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98-403: Knowledge of contributions to Pythagorean astronomy before Philolaus is limited. Hippasus, another early Pythagorean philosopher, did not contribute to astronomy, and no evidence of Pythagoras's work on astronomy remains. None for the remaining astronomical contributions can be attributed to a single person and, therefore, Pythagoreans as whole take the credit. However, it should not be presumed that

196-520: A ghost (tukap) who would haunt the living, to come to fulfillment from which it was excluded during life. Judaism does not have a specific doctrine about the afterlife, but it does have a mystical/Orthodox tradition of describing Gehinnom . Gehinnom is not hell, but originally a grave and in later times a sort of Purgatory where one is judged based on one's life's deeds, or rather, where one becomes fully aware of one's own shortcomings and negative actions during one's life. The Kabbalah explains it as

294-508: A linear divine history often depict hells as eternal destinations, the biggest examples of which are Christianity and Islam , whereas religions with reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations , as is the case in the Indian religions . Religions typically locate hell in another dimension or under Earth 's surface. Other afterlife destinations include heaven , paradise , purgatory , limbo , and

392-695: A location and goddess-like being in Norse mythology ), Old Frisian helle , Old Saxon hellia , Old High German hella , and Gothic halja . All forms ultimately derive from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic feminine noun * xaljō or * haljō ('concealed place, the underworld'). In turn, the Proto-Germanic form derives from the o-grade form of the Proto-Indo-European root * kel- , * kol -: 'to cover, conceal, save'. Indo-European cognates include Latin cēlāre ("to hide", related to

490-546: A mixture of saved and condemned people being raised from the dead and judged. Adventists reject the traditional doctrine of hell as a state of everlasting conscious torment, believing instead that the wicked will be permanently destroyed after the millennium by the lake of fire , which is called 'the second death ' in Revelation 20:14. Those Adventist doctrines about death and hell reflect an underlying belief in: (a) conditional immortality (or conditionalism), as opposed to

588-552: A "waiting room" (commonly translated as an "entry way") for all souls (not just the wicked). The overwhelming majority of rabbinic thought maintains that people are not in Gehinnom forever; the longest that one can be there is said to be 12 months, however, there has been the occasional noted exception. Some consider it a spiritual forge where the soul is purified for its eventual ascent to Olam Habah ( heb. עולם הבא; lit. "The world to come", often viewed as analogous to heaven). This

686-570: A continuum. Philolaus believed that universal harmony was achieved in the Central Fire, where the combination of an unlimited unit, fire, and the central limit formed the cosmos. It is presumed as such because fire is the "most precious" of elements, and the center is a place of honor. Therefore, there must be fire at the center of the cosmos. According to Philolaus, the central fire and cosmos are surrounded by an unlimited expanse. Three unlimited elements: time, breath, and void, were drawn in toward

784-577: A frozen lake of blood and guilt. But cold also played a part in earlier Christian depictions of hell or purgatory, beginning with the Apocalypse of Paul , originally from the early third century; the " Vision of Dryhthelm " by the Venerable Bede from the seventh century; " St Patrick's Purgatory ", "The Vision of Tundale" or " Visio Tnugdali ", and the "Vision of the Monk of Eynsham ", all from

882-522: A life different from their previous experience. Animals chose human lives while humans often chose the apparently easier lives of animals. After this, each soul was assigned a guardian spirit to help him or her through their life. They passed under the throne of Lady Necessity, then traveled to the Plane of Oblivion, where the River of Forgetfulness (River Lethe ) flowed. Each soul was required to drink some of

980-458: A life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Maat , who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the heavenly reed fields . If found guilty the person was thrown to Ammit , the "devourer of the dead" and would be condemned to the lake of fire . The person taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of

1078-404: A man who had not known the terrors of the underground but had been rewarded in the sky, hastily chose a powerful dictatorship. Upon further inspection he realized that, among other atrocities, he was destined to eat his own children. Er observed that this was often the case of those who had been through the path in the sky, whereas those who had been punished often chose a better life. Many preferred

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1176-488: A resurrection. Tartarus is held to be the metaphorical state of debasement of the fallen angels between the time of their moral fall (Genesis chapter 6) until their post-millennial destruction along with Satan (Revelation chapter 20). Bible Students and Christadelphians also believe in annihilationism. Christian Universalists believe in universal reconciliation , the belief that all human souls will be eventually reconciled with God and admitted to heaven. This belief

