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Judging by pictures
Hell looks more interesting
Than that other place.
Old Japanese proverb
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The original Jewish conception of Hell was known as Sheol, where the souls of the dead existed in a place of nothingness, without punishment. Over time Sheol became the place of fire, or Gehenna, where there is no devil, and the ruler is God. Punishment would be weighted by the seriousness of the sins committed during life; some might escape the hell-fire after one year, while others might, after serving their time, be destroyed. The worst sinners, however, would have to stay there for eternity.
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The Christian version of Hell is a place of fire and brimstone. The ruler of
Hell is Satan; originally an angel, he refused to serve God and was cast out of Heaven. There were many other angels exiled to Hell along with Satan. When God created humankind, Satan immediately began his career of tempting people to do evil; he was soon filling Hell with souls gone bad, and he continued to devise more and more creative temptations. Christian Hell is seen as a place where souls endure endless agony, and once a soul enters Hell there is no chance of escape.
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There are as many Buddhist views of Hell as there are branches of the religion. Many believe that life is Hell and one continually relives it through reincarnation; one can only escape this cycle by achieving enlightenment, or Nirvana. Other Buddhists believe that there are eight Hells where souls go between incarnations; each Hell requires that a soul spend a certain length of time there, to be determined by the type of sins committed. Certain Tibetan Buddhists believe that the souls of sinners are reincarnated as rodents, and that the life of a rodent is that soul's Hell. Others believe that between lives the soul goes through a forty-nine day Hell during which the soul is tested through torture by Yama-Raja (the Lord of Death) and his demons. Yama-Raja judges whether a soul goes to Heaven or Hell by counting its good and bad deeds. Hell, however, is not a place where one spends eternity; once a soul has repented or served its time in Hell it is reincarnated.
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The eighteen levels of the old Chinese caste system were carried over into the Taoist 18-level Hell, whose master is known as Yan-Wang. When a person dies the gods of Heaven and Yan-Wang argue over the soul. If Yan-Wang wins, the soul is sent to Hell where it is tortured by demons who had once been members of the same caste. Yan-Wang and his demons can be bribed by the burning of paper money from the soul's living relatives. If a person dies an unnatural death they are allowed to trick another person who has died in the same manner into going to Hell in their place. The Chinese also believe that once a soul has repented or served out its time in Hell it is reincarnated.
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