Into everlasting fire


See article

Readers' comments



That's a lot of text for an article simply written to make fun of Southerners...

ZA Observor

TV soap operas have largely replaced religious melodrama as Western escape from the existential emptiness of gray unimportant lives, but Christmas reminds us that the drama triangle is eternal: victim (you, sinner) ; victimiser (Satan) and rescuer(Jesus; God; Muhammad; Flying Spaghetti monster).

Not only hope springs eternal in the human breast; subjective Hell (like Heaven) is framed by individual mind and cultural legacy, based on own capacity for greed, to enjoy privilege, power and control over others. If economic inequality were a quantitative measure of evil ("the absence of love"), the Gini coefficient suggests South Africa would be amongst the most Hell like - nothing like the utopia of ubuntu that is held up to the world as a miracle of racial reconciliation.

Perceptions and sentiment, as stock exchanges remind us daily, are an integral irrational component of humanity - qualitative judgement can as easily aid as hurt quantitative measurement, but generally consumers are prisoners of marketing manipulation rather than masters of their own emotions and reason.

Truth be told, the "masses" prefer ignorance, magic and sleight of hand to taking responsibility for their own thoughts and actions - many enjoy guilt tripping from Oscar Wilde' approach "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it", followed by repenting piously. So while we stuff our faces at Thanksgiving, swearing never to repeat the sorry exercise again, we are reassured by the familiarity of excess like any other guinea pig in a running wheel.

Henry Cabot Henhouse III

Hell is not all that bad, in fact I enjoyed the experience and even stood at the Hell train station and watched as an enormous black train rattled through without stopping.
Hell, I even had my passport stamped "Hell, Gods Expedition".
I am of course referring to a little town a few miles out of Trontheim, Norway just in case anyone wants to get the most authentic attire for their next Halloween party!


The Decline of Hell Below has been more than balanced and in fact Much Improved by the Man Made creations of the Post Medieval Period. How could ANY mere Devil compete with Hitler or Stalin or Mao backed by the know how and resources of a Modern State. Demons just don't scare anymore.

SET Sail

At the end of the day (metaphorically) we certainly face death, and there is a chance we face judgment, hell or paradise.

Given what is at stake, like Pascal before us, logic would suggest a pretty risk aware attitude at playing with demons or God's anger.

It is true in most religions God is infinitely good and merciful, and again logic would indicate that such features make hell impossible by default. Still, would you bet your butt on that ? Place your bet :)

Merry Xmas all bloggers and TE crew !! It is always nice to read articles and thought provoking posts. Thanks ALL !!!

Wanker33 in reply to SET Sail

Foolishness is what you espouse.

Assuming an almighty deity, your postulation that one could somehow avoid Hell by putting on a charade of faith is ignorant in the extreme. God would know you're full of BS.

It's easier to open one's eyes and see the silliness of religion on its face value.

AmilcarCabral in reply to SET Sail

Well like Pascal before you, you are probably assuming that your faith is the correct one. Before you make your "bet". Such a wager would be impossible if you accounted for the thousands of other faiths. In each of which you will be similarly dammed. Trying to satisfy them all is impossible.

The logical course of action is to approach life reasonably and objectively. you can't gamble on the truth.

SET Sail in reply to Wanker33

To the contrary, the easiest and safest of courses of action is (like AmilcarCabral writes below) to approach life reasonably and thus maintaining moral standards more apt to paradise than hell.

Nowhere do I suggest a charade of faith.


Atheist: Doesn't believe in God, but believes in Ghost

Its interesting that even though Buddha tried to take God out of his teaching he couldn't completely remove the concepts of the Supranatural

Even Confusionism has the same problems

The belief in supranatural beings outside of nature, wether gods, enlightend mortals, saints, venerated ancestors, ghost, seems to part of the human condition, a universal trait.


I wonder whether it was a conscious omission on TE's part to concatenate the concepts of being rich and not being able to go to heaven (not without some difficulties, that is); and charging interest and going to hell for it; or the Muslim attitude towards charging interest, and all that. TE could (should) have connected the religious concepts/tenets of Heaven and Hell to economics. After all, this publications has been dabbling in those human activities for a while now...


Unlike many people on here I liked this article at least the premise, though I agree it was written rather badly.

It interesting how many revisions Hell has gone through, to fit the necessities of the day, and how it does seem like a universal concept across religions, Like God, a reflection of the human condition.

Reminds me of the Slenderman myths that were created on line, for those of you who are older, this is a recently created supranatural being popularized online (through photos, videos and personal accounts and historical references), it didn't exist 5 years ago, but is wildly known to people in their teens and 20s, This somewhat sinister paranormal, supranatural being has become wildly popular even though the origin was a hoax, mainly because it fills a critical niche in the human psyche much like God and the concept of hell do.


HyunSmith in reply to HyunSmith

The Tulpa Effect,

"A tulpa is a thoughtform, or being created from the collective thoughts of separate individuals. Tulpas are theoretical in nature, although some semi-scientific research and studies were conducted in the area between 1960-1980. The Tulpa Effect is the name given to the unintentional creation of a tulpa based on collective belief of a being with similar traits."