1274-532: A sixteenth–seventeenth century European thinker, believed that Philolaus's Central Fire was the sun, but that the Pythagoreans felt the need to hide that teaching from non-believers. In Philolaus's system, the earth rotated exactly once per orbit, with one hemisphere (presumed to be the unknown side of the Earth) always facing the Central Fire. The Counter-Earth and the Central Fire were thus never visible from

1372-408: Is "shaped... like the ones we know"—the standard Greek spindle , consisting of a hook, shaft, and whorl . The hook was fixed near the top of the shaft on its long side. On the other end resided the whorl. The hook was used to spin the shaft, which in turn spun the whorl on the other end. Placed on the whorl of his celestial spindle were 8 "orbits", whereof each created a perfect circle. Each "orbit"

1470-414: Is a compound of * xaljō (discussed above) and * wītjan (reconstructed from forms such as Old English witt 'right mind, wits', Old Saxon gewit 'understanding', and Gothic un-witi 'foolishness, understanding'). Hell appears in several mythologies and religions . It is commonly inhabited by demons and the souls of dead people. A fable about hell which recurs in folklore across several cultures

1568-517: Is a legend that concludes Plato 's Republic (10.614–10.621). The story includes an account of the cosmos and the afterlife that greatly influenced religious, philosophical, and scientific thought for many centuries. The story begins as a man named Er, son of Armenios ( Ἀρμένιος ), of Pamphylia , dies in battle. When the bodies of those who died in the battle are collected, ten days after his death, Er remains undecomposed. Two days later he revives on his funeral-pyre and tells others of his journey in

1666-476: Is also mentioned in the Kabbalah, where the soul is described as breaking, like the flame of a candle lighting another: the part of the soul that ascends being pure and the "unfinished" piece being reborn. According to Jewish teachings, hell is not entirely physical; rather, it can be compared to a very intense feeling of shame. People are ashamed of their misdeeds and this constitutes suffering which makes up for

1764-692: Is also relevant. Some modern Christian theologians subscribe to the doctrines of conditional immortality . Conditional immortality is the belief that the soul dies with the body and does not live again until the resurrection. As with other Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, the New Testament text distinguishes two words, both translated "hell" in older English Bibles: Hades , "the grave", and Gehenna where God "can destroy both body and soul". A minority of Christians read this to mean that neither Hades nor Gehenna are eternal but refer to

1862-461: Is argued, indicate that death is only a period or form of slumber. Adventists teach that the resurrection of the righteous will take place shortly after the second coming of Jesus , as described in Revelation 20:4–6 that follows Revelation 19:11–16, whereas the resurrection of the wicked will occur after the millennium , as described in Revelation 20:5 and 20:12–13 that follow Revelation 20:4 and 6–7, though Revelation 20:12–13 and 15 actually describe

1960-526: Is given different descriptions by Plato. Based on Plato's descriptions within the passage, the orbits can be identified as those of the classical planets , corresponding to the Aristotelian planetary spheres : The descriptions of the rims accurately fit the relative distance and revolution speed of the respective bodies as would appear to an observer from Earth (aside from the Moon, which revolves around

2058-440: Is held by some Unitarian-Universalists . According to Emanuel Swedenborg 's Second Coming Christian revelation, hell exists because evil people want it. They, not God, introduced evil to the human race. In Swedenborgianism , every soul joins the like-minded group after death in which it feels the most comfortable. Hell is therefore believed to be a place of happiness for the souls which delight in evilness. Members of

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2156-431: Is often depicted as fiery, painful, and harsh, inflicting suffering on the guilty. Despite these common depictions of hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray hell as cold. Buddhist – and particularly Tibetan Buddhist – descriptions of hell feature an equal number of hot and cold hells. Among Christian descriptions Dante 's Inferno portrays the innermost (9th) circle of hell as

2254-399: Is produced; 3) the velocities of the celestial bodies, being proportional to their distances from the earth, have the ratios of concords; 4) hence the planets and stars produce harmonious sounds; 5) we cannot hear this harmonious sound. Philolaus (c. 470 to c. 385 BC) was a follower of the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos. Pythagoras developed a school of philosophy that

2352-496: Is reconstructed from the Latinized Gothic plural noun * haliurunnae (attested by Jordanes ; according to philologist Vladimir Orel , meaning ' witches '), Old English helle-rúne ('sorceress, necromancer ', according to Orel), and Old High German helli-rūna 'magic'. The compound is composed of two elements: * xaljō (* haljō ) and * rūnō , the Proto-Germanic precursor to Modern English rune . The second element in

