WEBVTT - Episode 224: Is This a Rung of HELL? 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.200 Welcome to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM paranormal 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.520 podcast network. Now get ready for us Strange Things with 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:08.640 Joshua P. Warre. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:17.159 Welcome to our podcast. Please be aware the thoughts and 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.200 opinions expressed by the host are their thoughts and opinions 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:26.440 only and do not reflect those of iHeartMedia, iHeartRadio, Coast 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:30.880 to Coast AM, employees of premier networks, or their sponsors 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.120 and associates. We would like to encourage you to do 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:56.160 your own research and discover the subject matter for yourself. 0:00:56.520 --> 0:01:00.279 Ready to be amazed by the wizard of weird. This 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:11.920 is Strange Warren. I am Joshua BE Warren, and each 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.280 week on this show, I'll be bringing you brand new 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:19.759 mind blowing content, news, exercises, and weird experiments you can 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:24.640 do at home, and a lot more on this edition 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:33.559 of the show. Is this a rung of hell? By this, 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.399 I'm talking about this world that you and I are 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:44.720 living in right now, this particular realm. Now I understand 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:50.520 immediately some clarification is necessary because I don't know if 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.800 you realize this, but when you listen to this podcast, 0:01:54.640 --> 0:02:00.760 I can hear your thoughts telepathically and I know some 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:06.080 of you are bothered by me even asking that question, 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:07.960 what do you mean is this a rung of hell? 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.600 Because I, as you know, am a big proponent of 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:18.040 thinking positively and trying to manifest good things. And you 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.359 might say, well, if you start telling people that this 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.080 could be a rung of hell, they're going to get 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.880 really depressed and then things are going to start going 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.360 poorly for them. No, no, no, no again, let me explain 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.079 what I mean here, because that is absolutely true. If 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.240 you start looking at your life as a good thing 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.639 or a bad thing, if you're an optimist or a pessimist, 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:50.120 then you will actually start creating these reactions that will 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:54.240 manifest the way you are thinking. And I know when 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.440 it comes to stuff like positive thinking and law of attraction, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.520 there are people who are like, oh, come on, don't 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.280 give me that hippie new age woo woo stuff. But 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:08.520 it's not. It's not, and it's because it works because 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:14.079 of self fulfilling prophecies. I actually did a whole show 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.799 about self fulfilling prophecies I don't have in front of me, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.399 which a number of the show that was what episode. 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:24.560 But the idea is that when you start believing something. 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.000 If you make up your mind about how something is 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.640 likely to turn out good or bad, well, then that 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:33.600 starts to affect the way you behave and then this 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.400 starts to affect the actions that you take, and the 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:42.000 actions that you take lead to real, tangible results. And 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:46.200 so that is the most basic form of manifestation. Now, 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.560 rituals and wands and metaphysical tools and things like that 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.840 can help you with this process, help you keep your 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:54.760 mind in the right place, but ultimately it's about using 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.160 the force. And this is something that comes from within you, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:02.440 from within your mind, your spirit, your soul. So I 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:07.040 definitely would never try to say anything that would start 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.760 making you question whether or not you should feel positively 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.640 or negatively about life. That is a philosophical question. That 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:20.280 is a philosophical question. I'm not talking about that. I'm 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:26.440 talking about this in the literal sense. Is there literally 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:31.839 a reason to believe that, according to various belief systems, 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.720 that if interpreted a certain way, that this might actually 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.839 be a version of hell that we are in. We 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:43.479 are in the midst of it. And I'm going to 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.120 explain to you why that I asked this question. For 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:50.200 one thing, you know, my mom and dad were both 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:54.640 raised in western North