(August 27, 2015 at 7:06 pm)abaris Wrote:(August 27, 2015 at 5:58 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: The belief is that if you turn away from love/goodness (aka God), there is no where left to go except the only place where those things are not present. God is not present in Hell, and since we believe God is love/goodness, those things are not present in Hell and that's why Hell is so awful. Of course, if you are truly sorry, meaning if you don't reject those things, of course you will be forgiven.
But even that's relatively new. When I was a child, back in the 60ies and early 70ies, the talk of the town was still the literal fire and brimstone hell. At least that's what the priests tried to make us believe. So doctrines go with the time. The first time I heard your definition is probably the mid to late 70ies. About the same time, by the way, they started to introduce jazz masses.
Our understanding of Hell evolves with time. Of course, none of this is or ever was doctrinal truth, since we can't know for sure what Hell is like. But more and more theologians are explaining Hell more as a state of being than an actual, physical "place" with fire and little guys running around with pitch forks lol.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh
