Posted by Gremlin [65.186.201.54 - dsl-65-186-201-54.telocity.com] on 10 May 2002 at 21.25.52 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: you're wrong.... posted by SomeGuy52 on 10 May 2002 at 05.20.14 ZuluTime:

You've pretty much got it. While hell is mentioned in the bible, it's not particularly described as the modern concept of some firey underworld.
     However: the bible wasn't really the introduction of hell either.

We already know that the bible plagiarised a number of older myths, and really has little original content. Hell seems to be a sort of incompetent parody of the Norse Nastrand: Odin's chosen warriors [not to be confused with Yhvh's 144,000 predestined morons] went to Valhalla, Hel was a sort of resting place where the dead could relax, and Nastrand was the place to which those guilty of irreconcilable sins were sent to be tortured throughout eternity.
     When christianity wanted complete control, the idea of Hel was dropped, since there was no particular sense of loss there. You can't really persuade anyone with Pascal's Wager as 'if you believe in Yhvh and are wrong, you're out nothing, but if you don't believe in Yhvh and are wrong, you end up resting throughout eternity'. So Hel was dropped and replaced by Nastrand, in which everyone from murderers and Microsoft Technical Support to simple Pascal's Losers are sent to be eternally tormented at the whim of this benevolent deity of infinite patience.
     Apparently, the reason Hell sounds phonetically like Hel instead of Nastrand is that, initially, failure to be one of these 144,000 christians simply prohibited one from getting backstage to the eternal party of Heaven; when it turned out that no one really cared about getting into Heaven [or Valhalla] for the sake of being rewarded, Hell changed more into Nastrand, where, instead of eternal rest, these antichristians faced eternal torture.

Personally, I don't really care either way. If and when Odin comes forward to prove his existence and mentions that he's renounced his position as the creator of the universe to Yhvh, I'll start to worry about it. Until then, the best course of action is to make sure Quetzalcoatl is happy and to raise our midichlorian counts high enough to poof into spectres when the Force no longer sees fit to keep us alive.