Carolina in the mountains. Both had 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.240 big families. My dad was one of seven kids. My 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.680 mother was one of ten children. My mother was the youngest, 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.640 and there was a lot of drama in the family, 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.000 and that is often the case with big families, especially 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.880 if you consider the age of everybody and how that 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.120 you know, the Great Depression made a big impact on people. Anyway, 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.920 my mom had a sister named Paula, so this would 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.680 be my aunt, and of course my mom and Paula 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.200 were very, very close. They spent a lot of time 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.960 with each other. They talked on the phone all the time. 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.679 And Paula had a lot of really kind of tragic 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:37.919 things that happened to her throughout her life, and she 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.640 lived to be a fairly old lady. But towards the end, 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.839 I mean, all the stress for these things had taken 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:49.520 a toll on her mentally, and my mom would say 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:56.719 that Paula was convinced that we are currently living in 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:01.479 a rung of hell, that we are just not capable 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.919 of wrapping our minds around it. And the reason she 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.160 felt that way was because, well, if you look at 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:16.120 it very logically, everybody here gets to suffer. And and again, 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.400 I don't want you to take this the wrong way. 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.320 I'm not trying to depress you, but I just let's 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:26.039 be realistic here for a moment. It doesn't matter if 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.520 you believe that there is no god. Let's just say 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.080 you are an atheist. You don't believe in anything other 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.479 than your personal experience. When you die, it's lights out, 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:39.680 your worm food, that's the end. If you believe that, 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:46.320 well fine, but you still get to suffer. And if 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.240 you don't believe that, if you believe that there are 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:54.919 divine spiritual leaders, if you believe somebody like Jesus Christ 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:00.280 was a perfect person, a living God among us, well 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:07.120 guess what even he had to suffer here in this realm, 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:12.360 suffer horribly. So a place where everybody gets to suffer 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.320 to some degree kind of sounds like the opposite of paradise, 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.160 doesn't it. And isn't that kind of what hell is 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.560 supposed to be. I mean, it's sort of an all 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.800 or nothing proposition in a way. It's like either you 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.280 get a utopia where everything is positive and you don't 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.120 have to feel any pain and all that, or you 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.480 do get it to some degree, and maybe it's a 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:39.000 matter of these degrees. I have never I have never 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:45.400 studied seriously studied Buddhism, but I know that the Buddha 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:52.000 talked a lot about this concept of suffering being the 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:57.400 key to understanding the meaning of life by the way, 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:05.760 Buddha means enlightened one or nowhere fascinating story about Buddha. 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.440 You know, he grew up rich as a prince and 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:15.960 his wonderful, luxurious, sheltered life behind the gates of the palace, 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.880 and then and that was what he sort of believed 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.160 life was like for everybody. And then of course he 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.000 got old enough to go out into the town and 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.320 sort of disguise himself and see how everybody else was living, 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:34.680 and it shocked him. But anyway, Buddha said, we all 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:42.120 have to suffer, and that the root of suffering is attachment, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:48.120 our attachment to this world. In fact, he talked about 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:53.720 what he called the four noble truths. And here is 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.360 kind of in a nutshell what they are, Buddha's four 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:01.719 noble truths. And there is of course a proper pronunciation 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.200 for these. I'm not going to try that out. But 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:10.560 the first one is basically, nothing is forever and that 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:16.720 is painful. I mean, that's a very simple thing. It's 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:19.960 hard to argue that is not true, right, How would 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:24.080 you argue against that? That nothing is forever and that 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:32.640 is painful. Next, that, together with this transient world and 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:39.600 its pain, there is also thirst, craving for, and attachment 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:47.559 to this transient, unsatisfactory existence. So he's sang right off 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:53.520 the bat, nothing is forever, and yet we are we 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:58.600 crave this thing that's impossible to attain because we're attached 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:00.720 to this thing that's that's not gonna be around forever. 