So the question is What is more real you, who will not be remembered when you die, or the idea of a being, concept, that has dramatically shaped and affected countless lives and societies throughout history


strange article for the economist, I would prefer you write about economics.....

SET Sail in reply to 97Srup5VXt

Please bear in mind a number of readers play with economics from the safe offices of UBS, DeutscheBank, Goldman and a host of other financial institutions where Earthly justice has very recently sentenced to indicate hellish behavior should not go unpunished....hence an article on Hell is more than appropriate, and make for some deserved laugh :)


“I sent my soul through the invisible,
some letter of that afterlife to spell;
and by and by my soul returned to me,
and answered, "I myself am Heav'n and Hell"”

Omar Khayyam

Pastor Chip

I read this and said to myself, “This is literally pitiful.” All this guy has done is cherry-picked something here, misunderstood something there, inserted fiction, and made a mess of the whole thing.

Then I read the comments. Worse. Arrogant ignorance. Statements that no human has the authority to make, flying around like casserole recipes at a church dinner. I had to quit after the first couple of dozen.

Look folks, I can’t speak for other non-Christian religions (ancient or modern) or for our modern attempts to make Christianity politically correct, but whether we like it or not, God has made Himself pretty clear about what we call Hell.

1. It is real.
2. It is the eternal fate of all those who will not accept Christ’s offer of salvation.
3. It is incomprehensible to us now because we will not be in these bodies there.
4. In Hell the blindness to which we are now subject in rejecting God the Father, and His Son, is removed.
5. The ultimate torment is the absence of the presence of God, the source of all good.
6. It really, really, really hurts.

Andreas G. in reply to Pastor Chip

Could you give references to specific parts in the bible in which God (i.e. the Christian version) made points 1-6 "clear" as you have claimed?

I assume it mus be part of the new testament, since I am sure as hell it is not in the old one.

Damn Dirty Ape in reply to Pastor Chip

Let's agree for a moment that God did indeed hold a press conference and confirmed all of these points. Why in the world would you worship such a monster? The offer of Christ's salvation is obviously shrouded in age and the inevitable misinformation that comes with a repeated message. Couple this with human nature and you are bound to have millions of sentient beings who do not embrace Christ. What sadistic monster would create a universe where millions of souls are doomed from the start to eternal torture?
Now, back to reality. There has been no press conference. The fairy stories that you refer to reflect the basest thoughts of the tribal primitives who thought up their theologies. Cast aside ignorance and embrace reason. You should be nice to your neighbors because it makes the world a better place all around not because if you don't you will be tortured in an afterlife.


I am not sure about hell but living in South Asia differs not from the so called conceptual hell. Rapes, Terrorism, Communal Killings, Religious intolerance, Corruption and Lawlessness all resembles to me like the fire of hell.


A major point the author asserted in this article, that Jesus never actually referred to Hell, is totally erroneous. How the following verses could be overlooked is beyond me. Do your homework and read the actual source (the Bible) instead of foolish books by 'modern scholars.'
"Anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." (Matthew 5:22, quoting Jesus)
"And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:29, quoting Jesus; see parallel passage in Mark 9:44, which adds, "where the fire never goes out.")
"Do not be afriad of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28, quoting Jesus)
"Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:30)
"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)


Interesting article but a bit long. Religion is the work of tribal people, a fairy tale. Religions borrow and copy from one another. Whether its monotheism, paganism, animist, its all fantasy. Praying is meaningless (other then it will calm you). There is no God that can alter your life's path in this life or the after life.
The only god is the the Universe and its natural laws of which we are all a part of. Everything other then human free will is pre determined. We can't control the color of our hair, or height, that we need food, the speed of light or gravity.......but we can control our actions. There is no soul separate from the body. But we can think with logic, physics and ethics.......just ask Plato


I think the Economist should stick to what it knows better: economics and politics and stop pontificating on what it doesn't know much about.

I imagine, or rather, know that the person who DOES know about hell is God. We can speculate respectfully, not parody or insult. Or we can decide to believe what we understand that God has revealed which is connected to what one may call gut-feeling and which describes hell in different ways, as has been done in history (with the common denominator being a state of irreparable and perpetual damnation). If heaven/hell isn't real, this life we'd be some kind of cruel joke. I hope Michael Strickland and I can find some common ground.

Sir, I must tell you, regretfully, that I think the only common ground that we'll be able to find is that upon which we stand. We are both occupants of this planet and that, for me, is more than enough reason to wish you and yours the best for this season and for the coming new year. Will the bad be punished and the good rewarded after death? I certainly don't know. There is only one way to find out, as far as I can tell, and I'm in no hurry to do so (and neither, I hope, are you).

Sir, besides standing on the same ground, we both seem to fear death, maybe because we would love to live life to the full, forever. That is what heaven is. The contrary would be hell, wouldn't it? The Person who created the common ground which we stand on also created a Heaven.


Religion in the west generally was replaced in the beginning of the 20th century by worship of the state.

MrRFox in reply to MBerg

In operational form, yes - but at the root of it is worship of man's intellect itself as though it were a diety in its own right. History has demonstrated the danger inherent in that kind of attitude.


"The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called 'faith.'" -- Robert Green Ingersoll



Products and events


Take our weekly news quiz to stay on top of the headlines

