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Comment on How modern is it to have "sympathetic" portrayals of Hell?

Displaying nuance in "hell" as pushback against the binary concept of good and evil is arguably one of the oldest tropes in fiction. Both ancient Greek and Norse mythology very specifically depict the underworld as a place of ambiguity or even normality, with "heaven" holding a far more exalted status.

Even in Abrahamic mythology the idea of hell being some kind of default punishment for sinners is a fairly modern idea, arguably stemming from Dante, who absolutely works a good amount of sympathy for sinners into the story. It really only is the most recent take on the concept by evangelical Christians which holds that an otherwise innocent person will be tortured for eternity over a mere lack of faith, and that form of absurd extremism plays a large role in the modern backlash against the concept.

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Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The Bible does portray hell as the default, such as saying all have sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of God, Jesus saying He is the only way to The Father and saying that you’re saved by grace alone and not by works

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- zbyte64@awful.systems ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Not going to heaven doesn’t mean you automatically go to hell. Do you think the Jews thought all the gentiles were going to hell?
  
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  - Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    There were different sects. Sheoul was a thing that was mentioned several times as well. Revelation also makes it clear:
    
    Revelation 20:12-15
    
    And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
    
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    zbyte64@awful.systems ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Why do you think the Book of Revelations speaks to the Jewish faith? I am not of the opinion that Jews read the new testament.
    
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  - shasta@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That depends on your denomination
    
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