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.320 The next is the attachment to this transient world and 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:11.520 its pain can be severed or contained by confining or 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:17.000 letting go of this craving. Interesting, what wouldn't that be 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:24.400 nice if you could just completely accept that this tendency 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.760 to be attached to your world is is theological. And 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:35.200 then lastly, of the four Noble truths is that the 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.680 the the there's a path leading to the confinement of 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.920 this desire and attachment and the release. And that's a 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.600 separate thing called the Noble Eightfold path. And we won't 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:46.719 get into that because that gets into how you might 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:51.719 practice with some of his ideas. And you know, Uh. 0:10:52.280 --> 0:11:03.240 Last year, I saw terrible flooding just devastate large portions 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.160 of western North Carolina where I grew up, and people 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.640 were shocked. They just had no idea that that quickly 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.520 in West North Carolina, all of a sudden, this massive 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:15.560 flood could come through and destroy things. And now look 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.960 what has happened with these people in California who lost 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.800 their homes in the fire. I mean, it's earth shattering. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.400 It's a reminder of the reality of what I'm telling you. 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:29.680 We have to take a break. When we come back 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:31.880 from this break, I'm going to explore this a little 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.480 bit more deeply. Well what supposedly is hell in a 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:40.880 literal sense? And I'm going to also read to you 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.440 something that one of the world's most famous scientists said 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.040 about this. And it's just something interesting for us to 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.800 think about because no matter who you are, no matter 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.080 what you believe, we all have this in common. But 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:57.800 how realistic is this idea? And is there actually something 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:01.800 good about it? You know what, if you want to 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:06.480 take advantage of all of the interesting experiments that you 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:10.120 can participate in that I do, or see new products 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.480 I'm inventing, or sometimes I give away free stuff go 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.960 to Joshua Pewarren dot com. There's no period after the 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.880 P when you type that in, and go to the 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.840 Curiosity Shop. Just take a look around, buy something cool 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.960 for yourself or a loved one. But most importantly, go 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.160 to the homepage and put your email address right into 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.560 the little box to sign up for my free and 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:37.000 spam free e newsletter, and you will instantly receive an 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:39.800 automated email from me that will give you some goodies 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:42.520 to help you start making your life more magical and 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.199 lucky immediately. I am Joshua Pee Warren, and you are 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.319 listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.680 Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network, and I will be right back. 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:34.600 Welcome back to Strange Things on the iHeart Radio and 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:38.400 Coast to Coast a M Paranormal Podcast Network. I am 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.480 your host, the Wizard of Weird, beaming into your wormhole 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:45.800 brain from my studio in Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada, 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:48.960 where every day is golden and every night is silver. 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:59.600 Giatanto zume And uh you know, I hate to uh 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:05.719 hate to remind you, but no matter how great or 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:12.200 how sad your life may be, in your opinion. Well, 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.800 in the end we know how the story. The story 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:22.320 ends here we all die. We all die. Now that 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.320 I know you're thinking, gosh, this is not a very 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.520 positive show. Josh, you're depressing me. I mean, no, wait, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.640 there is a silver lining here. There is a light 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.600 at the end of this tunnel, and I'm going to 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.280 try to work my way there. And I'm definitely you know, 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.800 I'm not a minister. I'm not here to preach you 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:44.600 and tell you I have all the answers. I'm just 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:49.560 asking questions, and I'm thinking about the tradition that we've 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:55.520 received from all these different religions and spiritual philosophies that 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.600 have basically tried to make sense out of the meaning 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.760 of life and what this thing that we sometimes call 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.800 hell might be all about. And you know you've heard 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.400 me say before. I'm one of my good friends, Bill Banner. 