Hell is real and eternal: Pope2. Comment #27968 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on March 27, 2007 at 1:07 pm
3. Comment #27972 by GBile on March 27, 2007 at 1:14 pm
4. Comment #27973 by USA_Limey on March 27, 2007 at 1:15 pm
5. Comment #27978 by AtheistJunkie on March 27, 2007 at 1:32 pm
6. Comment #27979 by TheRationalist on March 27, 2007 at 1:35 pm
This story has been the subject of a fairly lengthy blog over at7. Comment #27980 by RossJohnson on March 27, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I love this:8. Comment #27981 by Janus on March 27, 2007 at 1:37 pm
9. Comment #27983 by Fedler on March 27, 2007 at 1:39 pm
10. Comment #27985 by Eamonn Shute on March 27, 2007 at 1:51 pm
11. Comment #27986 by Kevin Ronayne on March 27, 2007 at 1:52 pm
12. Comment #27988 by FraserH on March 27, 2007 at 1:56 pm
New to this so nowt fancy, but ...13. Comment #27989 by Shuggy on March 27, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Beneath the Bishops are your local parish priests.
14. Comment #27991 by Shuggy on March 27, 2007 at 2:12 pm
In October, the Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a "halfway house" between heaven and hell, was "only a theological hypothesis" and not a "definitive truth of the faith".
15. Comment #27992 by shetlandforpeace on March 27, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I'm with you on this one USA Limey.16. Comment #27993 by Rick Stromoski on March 27, 2007 at 2:22 pm
>>>Beneath the Bishops are your local parish priests.17. Comment #27994 by Shuggy on March 27, 2007 at 2:24 pm
The Pope, based in the Vatican in Rome, is the figure head for Christianity throughout the world. Similar in role to that of a President.
The Bishop of a territory reports to a corresponding Cardinal, who covers an even larger area.
(if clergy can be said to have a rank system)
18. Comment #27997 by PaulJ on March 27, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful...Just like the the bread and wine, which really does change into the body and blood, not just symbolically.
19. Comment #27998 by mikebreed on March 27, 2007 at 2:37 pm
This nuts idea about Hell, and our 'free will' to accept Salvation, reminds me of the line quoted by Christopher Hitchens in the superb debate with Stephen Fry (http://tinyurl.com/33g6hb): "We are created sick and commanded to be well."20. Comment #27999 by Fedler on March 27, 2007 at 2:51 pm
21. Comment #28000 by jeepyjay on March 27, 2007 at 2:52 pm
The Pope says, when addressing a parish gathering: Hell really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more. But: Vatican officials say the Pope was speaking in simplified language like a parish priest to local idiots, and [officially] Hell is a state of eternal separation from God, symbolical rather than physical.22. Comment #28001 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 2:52 pm
23. Comment #28002 by infidel_michael on March 27, 2007 at 2:54 pm
"state of eternal separation from God"24. Comment #28004 by denoir on March 27, 2007 at 2:55 pm
'In 1999, pope John Paul II said heaven was "neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but that fullness of communion with God, which is the goal of human life".'
I wonder what he thinks now?
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.
26. Comment #28006 by mtg101 on March 27, 2007 at 2:58 pm
27. Comment #28007 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 2:59 pm
28. Comment #28009 by Planeswalker on March 27, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Of course I'll believe in Hell when the Pope says it exist! Seriously, has the Pope ever been wrong about anything? I don't think he has! He is obviously the most reliable and researching source of information you can possible get. How is Dawkins going to argue with this?!29. Comment #28010 by the great teapot on March 27, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I am confused by HenriBergson saying the article contradicted itself and sometimes atheists can be as dumb as theists.30. Comment #28012 by Reg on March 27, 2007 at 3:26 pm
"God had given men and women free will to choose whether "spontaneously to accept salvation ... the Christian faith is not imposed on anyone, it is a gift, an offer to mankind"."31. Comment #28015 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 3:29 pm
32. Comment #28016 by jonecc on March 27, 2007 at 3:29 pm
"The problem is not only that our sense of sin has declined, but also that the world wars and totalitarianisms of the 20th century created a hell on earth as bad as anything we can imagine in the afterlife," Professor Bagliani said.
33. Comment #28017 by mmurray on March 27, 2007 at 3:32 pm
"Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol"
"hell is a "state of eternal separation from God", to be understood "symbolically rather than physically"
34. Comment #28018 by the great teapot on March 27, 2007 at 3:33 pm
The point is the Pope said it, then a vatican official- not the Pope- said something different.35. Comment #28019 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 3:36 pm
36. Comment #28020 by ryanbooker on March 27, 2007 at 3:37 pm
37. Comment #28021 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 3:40 pm
38. Comment #28022 by the great teapot on March 27, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Look don't shoot the messangers.39. Comment #28023 by Nikki on March 27, 2007 at 3:45 pm
"Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire"40. Comment #28028 by Russell Blackford on March 27, 2007 at 4:11 pm
When I first glanced at the headline, my brain "chunked" it as something like: "Hell is a real and eternal Pope."41. Comment #28029 by Priapus on March 27, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Friday September 30, 200542. Comment #28030 by Fishpeddler on March 27, 2007 at 4:18 pm
43. Comment #28035 by tommymato on March 27, 2007 at 4:42 pm
When I was very young, catholic priests used to scare us with this lovely explanation of hell and eternity:44. Comment #28037 by APPlet on March 27, 2007 at 4:44 pm
45. Comment #28038 by Zaphod on March 27, 2007 at 4:48 pm
46. Comment #28039 by FXR on March 27, 2007 at 4:50 pm
47. Comment #28040 by PaulJ on March 27, 2007 at 4:50 pm
The first statement is by the present Pope the second by the previous Pope. So no conflict -- just different Popes.So not only are different religions claiming incompatible and mutually exclusive 'facts' about the universe, but different heads of the same religion are doing it.
48. Comment #28043 by js5535 on March 27, 2007 at 5:03 pm
http://images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/images/e/e4/1114042816247.jpg 49. Comment #28047 by vega on March 27, 2007 at 5:30 pm
50. Comment #28049 by sane1 on March 27, 2007 at 5:40 pm
1. Comment #27967 by Cancerfish on March 27, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I wonder what he thinks now?
Other Comments by Cancerfish