Could the world really be hell? This is a very controversial theological question, but answer anyway, please.?

Why not? What is hell considered to be? A place that is full of lies, confusion, mis-direction. What if a battle was fought, and the dark side won? People kept ignorant, hating others who are different, fighting even against their own. Priests who lie, steal, cheat, to get money and power over others. Murder over a smile, or for a dollar, or just because they feel like it. Hell, a place where those with power tell those who don't have it what to do, spend the lives of their followers as if they were nothing but trash. Speak with a golden tongue, that leads them to more power, and where all others are slaves. Might makes right.

Is that hell? or hell on earth?

There are many hellish places on this planet and many people are suffering as if in hell just because of their disturbed mind. And there are also lower planets in this universe, the hellish planets, where there is even more suffering. On the other side there are heavenly planets where the material enjoyment is much greater than here on earth.

But we should not be attracted or repelled by either. We must endeavor to come to the spiritual plane, developing our love for the Supreme Lord. It is described in the Vedic literatures that for a pure devotee of the Lord there is no difference between hell and heaven, because he is transcendentally situated and always emerged in loving service to the Lord.

One man-made tradition is "good people go to heaven when they die and bad people go to hell when they die."

Isn't it time we transcended the fables of childhood?

No one has gone to heaven except the Son of man (John 3:13).

And hell?

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Where are they?

In their graves!

"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:28-29).

The King James "damnation" is from lthe Greek word "krisis", meaning "contesting".

The "contesting" takes place in a second physical life after the 1000 years. The vast majority of mankind is not being called now.

Some of the ones who are "contesting" in the future will still not repent. And they will cease to exist. The words "you only live twice" will be only too true for them.

If the world as we know it is hell, then you're just redefining hell. And that's just fine, but it sort of defeats the purpose of the arguement.

Is the world an infinitely bad place, compared to an infinitely good place? Yes. But any place that is not infinitely good is inheritly infinitely bad compared to an infinitely good place (though that makes some assumptions about the nature of good and bad).

Could the world be a better place? Probably. Could it be a worse place? Probably. Does this latter piece mean the world probably isn't hell? Yes.

Well, I don't believe in the concept of "hell", but really, I often wonder whether "hell" isn't what we are living on Earth...

Maybe religious leaders had to tell believers that there was a hypothetical place much worse than life on Earth.

The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis described this world as being at the pentacle of hell, meaning that this is the best that hell gets. We can either jump to heaven or we can fall down into the pit.

I like the Hindu idea that this is all a dream, an illusion, thus we can create our own reality. Consequently, our life here on earth can either be heaven or hell or something in-between depending on what we attract to ourselves.

No. It has places that could be considered "hell", but it also has places that could be considered "heaven". Also, "hell" is based on a real place in ancient times called "Gehenna" - here's a link: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1...

Here is another: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna. "Hell" is a metaphor - as a "real" place, it does not exist. A very interesting question though!

i have often thought that it is both with a lean towards hell.once in a while i figure i have accidently roamed outside my boundarys and gone to heaven.sometimes ya get lucky. ya know what i mean :P. sometimes i appear to be looking at heaven . and like envying some one or more . then. poof its really hell.kinda like parashauting . ya jump outta the plane and yer just livin it up in heaven. then ya pull the cord . poof ! yer in hell buddy! then what?

To me this world is really heaven and hell - both at the same time.