2450-523: Is the allegory of the long spoons . Punishment in hell typically corresponds to sins committed during life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each sin committed, such as in Plato's Myth of Er or Dante's The Divine Comedy , but sometimes they are general, with condemned sinners relegated to one or more chamber of hell or to a level of suffering. In many religious cultures, including Christianity and Islam, hell

2548-761: Is used: the Greek words Tartarus or Hades , or the Hebrew word Gehinnom . In the Septuagint and New Testament, the authors used the Greek term Hades for the Hebrew Sheol, but often with Jewish rather than Greek concepts in mind. In the Jewish concept of Sheol, such as expressed in Ecclesiastes, Sheol or Hades is a place where there is no activity. However, since Augustine , some Christians have believed that

2646-516: The Ainu religion , as stated by missionary John Batchelor . However, belief in hell does not appear in oral tradition of the Ainu. Instead, there is belief within the Ainu religion that the soul of the deceased (ramat) would become a kamuy after death. There is also belief that the soul of someone who has been wicked during lifetime, committed suicide , got murdered or died in great agony would become

2744-528: The Anglican church such as N. T. Wright and as denominations the Seventh-day Adventists , Bible Students , Jehovah's Witnesses , Christadelphians , Living Church of God , Church of God International , and some other Protestant Christians . The Catholic Catechism states "The souls of sinners descend into hell, where they suffer 'eternal fire ' ". However, Cardinal Vincent Nichols ,

2842-496: The Kabbalah , describe seven "compartments" or "habitations" of hell, just as they describe seven divisions of heaven. These divisions go by many different names, and the most frequently mentioned are as follows: Besides those mentioned above, there also exist additional terms that have been often used to either refer to hell in general or to some region of the underworld: Maimonides declares in his 13 principles of faith that

2940-515: The Methodists , Baptists and Episcopalians , and some Greek Orthodox churches, hell is taught as the final destiny of those who have not been found worthy after the general resurrection and last judgment , where they will be eternally punished for sin and permanently separated from God. The nature of this judgment is inconsistent with many Protestant churches teaching the saving comes from accepting Jesus Christ as their savior, while

3038-608: The Punishment of the Grave , and that the spiritual pain caused by this can lead to purification of the soul. Not all Muslims and scholars agree whether hell is an eternal destination or whether some or all of the condemned will eventually be forgiven and allowed to enter paradise. Over hell, a narrow bridge called As-Sirāt is spanned. On Judgment Day one must pass over it to reach paradise, but those destined for hell will find too narrow and fall into their new abode. Iblis ,

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3136-456: The afterlife , including an account of reincarnation and the celestial spheres of the astral plane . The tale includes the idea that moral people are rewarded and immoral people punished after death. Although called the Myth of Er, the word "myth" here means "word, speech, account", rather than the modern meaning. The word is used at the end when Socrates explains that because Er did not drink

3234-603: The galla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld. The later Mesopotamians knew this underworld by its East Semitic name: Irkalla . During the Akkadian Period , Ereshkigal's role as the ruler of the underworld was assigned to Nergal , the god of death. The Akkadians attempted to harmonize this dual rulership of the underworld by making Nergal Ereshkigal's husband. The hells of Europe include Breton mythology 's "Anaon", Celtic mythology 's "Uffern", Slavic mythology 's "Peklo", Norse mythology 's Náströnd ,

3332-453: The immortality of the soul ; and (b) the monistic nature of human beings , in which the soul is not separable from the body, as opposed to bipartite or tripartite conceptions, in which the soul is separable. Jehovah's Witnesses hold that the soul ceases to exist when the person dies and therefore that hell (Sheol or Hades) is a state of non-existence. In their theology, Gehenna differs from Sheol or Hades in that it holds no hope of

3430-414: The lake of fire . Christian mortalism and annihilationism are directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life at the second coming of Christ and resurrection of the dead . Biblical scholars looking at the issue through the Hebrew text have denied the teaching of innate immortality. Rejection of the immortality of

3528-487: The torment of a rich man , who lacked charity, when he dies and compares it to the blessed state of a poor man who has also died. Divine pardon at judgment always remained a central concern for the ancient Egyptians. Modern understanding of Egyptian notions of hell relies on six ancient texts: The Sumerian afterlife was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where inhabitants were believed to continue "a shadowy version of life on earth". This bleak domain

