Forgodislove.

The concept of Hell was there before the forming of the OT, long before the NT even mentioned hell to which I would say; the Ethiopians got it right from the biblical perspective when they included the Book of Enoch, which is a much older hebrew text. There's a lot more to it regarding hell imo but in short: Hell was not originally for man by the theology.

Well, it's good that God reused it instead of creating an entirely new torture dimension to dump human souls into. Recycling matters.

 

[Politesse]

Hell is a goddess of the northern tradition, and by connection, her icy and forbidding domain. The souls of those too ignoble to die bravely were her charge.

 

[Learner]

Sounds interesting and nordic. (genuinely interesting)

 

[Politesse]

Sounds interesting and nordic. (genuinely interesting)

A with everything about the Northern Tradition, too little is known, and there's Christian bias all over what we have. But if you're curious, there's a nice online shrine to Hel with a fair bit of information at this link.

 

[Learner]

Thanks Politesse for the link. Looking forward to read the info.