Let's Imagine Hell
Do you ever think about Hell? I mean really, really think about Hell? What do you suppose its like? Not as easy a task as it may appear at first, let me tell you.
Let us first deal with the most common image of Hell here in Christendom: fire and brimstone. One, presumably, is punished for one's sins by combustion, forever. But think about it for a moment...wouldn't you eventually become desensitized to the searing pain of the fire? Take parched field of grass and dump torrents of rain on it. The first drops are greedily absorbed, and then less so, and less so, until eventually the field is saturated: no more water can go in. I imagine that is what life would be like in the traditional fire Hell. At first, the pain would be intolerable, but as thousands and thousands of years went by, eventually you'd become desensitized. Maybe it would even have a pleasant familiarity, in time. Never underestimate the adaptability and resiliency of the human mind. Witness the phenomenon of life long residents of Ethiopia, for example...
We can next turn to the great poetic and philosophical formulations of Hell. Dante's Hell is surely rich in irony and just desserts, what with gluttons neck deep in shit and the lustful caught up in a wind of their own desire, never able to touch each other and quench their thirst. While this is more interesting and satisfying than the fire Hell, we still run into the Ethiopia problem. Even poor Judas, condemned to an eternity of being chewed on, might in time find a kind of constancy and pleasing routine in being masticated. Or to put it another way, would you choose the oblivion and non-existence of a Universe without an afterlife of any kind or would you choose to retain your mind, even if it was to be an Altoid for Satan?
Finally, we arrive at Sartre's famous formulation: "Hell is other people." When I was told of this quote for the first time, I smiled. When I tell other people this quote for the first time, they invariably smile. Why is this?
I think the smiles occur because when we hear this quote for the first time, it rings true. Very true. We think of the inconsiderate Urban Assault Vehicle driver (thanks Henry Rollins), we think of the schoolyard bully, we think of the inconsiderate and selfish mate, we think of the disloyal friend, we think of the vain and the small minded...maybe we even think of ourselves... and it rings true. And we smile.
While I find Sartre's definition of Hell the most satisfying I have ever come across, I still think we can imagine Hell more deeply by unpacking the assumptions contained within those pithy words.
So if I were to imagine Hell, I would start with uncertainty and distrust. That is to say, I feel inhabitants of Hell would be cursed with a complete lack of certainty in the existence of the next moment, and in particular, the moment after death, and the inability to truly trust anyone, including themselves, without suspending rationality.
I would next add in a heaping dose of weakness and desire...give Dante his due, so to speak. The inhabitants of Hell would suffer from a multitude of appetites that could never really be satisfied. At best, they could be sated temporarily for a time, but never fully satisfied. These desires would run veritable gamut of human weaknesses, from gluttony to more subtle desires, like the need for approval and adulation.
I would then introduce the inhabitants of Hell to the concept of scarcity, real or imagined. I would explain to them that not only could their desires never really be satisfied, but that even the temporary respites from them could only be obtained with scarce things of which there is a finite supply, like wheat and public praise.
I think with those parameters set, we have arrived at what a true Hell might look like. Gripped with fear, distrust, separation, dislocation, isolation, endless desire in a finite world, our inhabitants would undoubtedly begin to act on all of these things against each other, continuously. The War of All Against All, but without Hobbes' Leviathan to save people from themselves with an iron fist. Hell would be other people, indeed.
So then, after concluding this brief thought experiment, I am left with a sense that maybe thinking about Hell is not an act of imagination or fancy, but rather merely examining this world we live in with a clear head and unsentimental eyes. Seeing the world as it truly is, not as we'd like it to be.
But then how does one remain graceful in Hell? That is a much deeper problem to wrestle with.
Let us first deal with the most common image of Hell here in Christendom: fire and brimstone. One, presumably, is punished for one's sins by combustion, forever. But think about it for a moment...wouldn't you eventually become desensitized to the searing pain of the fire? Take parched field of grass and dump torrents of rain on it. The first drops are greedily absorbed, and then less so, and less so, until eventually the field is saturated: no more water can go in. I imagine that is what life would be like in the traditional fire Hell. At first, the pain would be intolerable, but as thousands and thousands of years went by, eventually you'd become desensitized. Maybe it would even have a pleasant familiarity, in time. Never underestimate the adaptability and resiliency of the human mind. Witness the phenomenon of life long residents of Ethiopia, for example...
We can next turn to the great poetic and philosophical formulations of Hell. Dante's Hell is surely rich in irony and just desserts, what with gluttons neck deep in shit and the lustful caught up in a wind of their own desire, never able to touch each other and quench their thirst. While this is more interesting and satisfying than the fire Hell, we still run into the Ethiopia problem. Even poor Judas, condemned to an eternity of being chewed on, might in time find a kind of constancy and pleasing routine in being masticated. Or to put it another way, would you choose the oblivion and non-existence of a Universe without an afterlife of any kind or would you choose to retain your mind, even if it was to be an Altoid for Satan?
Finally, we arrive at Sartre's famous formulation: "Hell is other people." When I was told of this quote for the first time, I smiled. When I tell other people this quote for the first time, they invariably smile. Why is this?
I think the smiles occur because when we hear this quote for the first time, it rings true. Very true. We think of the inconsiderate Urban Assault Vehicle driver (thanks Henry Rollins), we think of the schoolyard bully, we think of the inconsiderate and selfish mate, we think of the disloyal friend, we think of the vain and the small minded...maybe we even think of ourselves... and it rings true. And we smile.
While I find Sartre's definition of Hell the most satisfying I have ever come across, I still think we can imagine Hell more deeply by unpacking the assumptions contained within those pithy words.
So if I were to imagine Hell, I would start with uncertainty and distrust. That is to say, I feel inhabitants of Hell would be cursed with a complete lack of certainty in the existence of the next moment, and in particular, the moment after death, and the inability to truly trust anyone, including themselves, without suspending rationality.
I would next add in a heaping dose of weakness and desire...give Dante his due, so to speak. The inhabitants of Hell would suffer from a multitude of appetites that could never really be satisfied. At best, they could be sated temporarily for a time, but never fully satisfied. These desires would run veritable gamut of human weaknesses, from gluttony to more subtle desires, like the need for approval and adulation.
I would then introduce the inhabitants of Hell to the concept of scarcity, real or imagined. I would explain to them that not only could their desires never really be satisfied, but that even the temporary respites from them could only be obtained with scarce things of which there is a finite supply, like wheat and public praise.
I think with those parameters set, we have arrived at what a true Hell might look like. Gripped with fear, distrust, separation, dislocation, isolation, endless desire in a finite world, our inhabitants would undoubtedly begin to act on all of these things against each other, continuously. The War of All Against All, but without Hobbes' Leviathan to save people from themselves with an iron fist. Hell would be other people, indeed.
So then, after concluding this brief thought experiment, I am left with a sense that maybe thinking about Hell is not an act of imagination or fancy, but rather merely examining this world we live in with a clear head and unsentimental eyes. Seeing the world as it truly is, not as we'd like it to be.
But then how does one remain graceful in Hell? That is a much deeper problem to wrestle with.