3626-457: The underworld . Other religions, which do not conceive of the afterlife as a place of punishment or reward, merely describe an abode of the dead, the grave , a neutral place that is located under the surface of Earth (for example, see Kur , Hades , and Sheol ). Such places are sometimes equated with the English word hell , though a more correct translation would be "underworld" or "world of

3724-527: The Central Fire, but Burch argues it must have been thought to orbit on the other side of the Fire from Earth. Since "counter" means "opposite", and opposite can only be in respect to the Central Fire, the Counter-Earth must be orbiting 180 degrees from Earth. Burch also argues that Aristotle was simply having a joke "at the expense of Pythagorean number theory" and that the true function of the Counter-Earth

3822-450: The Central Fire. Its comparison to a hearth, the "religious center of the house and the state", shows its proper role as "the palace where Zeus guarded his sacred fire in the center of the cosmos". Rather than there being two separate fiery heavenly bodies in this system, Philolaus may have believed that the Sun was a mirror, reflecting the heat and light of the Central Fire. Johannes Kepler ,

3920-560: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) teach that hell is a state between death and resurrection, in which those spirits who did not repent while on earth must suffer for their own sins (Doctrine and Covenants 19:15–17 ). After that, only the Sons of perdition , who committed the Eternal sin , would be cast into Outer darkness . However, according to Mormon faith, committing

4018-692: The Earth slightly more slowly than the sun). Some scholars have connected the Myth of Er to the Armenian legend of Ara the Handsome (Armenian: Արա Գեղեցիկ Ara Gełec‘ik). In the Armenian story, the king Ara was so handsome that the Assyrian queen Semiramis waged war against Armenia to capture him and bring him back to her, alive, so she could marry him. During the battle, Semiramis was victorious, but Ara

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4116-590: The English word cellar ) and early Irish ceilid ("hides"). Upon the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples , extensions of the Proto-Germanic * xaljō were reinterpreted to denote the underworld in Christian mythology (see Gehenna ). Related early Germanic terms and concepts include Proto-Germanic * xalja-rūnō(n) , a feminine compound noun, and * xalja-wītjan , a neutral compound noun. This form

4214-563: The Eternal sin requires so much knowledge that most persons cannot do this. Satan and Cain are counted as examples of Sons of perdition. In Islam, Jahannam (in Arabic : جهنم) (related to the Hebrew word gehinnom ) is the counterpart to heaven and likewise divided into seven layers, both co-existing with the temporal world, filled with blazing fire, boiling water, and a variety of other torments for those who have been condemned to it in

4312-550: The Gothic haliurunnae may however instead be an agent noun from the verb rinnan ("to run, go"), which would make its literal meaning "one who travels to the netherworld". Proto–Germanic * xalja-wītjan (or * halja-wītjan ) is reconstructed from Old Norse hel-víti 'hell', Old English helle-wíte 'hell-torment, hell', Old Saxon helli-wīti 'hell', and the Middle High German feminine noun helle-wīze . The compound

4410-493: The Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches teach that the judgment hinges on both faith and works. However, many Liberal Christians throughout Mainline Protestant churches believe in universal reconciliation (see below), even though it contradicts the traditional doctrines that are usually held by the evangelicals within their denominations. Regarding the belief in hell, the interpretation of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus

4508-481: The Pythagorean astronomical system. It is around this point that all heavenly bodies were said to rotate. Wrongly translated as Dios phylakê (Διός φυλακή) or "Prison of Zeus", a sort of hell , the Central Fire was more appropriately called "Watch-tower of Zeus" (Διός πυργός) or "Hearth-altar of the universe" (ἑστία τοῦ παντός). Maniatis claims that these translations more accurately reflect Philolaus's thoughts on

4606-443: The Pythagorean view, the universe is an ordered unit. Beginning from the middle, the universe expands outward around a central point, implying a spherical nature. In Philolaus’s view, for the universe to be formed, the "limiters" and "unlimited" must harmonize and be fitted together. Unlimited units are defined as continuous elements, such as water, air, or fire. Limiters, such as shapes and forms, are defined as things that set limits in

4704-630: The Pythagoreans as a unanimous group agreed on a single system before the time of Philolaus. One surviving theory from the Pythagoreans before Philolaus, the harmony of the spheres, is first mentioned in Plato’s Republic . Plato presents the theory in a mythological sense by including it in the Myth of Er , which concludes the Republic . Aristotle mentions the theory in De Caelo, in which he presents

