by Bob Duden

Created on: February 28, 2010   Last Updated: December 10, 2010

Any discussion about hell needs a starting point.  There must be some parameters defining exactly just what hell is.  Dante Alighieri's fourteenth-century epic poem Divine Comedy is referred to as Dante’s Inferno, Dante’s Hell.  It has become the starting point for all definitions of just what hell might be. The poem is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely believed to be the medieval concept of hell. The Italian poet described hell as the place below purgatory with nine descending circles of oblivion, each one worse than the one before.  The lower you went, the deeper into the abyss you descended, the worse your sins.  Dante gave meaning to the idea of hell but, the concept of hell dates back long before Dante, back to the dawn of mankind, and the definition of hell is not quite as clear as what he penned.  

'To hell and back' might be an expression of life's turmoil and turnaround, we've all been to hell and back at some time in our lives, but has any one actually been to hell and come back?  Can anyone describe what hell actually looks like?  So, the concept of hell becomes a concept of defining exactly what the parameters of hell could be.  The definition of hell is lost in the individual's interpretation of hell.  No one knows just what hell is and so, 'life is hell' could easily be the answer - the definition of hell.

It is almost impossible to describe hell without tossing religion into the mix.  The idea of hell is rooted in the oldest of religious teachings and it is always referred to as the underworld, the place below where lost souls go.  Fire and brimstone are common terms describing hell.  Fire is easily defined, but what is brimstone?  Do all those lost souls spend eternity sitting on top of flaming brimstone?  Is the center of the earth the location of hell?  All those old and dormant volcanos funneling their way down into the bowels of the earth must be the doorways into hell.  And, if by definition, ‘go to hell’ means entering one of those doorways, do the lost souls have to ring the doorbell, or does God just let them in?  ‘Hell’s bells’ now has meaning.   

So, when someone tells you to 'go to hell', is that where you go - down below?  And what actually goes there?  Twenty-one grams is a unit of weight associated with death.  In 1907, Dr. Duncan

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