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Pope Francis has died

(www.reuters.com)
916 points phillipharris | 1 comments | 21 Apr 25 08:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.214s | source
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fleabitdev ◴[21 Apr 25 09:42 UTC] No.43750020[source]▶
Last year, an interviewer asked Francis how he envisages hell. His response stayed with me: “It’s difficult to imagine it. What I would say is not a dogma of faith, but my personal thought: I like to think hell is empty; I hope it is.”
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fastball ◴[21 Apr 25 09:53 UTC] No.43750085[source]▶
Nothing from the Bible indicates that hell is empty, so that is indeed an interesting response from the Pope.
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andybak ◴[21 Apr 25 11:59 UTC] No.43750925[source]▶
The bible only has sparse and often contradictory references to hell - so it's very difficult to state "what the Bible says about hell" as if there's a unified picture laid out.
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1. krapp ◴[21 Apr 25 23:14 UTC] No.43757533[source]▶
The concept and nature of an afterlife, divine justice and punishment, and the existence of "Hell" (which is mostly a Christian invention) has evolved over the millennia of text which make up Biblical canon.

It's always a mistake to assume the Bible has a singular, coherent, intentional narrative. Parts of it were written before the Israelites were even monotheists. It has as many Gods as it has authors.