4802-470: The Pythagoreans—the function of the Counter-Earth was to explain "eclipses of the moon and their frequency", and/or "to raise the number of heavenly bodies around the Central Fire from nine to ten, which the Pythagoreans regarded as the perfect number". Some, such as astronomer John Louis Emil Dreyer , have thought that the Counter-Earth followed an orbit such that it was always located between Earth and

4900-493: The Quran. Each is assigned for a different type of sinners. The concept later accepted by Sunni authorities list the levels of hell as follows, although some stages may vary: The highest level ( jahannam ) is traditionally thought of as a type of purgatory reserved for Muslims. Polytheism ( shirk ) is regarded as a particularly grievous sin; therefore entering Paradise is forbidden to a polytheist ( mushrik ) because his place

4998-439: The afterlife must not be denied, but simultaneously asserting its exact nature remains unknown. Other modern Muslims continue the line of Sufism as an interiorized hell, combining the eschatological thoughts of Ibn Arabi and Rumi with Western philosophy. Although disputed by some scholars, most scholars consider jahannam to be eternal. There is belief that the fire which represents the own bad deeds can already be seen during

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5096-539: The afterlife. In the dialogue Plato introduces the story by having Socrates explain to Glaucon that the soul must be immortal, and cannot be destroyed. Socrates tells Glaucon the Myth of Er to explain that the choices we make and the character we develop will have consequences after death. Earlier in Book II of the Republic , Socrates points out that even the gods can be tricked by a clever charlatan who appears just while unjust in his psyche, in that they would welcome

5194-496: The bad deeds. When one has so deviated from the will of God , one is said to be in Gehinnom. This is not meant to refer to some point in the future, but to the very present moment. The gates of teshuva (return) are said to be always open, and so one can align his will with that of God at any moment. Being out of alignment with God's will is itself a punishment according to the Torah . Many scholars of Jewish mysticism, particularly of

5292-567: The center of the universe, this force would allow the earth to revolve around the center without spilling everything on the surface into space. Others maintain that by 500 BC most contemporary Greek philosophers considered the Earth to be spherical. The "mysterious" Counter-Earth (Ἀντίχθων/ Antichthon ) was the other celestial body not visible from Earth. We know that Aristotle described it as "another Earth", from which Greek scholar George Burch infers that it must be similar in size, shape, and constitution to Earth. According to Aristotle —a critic of

5390-410: The central fire, where the interaction between fire and breath created the elements of earth and water. Additionally, Philolaus reasoned that separated pieces of the Central Fire may have created the heavenly bodies. In Philolaus's system, these heavenly bodies, namely the earth and planets, revolved around a central point. This could not be called a Heliocentric "solar system", because in his concept,

5488-429: The central point that the earth and planets revolved around was not the sun, but the so-called Central Fire. He postulated that this Central Fire was not visible from the surface of Earth—at least not from Greece. Philolaus says that there is fire in the middle at the centre ... and again more fire at the highest point and surrounding everything. By nature the middle is first, and around it dance ten divine bodies—the sky,

5586-473: The complete frustration and emptiness of life without God. Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy." The Seventh-day Adventist Church 's official beliefs support annihilationism . They deny the Catholic purgatory and teach that the dead lie in the grave until they are raised for a last judgment , both

5684-556: The cosmos is represented by the Spindle attended by sirens and the three daughters of the Goddess Necessity known collectively as The Fates , whose duty is to keep the rims of the spindle revolving. The Fates, Sirens, and Spindle are used in the Republic , partly to help explain how known celestial bodies revolved around the Earth according to the cosmology in the Republic . The "Spindle of Necessity", according to Plato,

5782-568: The dead to drink. Nonetheless, funerary evidence indicates that some people believed that the goddess Inanna , Ereshkigal's younger sister, had the power to award her devotees with special favors in the afterlife. During the Third Dynasty of Ur , it was believed that a person's treatment in the afterlife depended on how he or she was buried; those that had been given sumptuous burials would be treated well, but those who had been given poor burials would fare poorly. The entrance to Kur

5880-568: The dead". The ancient Mesopotamian , Greek , Roman , and Finnic religions include entrances to the underworld from the land of the living. The modern English word hell is derived from Old English hel , helle (first attested around 725 AD to refer to a nether world of the dead) reaching into the Anglo-Saxon pagan period . The word has cognates in all branches of the Germanic languages , including Old Norse hel (which refers to both

