The fires of Hell are real and eternal, Pope warns

[jgraz]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1572646.ece

Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said.

Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, Benedict XVI said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to “admit blame and promise to sin no more”, they risked “eternal damnation — the Inferno”.

Mama Mia -- that's-a one-a spicy meat-a-ball!

[aquart]

1. Tell George. Tell George.

[lvx35]

2. I can just hear the whips cracking.

Faith based on coercion. I just can't stand it, the threats undermine the acts of those who choose to be moral and good.

[ThomCat]

13. I agree. If you have to be coerced to be good, then you aren't good.

There is an old quote, I no longer know the source that said "If you are honest because honesty is the best policy then notice that your honesty is corrupt."

The point being, you should be good (honest) simply because you are, not for any external reason.

[lvx35]

27. Yeah. Or at least the SACRIFICE should be honored.

Like if somebody is trying to act Christ-like and feed the poor, and is sacrificing very real pleasures they could be having to do it, the sacrifice should be recognized as such. But in putting the hell fire whip underneath their asses, it turns such people into nothing but scampering slaves, scared of the eternal whip.

[zonmoy]

31. when isn't religion

using coercion to make people good.

[Nite Owl]

3. Well they had better be building

a special wing down there for the GOP!

[shain from kane]

4. Of course there's a Hell. It's where pedophiles are sent. Heaven's going to be a lonely place for

you, Mr. Pope.

[flakey_foont]

5. Yikes!

guess I had better start going back to Confession,,,,,if I can remember, it goes sum'n like "Bless me, Fadda, for I have sinned, it has been XXXX since"

[jobycom]

6. Am I the only one who like JP II better?

I mean, I'm not Catholic, and I know JP was no saint (yes, I know, I know), especially in his earlier years, but he just seemed more like a pope and less like a country fundie preacher to me.

[JerseygirlCT]

28. I had very mixed feelings about JP, but Benedict?

Nothing mixed about my dislike of him!

[xultar]

7. And it's in ATLANTA cuz it is HOT AS FUCK down here.

[ORDagnabbit]

8. LOL...gotta keep the myth going. n/t

[damntexdem]

9. Ole Benny is a real monster worshipper.

Fire and brimstone really get him off.

[MUAD_DIB]

10. Something that troubles me...

Why would a benevolent being that wants his/her creation to love one another sentence them to an eternity of suffering for even one sin?

That's what the nuns used to tell us in school...right before they would hit you with their rulers.


Does forgiveness only take place in the corporeal world? Is there none in the next, Mr. Pope?

[donco6]

21. I've never understood that either.

In the Bible, it says that the smoke from hell is visible in heaven. Now, I just wonder, what kind of person could enjoy a blissful eternity, knowing that under that smoke cloud there are billions of people enduring an eternal burning torment? I don't get it . . .

[zonmoy]

32. isn't it obvious that they are as monstrous and sadistic

as the god they worship.

[AnnieBW]

11. Yeah, yeah

Hell is spending eternity with Papa Ratzi.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

12. Ratso, you're the stuff nightmares are made of.

Drop dead soon, okay?

[Divernan]

14. That's the deafening sound of wooden rosary beads clacking away.

All the devout saying their penances. I had formal Catholic education from grade school through Jesuit university (hey, I was a kid - my parents picked the schools and paid the tuition).

However, starting at age 12, when I read an article in the Atlantic Monthly about the Essenes & the Dead Sea Scrolls, I had increasing suspicions that I was the victim of a con.

I quote from a felllow sceptic, who puts it quite well:
"My decision was simple. How much could I stand of ignorance, supersition, bigotry, homophobic, hipocritical, "I need an adult imaginary friend", types? Hmmmm, eternity with these religious folks or eternity with people who value education, knowledge, rationality, logic and true efforts in solving the worlds problems?

Decision made."

[jgraz]

16. Has there ever been a more OCD-induced ritual than the rosary?

Anyone think the Church would still be around if we'd had Prozac in the middle ages?

[Rageneau]

17. Oh, the hours I spent saying the Rosary when I could have been masturbating.

[murray hill farm]

20. Good one!

That made me laugh!

[rurallib]

15. Could these fires be used to solve the energy problem somehow?

Maybe every time someone dies that we know is going to hell, we send a piece of a steam generator with them along with instructions on how it is built. I figure in a couple days, we will have all the pieces for a generator in hell. If we promise Lucifer a few more souls maybe he'll put it together for us.
We do this about a thousand times and we should have enough electricity to power all the new electric cars that GM is going to build.

[BayCityProgressive]

18. if they are real, he will be there..

[saltpoint]

19. I'm thinking the Pope is serving two masters. Is he the voice of

the Prince of Peace or the angry, impotent patriarchal hellfire God?

Of the two archetypes, I guess I'd prefer the Prince of Peace, if one is into making distinctions. In a non-religious sort of way, I'd rather drive across the country with a Prince of Peace than with unstable Jehovah.

Especially if we have to split the driving.

I don't want any scenes at Stuckeys.

[Christa]

22. He will be there as well

seeing he is not allowing condoms and thus being the reason of a lot a Aids infected patients.

[sinkingfeeling]

23. Has he been there? I'd like to see a little evidence.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

24. I've been to Hell

I'm sure most have. It can happen here and it can happen now. It is a psychological place where you feel hopeless, angry, and you suffer a lot. It is a creation of our mind, and only by freeing ourselves from our negative thoughts can we escape it.

Obviously my concept and the Pope's are very different.

[Forrest Greene]

25. I Have Heard

...that membership in the Hitler Youth is a lot more real & just as eternal. Go try to scare someone else with your fairy tales, Nazi.

[Evoman]

26. The pope is obsolete.

The only people who give a shit what he says are more ignorant than he is.

Go out to the woods and die, you fucking Nazi dinosaur.

Lol...I feel strangely better....under too much stress lately, methinks.

[bananas]

29. The real nightmare is Abba. nt

[MikeH]

30. It makes sense he would think that

It definitely makes sense that a one time Nazi would believe in a God with a character like that of Adolf Hitler.

I agree the Pope is obsolete.

[NAO]

33. The Pope said Galileo was WRONG. Remember, Joey Ratz was GRAND INQUISITOR

...before he made Pope. He occupied the "Chair of Torquemada" before he ascended to the "Chair of St. Peter".

Popes and Priests and Shamans and Witch-Doctors and other peddlers of religious superstitions have a long established record of being totally wrong on just about everything.

The only things they can even try to say these days are things that CANNOT be proven false, such as the existence of eternal hellfire.

[onager]

34. But what about the Great Schism?

Or Great Papal Schism, I guess, so we can tell it from all the other great piles of Schism littering Xianity.

In the 14th century you had 2 Popes, one sitting in Rome and the other in Avignon, with each one merrily excommunicating the other's followers and condemning all of them to those "real and eternal" fires.

Did the One True Church ever fix that up after it un-schismed? I mean, did all the followers of the Wrong Pope get tickets to heaven through some corporate grandfather clause or something? Just curious.

(Believers in the Gospel According To Black Adder might remember that the show had a pretty funny running gag based on this.

"I've asked for an annulment of our marriage from all 3 Popes...")