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.400 I knew him for years. I was in my twenties 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:14.880 when I met him, and at that time, I guess 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.840 he was probably in his seventies, and so we had 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.600 what you might think I was an unlikely friendship, but 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:23.240 I tell you he was one of my best friends. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:24.800 I used to go over to his house all the time, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.480 we used to hang out, eat pizza and drink beer, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.520 and he it was just like hanging out with another 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:35.400 guy my age. But Bill Banner, he said that the 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.960 thing that is the worst about living to be an 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.800 old man is that you get to watch so many 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:44.960 people that you love die. There's nothing you can do 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.240 about that. So there's always going you know, even if 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.560 you eat your veggies and your exercise and you're blessed 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.320 with good health and you live a long life, and 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.440 you're still going to have sadness in it. It's inevitable. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.360 But if we sit down, we look at like, Okay, 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:03.840 what is the textbook deaf definition of this thing called hell? Anyway, Well, 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.560 here's what we get from the Almighty Wikipedia. In religion 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:12.200 and folklore, hell is a location or state in the 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:17.720 afterlife in which souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.960 often through torture, as punishment after death. Now, right off 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:24.120 the bat, I'm not sure that you can say that's 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.560 an accurate description, because they're saying it's a state in 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.000 the afterlife, and I'm raising the question of is it, 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:37.560 you know, if is it possible that after life is 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.320 a point of view that in other words, if you 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.080 have an immortal spirit, then your spirit has always been around. 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.760 Your spirit's always going to go around. So this might 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.440 be the after life that you're in right now compared 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:54.120 to the life that you were in before, the state 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:58.720 that you were in. But anyway, religions with a linear 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:03.680 divine history a depict hells as eternal destinations, the biggest 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:08.320 examples of which are Christianity and Islam, Whereas religions with 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:16.080 reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations, 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:21.280 as is the case in Indian religions. Religions typically locate 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:26.840 hell in another dimension or under Earth's surface. Other afterlife 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:32.360 destinations include heaven, Paradise, purgatory, limbo, and the underworld. Okay, 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:34.920 I think we all know what we're talking about here. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:38.880 One thing, though, that is, I've always thought this is fascinating. 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:44.480 I've heard historians say that in the Bible, and I 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:46.800 have to talk about the Bible because I was raised up, 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:51.679 you know, as in the Southern Baptists tradition, that's my 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:59.320 background growing up in North Carolina. Scholars have said that 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.600 you know, when you hear hell referred to with the 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:08.000 Bible all the time, that may actually be excuse me, 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.400 it may actually be a little bit less of an 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:22.760 intangible thing than a comparison to a literal spot. In 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:31.960 ancient Jerusalem, there is a place there called Gehenna, and 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.440 in the context of the Bible, the concept of Hell 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:40.960 is often associated with Gehanna. This was a valley. This 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.840 is a physical valley outside of ancient Jerusalem that was 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:48.920 used as a garbage dump where trash was constantly burning, 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:54.320 making it a metaphor for a place of eternal punishment. 