Hell is the Absence of God

    Hell is the Absence of God really stuck out to me in both reading and discussion. One point brought up during discussion that I found particularly interesting was the idea that in reality people cannot see heaven, hell, angels, or God but they choose to believe anyway, while in this story it flips this idea upside down. People can see heaven, hell, and angels, but they choose not to believe. This idea is extremely interesting to me because it would seem to have the opposite effect on people, but Ted Chiang makes the reader think about the concept differently. And when he tells the story, it makes sense, especially in the title. Chiang suggests that if people could actually see hell, they would think that it was not any worse than daily life, and therefore not strive to go to heaven and follow God. This is an interesting concept because as humans, we do tend to think about the worst possible situation and if we can handle it. If we can see the goal and it does not seem worth striving for, then we figure the worst cannot be any worse than it is now. This idea makes sense, and it also makes sense in terms of reality. If Chiang meant to or not, his story suggested to me that there is a reason that humans cannot see the after life or spiritual beings because it would change how we viewed the world and our lives, and it would change what we were striving to accomplish.