5978-425: The deceased were judged after they paid for crossing the river of the dead and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus. As a place of punishment, it can be considered a hell. The classic Hades , on the other hand, is more similar to Old Testament Sheol. The Romans later adopted these views . The hell of Swahili mythology is called kuzimu , and belief in it developed in the 7th and 8th century under

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6076-518: The eternal damnation which he has incurred..." The Catholic Church defines hell as "a state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed". One finds oneself in hell as the result of dying in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love, becoming eternally separated from him by one's own free choice immediately after death. In the Roman Catholic Church, many other Christian churches, such as

6174-410: The fires of hell. Muhammad said that the fire of Jahannam is 70 times hotter than ordinary fire, and is much more painful than ordinary fire. The seven gates of jahannam , mentioned in the Quran, inspired Muslim exegetes ( tafsir ) to develop a system of seven stages of hell, analogue to the seven doors of paradise. The stages of hell get their names by seven different terms used for hell throughout

6272-591: The good people continue to live in the ancestral realm, Orun Baba Eni ( heaven of our fathers). The Bagobo of the Philippines have the otherworld "Gimokodan", where the Red Region is reserved who those who died in battle, while ordinary people go to the White Region. According to a few sources, hell is below ground, and described as an uninviting wet or fiery place reserved for sinful people in

6370-546: The hell of Sami mythology and Finnish " Tuonela " ("manala"). In classic Greek mythology , below heaven, Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus , or Tartaros ( Ancient Greek : Τάρταρος ). It is either a deep, gloomy place, a pit or abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering that resides within Hades (the entire underworld ) with Tartarus being the hellish component. In the Gorgias , Plato (c. 400 BC) wrote that souls of

6468-570: The hells of the rabbinic literature were pedagogically motivated inventions to encourage respect of the Torah commandments by mankind, which had been regarded as immature. Instead of being sent to hell, the souls of the wicked would actually get annihilated. The Christian doctrine of hell derives from passages in the New Testament . The English word hell does not appear in the Greek New Testament; instead one of three words

6566-512: The hemisphere where Greece was located. There is "no explicit statement about the shape of the earth in Philolaus' system", so that he may have believed either that the earth was flat or that it was round and orbited the Central Fire as the Moon orbits Earth—always with one hemisphere facing the Fire and one facing away. A flat Earth facing away from the Central Fire would be consistent with the pre-gravity concept that if all things must fall toward

6664-549: The hereafter. In the Quran, God declares that the fire of Jahannam is prepared for both mankind and jinn . After the Day of Judgment, it is to be occupied by those who do not believe in God, those who have disobeyed his laws , or rejected his messengers . "Enemies of Islam" are sent to hell immediately upon their deaths. Muslim modernists downplay the vivid descriptions of hell common during Classical period, on one hand reaffirming that

6762-499: The inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts. Purification for those considered justified appears in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where humans experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits but there is no suggestion of eternal torture; the weighing of the heart in Egyptian mythology can lead to annihilation. The Tale of Khaemwese describes

6860-509: The influence of Muslim merchants at the East African coast. It is imagined as a very cold place. Serer religion rejects the general notion of heaven and hell. In Serer religion, acceptance by the ancestors who have long departed is as close to any heaven as one can get. Rejection and becoming a wandering soul is a sort of hell for one passing over . The souls of the dead must make their way to Jaaniw (the sacred dwelling place of

6958-413: The judges, he was told to remain, listening and observing in order to report his experience to humankind. Meanwhile from the other opening in the sky, clean souls floated down, recounting beautiful sights and wondrous feelings. Those returning from underground appeared dirty, haggard, and tired, crying in despair when recounting their awful experiences, as each was required to pay a tenfold penalty for all

7056-399: The moon and around the earth, in which are found generation and change, he calls the sky. However, it has been pointed out that Stobaeus betrays a tendency to confound the dogmas of the early Ionian philosophers, and occasionally mixes up Platonism with Pythagoreanism. According to Eudemus, a pupil of Aristotle, the early Pythagoreans were the first to find the order of the planets visible to

