Hell is the Absence of God - Ted Chiang (2001)

[@bclarky12]

Wow what an hour long experience. Really gave me chills, thanks! And thanks to God for the internet.

[@GaiaCarney]

Thank You for sharing the magic of Ted Chiang’s writing 🙏🏾

[@raymondmetzer2064]

Everyone gets what they wished for: be careful what you wish for, it may not be what you desire.

[@ttrestle]

Faith is the excuse that people give when they have no good evidence.

[@WanderingWonderer10]

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions..

[@olinater5]

He’s have liked to have become a preacher😂

[@ZincLeadAlloy]

Just came to look at the comment section for this

[@olinater5]

@@ZincLeadAlloy I honestly forgot why I wrote this comment lmao

[@ZincLeadAlloy]

@@olinater5 haha so sorry to Necro! The narrator read the line like 7-8 times and that's what you commented on

[@madamebutterfly851]

​@ZincLeadAlloy that was awkward

[@parkpatt]

Damn that was a good story! Great ending. Very nice reading, as well! Could have been a slightly slower for me -- had me wishing there was a 90% playback speed option. But great job overall and I really enjoyed the story.

[@bmoneybby]

you can playback any speed you want.

[@parkpatt]

@@bmoneybby It's limited to 25% increments and 75% was too slow. I was saying I wished there were a setting between 75% and 100%. But mainly I wanted to give the creator some constructive criticism so they can keep doing this and keep improving.

[@sciezka5293]

@@parkpatt It's a little too late and you may have already figured it out but you can use a custom speed slider and select other speeds besides the 25% increments.

[@parkpatt]

@@sciezka5293 did not know that, thank you.

[@Noentiendo64FTW]

Thank you

[@D4veJap4n]

Well done bro. Well read thank you

[@Sixnipplesonebreast]

I appreciate this angle on the idea of god as a seemingly indifferent diety to the plight and suffering of humanity. There is no satan to this story; indeed, the path to an eternity in hell is simply not loving god. The presence of angels is chaos embodied as nature shatters in their presence with only fallen angels being those whose presence offers normality. When questioned, they offer only that the people decide for themselves. Again the narriative is suggested that the mere act of questioning may be enough to lose god's grace. In this, I see god as a petty being, one who does not ask but demands unwavering loyalty and *even then*, that does not guarantee heaven as the serial rapist found salvation after death. Ethan's take seems the best in the story's universe in that god just is and nothing more. Your praise is for a diety who is, more or less, indifferent to their lives. Even those who find pain as consequence of the arrival are given no tolerance for doubt. The paradoxical nature of requiring one to love someone who acts as an abuser is both intriguing and simoultaneously disgusting. Requiring one's love despite the terror you inflict onto them is hostile, cruel, and inhuman. However, in this story, they are necessitated towards seeing all ailments and vectors of distress, discomfort, and disarray as blessings and thank him for acting upon them at all. Indeed, they are to give praise for even being noticed by him at all although by the story itself, being noticed does not seem to be what occurs but rather consequential happenstance due to the destructive nature of the angelic beings. The loss of Neil's wife in such a brutal manner would justifiably bring anyone distress and misery and, therefore, should be seen as fair and reasonable just as we are to give compassion at a child who weeps over a loved pet passing and, in their misery, lashes out in anguish and anger. In spite of his desire to find love for god, an act which would inextricably lead him to being devout and casting aside his selfish intent, resulted in his being cast to hell. This summation of his agenda of course the drive to mitigate his pain and be reunited with his loved one. If an all-knowing, all-loving being were to do this, it would undeniably be cruel as, in his understanding he would already know the outcome of everyone's lives and, therefore, purposely create doomed souls. We cannot find that god in this story, however, as the one presented seems no more predictable than the roll of dice. Being devout does not guarantee reward or blessing and being sinful does not guarantee punishment. It therefore falls into the notion that god works in ways beyond any human's understanding. This, however, would naturally result in bitterness and rejection as the demand for obedient love in the face of randomness can in no way lead to an appreciation of fairness and justice. As the story goes, we see that Janice does not seem to be blessed with legs but rather experiences a chance consequence of an angel's presence (not visit but just existing under god's agenda with god's praise empowering them to be as destructive as they are) and finds distress in her gift of legs. In an attempt to gain understanding or to request the blessing be given to those with need, she is instead struck blind by heaven's light. The light itself, a beam originated by heaven, seems to force all those who witness and experience it to love and praise god. Any notion of free will should fall flat for this story's universe as heaven seems to strip these beings of it. As for the angels, perhaps their birth within heaven or their creation by god renders them immune to heaven's light and allows them the ability to question and doubt but we'll never know. All we do get to see is that those struck by the illumination of heaven are left not just with no eyes, but without the physical space required for eyes to exist at all. Those afflicted, however, are changed by the experience and find unyielding love for god, something that seems altogether awe-inspiring as heaven must be so unimaginably great that these individuals are forever changed in his service and disturbing as it seems they have no option otherwise but to become it. Neil is doomed to an eternity of a life without god but is "blessed" with unyielding love for that which turns a blind eye on him and does not love in return. Any notion that an eternity of punishment for a limited life of not sin but ambivalence should be automatically seen as unjust but these people, these individuals who have undeniable proof, are in some sense given no choice but to appreciate it as god's love. I cannot help but to feel impressed by this short story's creation and inspired to further consider god in this fashion. I don't see this story as an appreciation of god but rather as consequence of someone who either appreciates the uncaring nature of a diety who we are told exists and loves us so or by a non-believer critiquing the faith and the believers by highlighting the absurdity and contradictions within their conviction. Ultimately, this story is bussin' af ong frfr and I hope more hear it.

[@deathstreak555555]

im almost certain that Chiang is a secular/agnostic highlighting the absurdity of mainstream apologetic refutations to the problem of evil - which mostly consist of arguments along the lines of “god allows suffering because the suffering leads to a greater objective good in the inconceivable felicific calculus of the creator.” cool story !!

[@wilsonwilson137]

So good

[@Maestro4759]

Reminds me of a story by Theodore Sturgeon where angels are real and police earth, god must also be real in that story too. Ted Chiang story I like more because he takes a more realistic setting for the premise.

[@threblog]

"And then he sent him to Hell anyway!" 😂

[@gradeahonky]

That line is one of the very few that has made me gasp outloud while reading.

[@mc101]

Thanks, I love this story. It has an amazing ending.

[@GaiaCarney]

I envision the angels as ‘Biblically Accurate Angels’ since they create so much awe, fear & havoc! Thanks for sharing this, QNDRCH ☺️

[@thewizardofodds6839]

He'd have like to become a preacher remix!! Lol good job tho

[@chumboplumbo9546]

Anyone else here because of Slime

[@CorgiPuppie]

Yuhhj

[@t.l.c.5510]

Idiots - Psa 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

[@D4veJap4n]

True that God is in all places. But this is fiction. And it’s read by a very kind man who took time out of his day to read to others who would hear him or can’t read well themselves. Coming in out of nowhere calling people idiots makes you quite the bully

[@pzeng96]

He’s going to hell lol