Is hell the absence of God? No – it can’t be and I will try and explain why.
According to the Christian faith God created everything from nothing at all. He just spoke and it all came into being ex nihilo. It is interesting to note that theists often use this as a reason why they do not believe in the big bang. anyway, there are two possibilities here – God literally created everything from nothing or God created everything from the only “thing” that existed at the time – himself.
If the first is true, then God (being perfect) deliberately created a place where he did not exist, nor was interested in.
If the second is true, then God IS everywhere and he IS everything – including in hell.
Since the second option seems unpalatable to many theists since it destroys the idea of hell being a place separated from god, so we will not consider a viable option.
This would mean an all knowing and all loving being deliberatly created a place where he did not exist, from nothing at all. Hey, he’s God so he can do whatever he likes – right?
What kind of all loving being creates a place where he is not, then punishes those who do not follow him by throwing them into that area of his creation? This seems incompatible with the nature of God, hence he either cannot be all loving, or all knowing. This destroys the concept of God that many theists hold.
Before anyone suggests that we choose hell because of our free will to sin against God, then I ask
“Why can’t your God predict the results of giving us free will”?
Did he deliberately and perfectly decide to impose a kind of self-amnesia to see what would happen? Would he be able to predict the results of doing this before he even started?
It seems dealing with absolutes is not a very good idea. I would recommend everyone should steer clear of them.