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.160 So in that sense, if that's the case, you could 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.439 say that when they're talking about Hell, and instead of 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:06.240 them talking about it as being some place that's like 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.359 a prison that you go to or all these terrible 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:16.399 things happen, that it was actually just a symbolic a 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:23.520 symbolic way of describing the conditions associated with this burning 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:30.240 trash dump. So this is a symbolic interpretation. Yeah, Gahinna 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:38.040 says The exact location is disputed, but the Hebrew Bible 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.880 refers to the valley as valley of the son of Hinhim. 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.520 And then the name was could contract it into Gahinam, 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:49.280 and then finally some ghem in which means hell. So 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:55.439 maybe we are totally out of line when we're talking 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.440 talking about the idea of hell as being some kind 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:03.360 of a supernatural place as much as it is about 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:10.560 repercussions that are going to cause you eternal suffering because 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.800 you don't have a time machine yet. And that's why 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.800 when somebody gets like, let's say somebody has a family 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:22.600 member that gets murdered and then the murderer finally goes 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:25.520 to prison, and they in these reporters, they'll go to 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.080 the family and say, oh, so are you Are you 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:34.080 satisfied now that the murderer is in prison, and they go, well, yeah, 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:37.720 but that's still not going to bring my loved one back. 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.280 There are certain things that you do in life that 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.560 have eternal repercussions, at least in terms of this particular life, 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:50.760 and so we have to ask, you know, how literally 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:56.520 are we talking about this? But if Hell may not 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.560 necessarily be one particular ultimate place where everybody who's bad goes, 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.639 it's like you either make the cut or you don't. 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.600 It's like, if you had not told that one extra lie, 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:10.840 you wouldn't have had to go to Hell. But now 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:12.840 that you did that, well, you get thrown right in 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:18.600 there with Hitler. It was, of course Dante who wrote 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:28.080 the Divine, the Divine comedy, Dante's Inferno. See when did 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.640 he write that? I know it was in the Middle Ages. 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:34.879 It been nice to have a computer write at your 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:39.040 fingertips these days sometimes is it gets okay? Published in 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:43.959 thirteen twenty one, he brought up this interesting idea about 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:48.320 there being circles of hell that you know, this this character, 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:55.399 it gets taken on this this tour. Dante gets taken 0:21:55.440 --> 0:22:03.159 on a tour of hell by Virgil, and there are 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:07.120 nine circles of Hell. And as he goes through these 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.359 different layers of hell, these are like different stories in 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.159 the prison of Hell, you know, like first floor or 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:17.679 second floor or third different things are going on, and 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:25.000 the punishments there are somehow designed to be fitting for 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:31.760 the sin or the crime. So, for example, one of 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.520 the sins here the fourth circle, is devoted to those 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:40.480 who are in hell because of greed. And so for example, 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:43.959 here in the fourth circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:47.760 see the souls of people who are punished for greed. 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.960 They are divided into two groups, those who hoarded possessions 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:58.199 and those who lavishly spent, and they are seen in 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:02.679 hell as jousting with one another. They use great weights 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:07.200 as a weapon, pushing it with their chests, which symbolizes 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:11.919 their selfish pursuit for wealth during their lifetime. Both groups 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:16.160 that are guarded by a character called Pluto, likely based 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:19.320 on the ancient Roman ruler of the underworld, says the 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:22.320 souls are so occupied with their actions that Dante and 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:25.760 Virgil do not even try to speak to them, and 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.760 Dante notes that he sees many clergymen among them, including 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:34.680 cardinals and popes. So we have these these different circles 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:39.879 of hell. The first circle is limbo, the second is lust, 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:45.280 third is gluttony, the fourth one is greed, fifth is anger, 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:50.359 sixth is heresy, seventh is violence, eighth is fraud, and 0:23:50.440 --> 0:23:54.200 the ninth is treachery. But I've always thought that limbo 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:58.000 was particularly interesting. That's the very first one. The first 0:23:58.000 --> 0:24:03.280 circle is limbo. And the