7154-701: The most senior Catholic in England and Wales, said "there's nowhere in Catholic teaching that actually says any one person is in hell". The 1993 Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called 'hell ' " and "they suffer the punishments of hell, 'eternal fire ' ". The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God" (CCC 1035). During an Audience in 1999, Pope John Paul II commented: "images of hell that Sacred Scripture presents to us must be correctly interpreted. They show

7252-420: The naked eye. While Eudemus doesn’t provide the order, it is presumed to be moon – sun – Venus – Mercury – Mars – Jupiter – Saturn – celestial sphere, based on the mystically "correct" order accepted in the time of Eudemus. It is likely that the Pythagoreans mentioned by Eudemus predate Philolaus. In this system the revolution of the earth around the fire "at the centre" or "the fire of the hearth" (Central Fire)

7350-533: The pious but false "man of the people" and would reject and punish the truly just but falsely accused man. In the Myth of Er the true characters of the falsely-pious and those who are immodest in some way are revealed when they are asked to choose another life and pick the lives of tyrants. Those who lived happy but middling lives in their previous life are most likely to choose the same for their future life, not necessarily because they are wise, but out of habit. Those who were treated with infinite injustice, despairing of

7448-415: The planets, then the sun, next the moon, next the earth, next the counterearth , and after all of them the fire of the hearth which holds position at the centre. The highest part of the surrounding, where the elements are found in their purity, he calls Olympus; the regions beneath the orbit of Olympus, where are the five planets with the sun and the moon, he calls the world; the part under them, being beneath

7546-484: The possibility of a good human life, choose the souls of animals for their future incarnation. The philosophic life — which identifies the types of lives that emerge from experience, character, and fate — allow men to make good choices when presented with options for a new life. Whereas success, fame, and power may provide temporary heavenly rewards or hellish punishments, philosophic virtues always work to one's advantage. The myth mentions "The Spindle of Necessity", in that

7644-423: The reliability of ancient non-primary documents, scholars are not absolutely certain that Philolaus developed the astronomical system based on the Central Fire, but they do believe that either he, or someone else in the late fifth century BC, created it. Another issue with attributing the whole of Pythagorean astronomy to Philolaus is that he may have had teachers who were associated with other schools of thought. In

7742-480: The righteous and wicked await the resurrection at the Second Coming . Seventh-day Adventists believe that death is a state of unconscious sleep until the resurrection. They base this belief on biblical texts such as Ecclesiastes 9:5 which states "the dead know nothing", and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 which contains a description of the dead being raised from the grave at the second coming. These verses, it

7840-638: The soul , and advocacy of Christian mortalism, was a feature of Protestantism since the early days of the Reformation with Martin Luther himself rejecting the traditional idea, though his mortalism did not carry into orthodox Lutheranism . One of the most notable English opponents of the immortality of the soul was Thomas Hobbes who describes the idea as a Greek "contagion" in Christian doctrine. Modern proponents of conditional immortality include some in

7938-439: The soul). Only those who have lived their lives on earth in accordance with Serer doctrines will be able to make this necessary journey and thus be accepted by the ancestors. Those who cannot make the journey become lost and wandering souls, but they do not burn in "hell fire". In Yoruba mythology, wicked people (guilty of e.g. theft, witchcraft, murder, or cruelty ) are confined to Orun Apaadi ( heaven of potsherds), while

8036-546: The souls of those who die either rest peacefully, in the case of Christians, or are afflicted, in the case of the damned, after death until the resurrection . While these three terms are translated in the KJV as "hell" they have three very different meanings. According to the Roman Catholic Church, the Council of Trent taught, in the 5th canon of its 14th session, that damnation is eternal: "...the loss of eternal blessedness, and

8134-401: The temporary ruler of hell, is thought of residing in the bottom of hell, from where he commands his hosts of infernal demons. But contrary to Christian traditions, Iblis and his infernal hosts do not wage war against God, his enmity applies against humanity only. Further, his dominion in hell is also his punishment. Executioners of punishment are the 19 zabaniyya , who have been created from

8232-402: The theory as a "physical doctrine" that coincides with the rest of the Pythagorean cosmology, rather than attributing it to myth. Zhmud summarizes the theory thus: 1) the circular motion of the celestial bodies produces a sound; 2) the loudness of the sound is proportional to their speed and magnitude (according to Achytas, the loudness and pitch of the sound depends on the force with which it

8330-502: The twelfth century; and the "Vision of Thurkill" from the early thirteenth century. With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom , the "democratization of religion" offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability. At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they had led

