Hell

After a post on Heaven, it seems appropriate to do a post on Hell.

The fundamental point of existence is to change. Everything we do and are is centered on our ability to change. We are presented with scenarios in life, and how we choose to react to these scenarios is what causes us to change one way or another. Life is change. If you are alive, you are changing.

Movement is a fundamental form of change. You cannot change without moving. Even something as simple as seeing or hearing requires movement. Sight is the reaction to the movement of photons: they move through space and strike your retinas. The cells in your retinas react by triggering the movement of neurotransmitters, which cause impulses to move to your brain, which causes cascades of reactions, which you interpret as sight.

Hearing is the same: the initial movement is the waves of differing air pressure. Taste, touch, and smell are the same. All perception requires movement. Our ability to perceive and interact with the world around is derived from motion.

There is an opposite to life, movement, and change, but it is not “death”. Death is a part of life, because death is a change. The opposite of life is “staticness”. It is the absence of change. This is Hell.

If you read the scriptures, you’ll notice that “Heaven” is always described as an extremely hot place. We read about how God “dwells in everlasting burnings” or how His glory is “like the Sun”, etc. God is in his blazing solar inferno. Further out, you get to the moon, which still shines with brilliance and light, but is a far cry from the nuclear furnace of the Sun. And further out from there you get the distant, pinpricks of stellar light. (And yes, I know that stars are actually their own blazing infernos, but we’re talking about things from our earthly POV)

Thus, the further away from God you get, the colder things get (this is something that Dante got right). Physically, this makes sense. Heat comes from the movement of particles. The faster they move, the “hotter” they are. “Heat” is a way of measuring how fast particles are moving. “Cold” is the absence of movement. The “colder” you are, the slower your particles are moving.

Hell (or “Outer Darkness” in Mormon parlance) is the coldest place of all. It is the place without movement. It is the place where everything exists at absolute zero. In this state, nothing affects you, but you can also affect nothing. You cannot see, taste, touch, smell, or hear. You cannot move. You cannot act, because any thing you might try to do has no effect. Hell is eternal solitary confinement. It is the place of no actions, and thus no consequences. It is the place of eternal boredom. You will exist forever, utterly impotent.

Lucifer’s plan was that he wanted a system where he could say there were no consequences to actions. All would be saved, no matter, what they do. Ironically enough, he will get exactly that. He will end up in a place where there are no consequences.