idea is that these are 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:09.000 people who never committed to a belief, and so they 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:14.000 live eternally in this landscape, this kind of blank landscape 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:19.879 where they never can go anywhere. You know, that's their 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:23.639 version of hell because they didn't make a commitment. And 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:28.040 that's scary, isn't it. See, that's truly worrisome. It reminds 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:29.840 me of that quote. I'm sure you've heard it before 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:34.480 that all that's necessary for evil men to thrive is 0:24:34.520 --> 0:24:37.560 that good men do nothing. And so you might think 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:40.800 by being complacent and not stirring the pot and letting 0:24:40.840 --> 0:24:43.160 everybody mind their own business, that you're doing the right thing. 0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:46.120 But what if what if it's like, no, you're supposed 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:48.840 to not just float along. You're supposed to go out 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:53.760 and actively do some good things, not just sit around 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:58.679 and not be committed and be neutral about everything. Well, okay, 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:01.959 time for a break again, am you though? This scientist 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:04.560 said something, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you what he said, 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:09.120 and it's it's quite thought provoking. I'm josh wape Warren. 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:12.439 You're listening to Strange Things on the iHeart Radio and 0:25:12.600 --> 0:25:16.520 Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network, and I'll be 0:25:16.600 --> 0:25:55.400 back after these important messages. Welcome back to Strange Things 0:25:56.600 --> 0:26:00.520 on the iHeart Radio and Coast to Coast AM Henormal 0:26:00.680 --> 0:26:05.040 Podcast Network. I'm your host, Joshua pe Warren, and this 0:26:05.080 --> 0:26:11.840 is a show where the unusual becomes usual. For many years, 0:26:12.080 --> 0:26:17.920 I appeared on lots of TV shows, and I finally 0:26:17.960 --> 0:26:19.240 got to a point where I said, you know what, 0:26:19.359 --> 0:26:22.760 I just I think I've had enough with TV. I 0:26:22.800 --> 0:26:28.840 want to focus on other places, other types of art forms, 0:26:29.000 --> 0:26:32.400 other types of media expression. And so I don't really 0:26:32.440 --> 0:26:35.520 do television too much anymore. But back in twenty twelve, 0:26:35.640 --> 0:26:38.840 I was a cast member on a TV series on 0:26:38.880 --> 0:26:43.440 the Travel Channel called Paranormal Paparazzi, and we had our 0:26:43.640 --> 0:26:47.399 main studio in New York City. And I remember that 0:26:47.480 --> 0:26:51.040 one day I was in the studio and one of 0:26:51.080 --> 0:26:56.879 the producers had he stepped out for lunch or something 0:26:56.960 --> 0:26:58.840 like that, and he came back in and he walked 0:26:58.880 --> 0:27:01.920 in and he goes, Wow, I'm starstruck. He says. I 0:27:02.600 --> 0:27:05.840 don't usually get starstruck. But I was walking down the 0:27:05.840 --> 0:27:08.159 street and I look over and I ran into Nil 0:27:08.320 --> 0:27:13.720 de Crasse Tyson, Nil de grass Tyson. Surely you know 0:27:13.760 --> 0:27:21.800 who he is, American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. And 0:27:21.840 --> 0:27:26.960 he's what. He was born in nineteen fifty eight, and 0:27:27.080 --> 0:27:29.560 since nineteen ninety six he has been the director of 0:27:29.600 --> 0:27:33.840 the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and 0:27:33.960 --> 0:27:37.399 Space in New York City. The center is part of 0:27:37.400 --> 0:27:41.480 the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the 0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:46.600 Department of Astrophysics in nineteen ninety seven and has been 0:27:46.600 --> 0:27:49.600 a research associate in the department since two thousand and three. 0:27:49.960 --> 0:27:51.879 You've seen him on TV. He's written a lot of books. 0:27:51.960 --> 0:27:56.280 I mean, he is a very popular scientist who goes 0:27:56.320 --> 0:28:01.120 on TV and goes on the radio. And I recently 0:28:01.200 --> 0:28:09.080 found this interview that he Oh, excuse me. Sometimes when 0:28:09.080 --> 0:28:12.160 I'm here in this desert and the air is so dry, 0:28:12.280 --> 0:28:18.480 this is wintertime right now, it's rough on my voice. Anyway, 0:28:18.600 --> 0:28:26.240 I saw him being interviewed years ago by CBS, and 0:28:26.440 --> 0:28:29.280 I would love to play the audio for you, but 0:28:29.440 --> 0:28:31.680 I don't have the time to go contact CBS and 0:28:31.720 --> 0:28:35.879 get permissions. So I asked my wife Lauren to do 0:28:35.920 --> 0:28:39.400 a transcript. The interviewer was sitting there with Nil de 0:28:39.480 --> 0:28:42.480 Grass Tyson, and she says, do you believe in God 0:28:42.720 --> 0:28:46.840 or a creator? And here's what he said. I'm just 0:28:46.880 --> 0:28:51.080 going to read this verbatim. He answered me. The more 0:28:51.120 --> 0:28:54.160 I look at the universe, the less convinced I am 0:28:54.520 --> 0:28:58.560 that there is something benevolent going on. So if your 0:28:58.680 --> 0:29:01.720 concept of the creator is someone who's all powerful and 0:29:01.760 --> 0:29:06.880 all good. That's not an uncommon pairing of powers that 0:29:06.920 --> 0:29:10.000 you might ascribe to a creator all powerful and all good. 0:29:10.680 --> 0:29:13.680 And I look at the disasters that afflict Earth and 0:29:13.760 --> 0:29:20.000 life on Earth, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, disease, pestilence, congenital 0:29:20.040 --> 0:29:24.840 birth defects. You look at this list of ways that 0:29:24.920 --> 0:29:28.120 life is made miserable on Earth by natural causes, and 0:29:28.160 --> 0:29:31.200 I just think, how do you deal with that? So 0:29:31.280 --> 0:29:33.760 philosophers rose up and said, if there is a God, 0:29:33.960 --> 0:29:36.920 God is either not all powerful or not all good. 0:29:38.280 --> 0:29:40.440 He goes on to say, I have no problem if, 0:29:41.000 --> 0:29:44.280 as we probe the origin of things, we bump up 0:29:44.400 --> 0:29:46.760 into the bearded man, and if that shows up, we're 0:29:46.760 --> 0:29:49.680 good to go. Okay, not a problem. There's just no 0:29:49.800 --> 0:29:52.000 evidence of it. And this is why religions are called 0:29:52.040 --> 0:29:56.320 faiths collectively, because you believe something in the absence of evidence, 0:29:56.880 --> 0:29:59.400 and that's what it is. That's why it's called faith. 0:29:59.520 --> 0:30:02.880