8428-503: The ultimate destruction of the wicked in the Lake of Fire in a consuming fire after resurrection. However, because of the Greek words used in translating from the Hebrew text, the Hebrew ideas have become confused with Greek myths and ideas. In the Hebrew text when people died they went to Sheol , the grave and the wicked ultimately went to Gehenna and were consumed by fire. The Hebrew words for "the grave" or "death" or "eventual destruction of

8526-440: The war. In one tradition, Semiramis' prayers are successful and Ara returns to life. Armen Petrosyan suggests that Plato's version reflects an earlier form of the story where Er (Ara) rises from the grave. Hell In religion and folklore , hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punitive suffering , most often through torture , as punishment after death. Religions with

8624-409: The water, in varying quantities; again, Er only watched. As they drank, each soul forgot everything. As they lay down at night to sleep each soul was lifted up into the night in various directions for rebirth, completing their journey. Er remembered nothing of the journey back to his body. He opened his eyes to find himself lying on the funeral pyre early in the morning, able to recall his journey through

8722-487: The waters of Lethe , the account ( mythos in Greek) was preserved for us. With many other souls as his companions, Er had come across an awe-inspiring place with four openings – two into and out of the sky and two into and out of the ground. Judges sat between these openings and ordered the souls which path to follow: the good were guided into the path into the sky, the immoral were directed below. But when Er approached

8820-494: The wicked deeds committed when alive. There were some, however, who could not be released from underground. Murderers , tyrants and other non-political criminals were doomed to remain by the exit of the underground, unable to escape. After seven days in the meadow, the souls and Er were required to travel farther. After four days they reached a place where they could see a shaft of rainbow light brighter than any they had seen before. After another days travel they reached it. This

8918-426: The wicked", were translated using Greek words and later texts became a mix of mistranslation, pagan influence, and Greek myth. Christian mortalism is the doctrine that all men and women, including Christians, must die, and do not continue and are not conscious after death. Therefore, annihilationism includes the doctrine that "the wicked" are also destroyed rather than tormented forever in traditional "hell" or

9016-590: Was believed to be located in the Zagros mountains in the far east. It had seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass. The god Neti was the gatekeeper. Ereshkigal's sukkal , or messenger, was the god Namtar . Galla were a class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld; their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. They are frequently referenced in magical texts, and some texts describe them as being seven in number. Several extant poems describe

9114-418: Was both dominated by mathematics and "profoundly mystical". Philolaus has been called one of "the three most prominent figures in the Pythagorean tradition" and "the outstanding figure in the Pythagorean school", who may have been the first "to commit Pythagorean doctrine to writing". Most of what is known today about the Pythagorean astronomical system is derived from Philolaus's views. Because of questions about

9212-476: Was known as Kur , and was believed to be ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal . All souls went to the same afterlife, and a person's actions during life had no effect on how the person would be treated in the world to come. The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry dust and family members of the deceased would ritually pour libations into the dead person's grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing

9310-416: Was not yearly, but daily, while the moon's revolution was monthly, and the sun's yearly. It was postulated that the earth's speedy travel past the slower moving sun resulted in the appearance on earth of the sun rising and setting. Farther from the Central Fire, the revolution of the planets was slower still, and the outermost "sky" (i.e. stars) probably fixed. The Central Fire defines the center-most limit in

9408-463: Was slain despite her orders to capture him alive. To avoid continuous warfare with the Armenians, Semiramis, reputed to be a sorceress, took Ara's body and prayed to the gods to raise him from the dead. When the Armenians advanced to avenge their leader, Semiramis disguised one of her lovers as Ara and spread the rumor that the gods had brought Ara back to life, convincing the Armenians not to continue

9506-462: Was the Spindle of Necessity. Several women, including Lady Necessity , her daughters, and the Sirens were present. The souls – except for Er – were then organized into rows and were each given a lottery token. Then, in the order in which their lottery tokens were chosen, each soul was required to come forward to choose his or her next life. Er recalled the first one to choose a new life:

9604-514: Was to balance Earth. Balance was needed because without a counter there would be only one dense, massive object in the system—Earth. The universe would be "lopsided and asymmetric—a notion repugnant to any Greek, and doubly so to a Pythagorean", because Ancient Greeks believed all other celestial objects were composed of a fiery or ethereal matter having little or no density. Myth of Er The Myth of Er ( / ɜːr / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἤρ , translit.   ér , gen .: Ἠρός )

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