Lucie Lastinger

Is Hell Possible?

February 27 – March 5

The question of the week is “Is Hell Possible?”. Our guest philosopher is Lucie Lastinger, a 6 th grader at Suncrest Middle School . Lucie is a straight-forward, intelligent, confident, and playful 10 year old. Lucie's favorite subject in school is science. After school, Lucie likes to out with her friends and “act crazy.” She also enjoys reading books and watching movies. Her favorite movie of all time, is “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” She also loves the C.S. Lewis book, on which the movie is based. Lucie confessed that she especially enjoys “driving her 17 year old brother crazy.” One day, Lucie pulled a little prank on her brother. According to Lucie, her brother leaves his clothing all over their house. So, one day, after finding his underwear on the bathroom floor, she decided to get him good! Just before her brother left for school one morning, Lucie stuck her brother's boxer shorts in his book bag. When he got to school, he pulled a book out of his bag and out flew his undies, into the middle of the classroom. Lucie was laughing hysterically as she told me this story.

Ok, on to some serious business. After considering a list of philosophical questions, Lucie picked, “Is Hell Possible?”. This is a thorny question from the philosophy of religion. Philosophers and Theologians have worried about whether the idea of a loving God fits with the idea of eternal punishment. Lucie's scientific mind quickly sparked to light. According to Lucie, scientifically speaking, Hell is simply not possible. Hell is supposed to be at the core of the earth and “obviously, that is not a climate suitable for human life. We would die right away in that environment. Thus, Lucie concluded, Hell is not possible.”

I was not satisfied with this fabulous answer from my young philosopher. I wanted Lucie to answer a conceptual, philosophical, puzzle. I asked Lucie to suppose that Hell is a place that could somehow support human life, but a place where our lives would be miserably uncomfortable. I asked Lucie to think about both her conception of God and about whether her conception of God is compatible with the idea of Hell. Lucie, a theist, thinks of God as a being that is a spirit, but also, in some sense, a person. God, according to Lucie is “a female being who understands everything. God can be harsh and strict sometimes, but God is the nicest person in the Universe when you are good.” Lucie's conception of God clearly leaves room open for God to punish since on Lucie's conception, God can be harsh and strict. So, the question for Lucie is not so much whether God would punish bad people, but whether it makes sense to believe that God could punish with the extreme penalty of Hell. Lucie maintained that her idea of God and the standard idea of Hell, as a place of eternal suffering, are paradoxical. God, who loves us and created us, would never send anyone to a Hell like that. The only way for Hell to fit with Lucie's conception of God is if “everyone has a chance to make their way back out of Hell.” Lucie believes everyone is capable of being good. Lucie's God would understand that possibility for redemption, and would punish us in ways that are harsh, but in ways that taught us lessons and led to our moral improvement. Hell is impossible, according to Lucie, if Hell involves the severe punishment of eternal suffering. Lucie's God is simply not that harsh, unforgiving, and unhelpful.