db7n+@andrew.cmu.edu (D. Andrew Byler) writes:  >Mark Schnitzius writes:  >>>  Literal interpreters of the Bible will have a problem with this view, since >>>the Bible talks about the fires of Hell and such.   >>  >>This is something I've always found confusing.  If all your nerve endings >>die with your physical body, why would flame hurt you?  How can one "wail >>and gnash teeth" with no lungs and no teeth?  >One can feel physical pain by having a body, which, if you know the >doctrine of the resurrection of the body, is what people will have after >the great judgement.  "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the >life of the world to come."  - Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.  You >will have both body and soul in hell - eventually.  Now this is getting interesting!  I was raised Roman Catholic before becoming an atheist, so I have stated this Creed you quote nearly every Sunday until I was about 18.  For some reason, I always took the 'resurrection' in this statement to mean the resurrection of the soul, but I guess resurrection does strictly mean the raising of the physical body.  I have some questions on this point:  1.  I always thought that Christians believe the descent into hell was  pretty much immediate, and that there are people burning in hell right now.  You seem to be implying that it will not occur until after the "great judgement" (which I read as meaning the proverbial Judgment Day). I was always a little confused on this point, even when I was with the church -- maybe someone can clear it up for me.  Where will my "soul" (which, by the way, I don't believe in) exist until that time?  2.  Will the new body I will have be created out of the same atoms  that my body now is made of, or will it be built from scratch?  My physical body now is susceptible to aging, etc. -- so I guess my new body will have to be radically different in order to be immortal so it can be tortured for all eternity?  3.  Since I will have a physical body, I assume it will need a physical place to exist in -- where is this hell?  In the center of the earth? Do you think we could find it if we dig?  Mark Schnitzius schnitzi@eola.cs.ucf.edu Univ. of Central Florida  [There is not complete agreement on the details of the afterlife.  I think the most common view is that final disposition does not occur until a final judgement, which is still in the future.  In the meantime, some believe that people "sleep" until the final resurrection (or because God is above time, pass directly from death to the future time when the resurrection occurs), while others believe that souls have a disembodied, pre-resurrection existence until then. There are probably other alternatives that I'm omitting.  The new body is generally conceived of being implemented in a different "technology" than the current one, one which is not mortal. (Paul talks about the mortal being raised to immortality, and Jesus' resurrected body -- which is the first example -- clearly was not subject to the same kind of limitations as ours.)  It is assumed that there are enough similarities that people will recognize each other, but I don't think most people claim to know the details.  I don't think I'd say it's the same atoms.  I'd assume there would be some analog of a physical place, but I wouldn't expect to find it under the earth or up in the sky.  I'd suspect that it's in another dimension, outside this physical world, or whatever.  But again, we have little in the way of details.