Go To Hell: Tickets From $50 (for a good cause)

Pope Frank has been having one hell of a time in the past year or so. In May 2014 he announced that mobsters can't take 'blood stained money' to the after-life. Here's more of what he said...

"This life that you live now won't give you pleasure. It won't give you joy or happiness," he said. "Blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can't bring it with you to your next life. Repent. There's still time to not end up in hell, which is what awaits you if you continue on this path."

In January of 2014 a story circulated that Pope Frank said
that the Roman Catholic Church "no longer believes in a literal hell where people suffer."  The story also attributed the Pope as saying that hell was a "literary device" and "metaphor."

The story was untrue...a media hoax. You can't believe everything you read or see on the internet, including my blog.

Now, imagine the excitement at World Baptist Headquarters (somewhere in the deep southern United States) when this false media report hit the internet. I can imagine that they would have been in a tizzy. It's my understanding that the Born-Again Baptists are not big fans of the Catholic Church. If what the Pope said was true then the Baptists would have had to re-write all of their marketing material and re-tool their rhetoric, plus printing is rather expensive. Their marketing department would have been in utter chaos. They, no doubt, are happy that hell is back in vogue.

So, Ian, what are your thoughts on hell?

Oh, that's easy. I believe that hell was invented to control people. It's one of the most effective marketing tools ever invented. And I do mean 'invented'. I firmly believe that. 

Hell, I proffer, exists in two places:

1) the mind
2) on Earth today.

Hell exists for those who suffer at the hands of ISIS, military conflict, domestic dispute, racism, intolerance, bullying, disease, Vikings, famine, etc. All human-made conditions (mostly man-made). This is the hell that I mention as being 'on Earth today'. The other hell (shall we call it the biblical hell?) lives in the mind, but only if you believe in it.

I suppose there is one other kind of hell....a blended hell that lives in your mind but may also exist on Earth. 

I assume that explains today's image?