729
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

This is legit why people started to believe in Hell- to think there is some kind of justice in the world even if there doesn't seem to be any. Before the late BCs, most people in the Mediterranean didn't believe in Hell, at least as a place of eternal torment for the wicked. They believed in an afterlife that was pretty bleak, but everyone went there. The ancient Greeks and certain Jewish sects began to imagine separate portions of the shared afterlife for particularly evil of righteous people to be punished or rewarded in after death. For the Greeks, these were Tartarus and Elysium, and for the Jewish sects these were Gehenna and Paradise. These concepts arose, particularly within Judaism, as a way to answer the question "why do good things happen to bad people, and why do bad things happen to good people?" And the answer was that the good would be rewarded and the evil tormented in the end, even if things look bad in this life. These ideas were floating around in the time and place Christianity arose, and became incorporated into it.

[-] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

This is legit why people started to believe in Hell

This, and monotheism. You can't have an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent deity if there's observable evil in the world unless "it's all part of God's plan," and/or "people reap what they sow"

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Well, one can, it just wasn’t a good fit for the Abrahamic set.

[-] lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 1 year ago

Does Zoroastrianism not figure into this somewhere? It's generally considered an influence on Judaism that is older than Judaism & ancient Greek tradition. They also have an idea of divine justice in the afterlife with concepts roughly corresponding to heaven, purgatory, hell.

Neither Zoroastrianism nor Judaism consider "hell" a place of eternal torment, more a place where spirits confront their actions to cleanse & purify themselves before reuniting with the divine.

this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
729 points (98.8% liked)

politics

31194 readers
3014 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles. Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to US politics and contain quality and original content. Social Media adjacent hosts like Substack are allowed, but ONLY if they tie back to a company/subsidiary. No personal or friend group blogs and no self-promotion. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and re-hosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing other users of being bots or paid actors.
  3. No memes, trolling, misinformation, or low-effort posts/comments (including reposts). If you see posts like this that anger you, do not engage. Report, block, and live a happier life than they do. Any slap-fight is subject to comment removals. Fights full of rule violations will result in temporary bans to cool off.
  4. No manipulating votes via bots or alt accounts; this will result in permanent bans. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in an account ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be permanently banned.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules and use critical thinking when reading, posting, and commenting. Users that repeatedly have comments or posts removed, weaponize reports, or violate the code of conduct, will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users. The reason(s) behind moderator action(s) are publicly available through the Modlog.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• World News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS