Do souls go to hell? Do they exist there forever? Is it bad?

If we reject God, and God's grace, then Hell it is

We know that the nature of sin is suffering, which of course implies suffering in one way or another. And it is forever

Now some people ask themselves

I hate to throw a bone to the atheists, but that sounds totally ghoulish. Look, I hate groups of evil people on this earth too, but even I don't believe that Catholics deserve to go to hell forever. That's overkill.

"If I, who am but a random person, would be merciful enough to not to give anyone such a punishment, how could God, who is by definition infinitely merciful, doom someone to Hell". People who think that usually project our fear of something that "goes on", which is in the end worse than the punishment itself

Scripture just says that the wages of sin is death. This thing about hell is based on the idea of the eternal soul. It's a few degrees removed from scripture.

The punishments of Hell are ****deserved****

Hell is mentioned constantly by Christ, for example, as well as the punishment of the unjust

Both the mercy, and the justice of God

Alright, I'm not going to try and talk you out of it. Ehh, Christ was a Jew. He didn't believe in this fiery torture chamber you guys came up with hundreds of years later.

Christ mentions Hell

Explicitely

Can you give a citation?

Sure, wait one second.

Luke 16:19-31

**Luke 16:19-31 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)**

```Dust
The Rich Man and Lazarus

<19> "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. <20> And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, <21> who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. <22> The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. <23> In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. <24> He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' <25> But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. <26> Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' <27> He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house— <28> for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' <29> Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' <30> He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' <31> He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"```

"And the gates of hell shall not stand against it"

And the lesson is clear: whoever goes to Hell was given all he neede to not to go there

They are given the prophets, and the scriptures, and the saints, and Christ himself

If there is any excuse for what they did in some point of their life, God knows and will take everything into account, but not everyone has excuses

So let us not pretend we are more wise, or merciful thatn God because we refuse to be just. Specially if we have only a glimpse of the nature of man, sin, punishment, and the eternal, and are in no position to say "that is too much punishment"

We can't just say "hurr durr if I represent some sin with a number, then the punishment can't be infinite, because 8374 - infinity = -infinity, and a good god would only apply a punishment equal to 8374"

Those are just cringe-worthy attempts to quantize sin, and grace, and punishment and justice

I just revised my canon. I no longer believe in the gospel of Luke.

At that point you are just believing in wishful thinking

You are foolish enough to think that God is incompatible with Hell

So you say "well, rather than rejctig God, I will reject those parts"

Just kidding, lol. I thought you Catholics weren't supposed to read the bible yourself. Yeah, that does seem to imply hell. I'll kick that one up to my buddies.

There are many dangers in many people reading the Bible themselves

What is the bible/

Like what is the canon, and who decides? Do you accept Enoch?

The canon is decided by the Church, which has precedents and a rightful claim to matters that require divine inspiration/intervention

The Church gathers in councils and makes a list

Do you accept Enoch? It has all these bizarre things about angels and women marrying, which Christ said could not happen, and it talks about the watchers and all these goofy mystical things.

Do you believe in the intermarriage of angels and human women?

But since it is declred scripture, we believe that God affected its writtings. I assure you that there is nothing that you mention that was unknown by the people of the councils

Okay. I assure you that they wrestled with themselves and others over theology.

But the councils are not jsut some human thing

They were trying to square the circle in many ways.

So the conclusion is that God, through the Church, through the writer of the book, wants Enoch to be read, and considered, and whatever