How Galileo Calculated the Size of Hell

Hello ATS!

With the publication of the "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri, the outlines of hell for the broad masses of believers have become quite "tangible". The poet described hell as a huge funnel in the ground, covered with a domed roof. Inside, the funnel was divided into nine tiers (9 circles of hell), where the last circle was intended for the most terrible criminals.

The initiator of the creation of the mathematical structure of hell was the Academy of Fine Arts of the glorious city of Florence. In 1588, in this city, Galileo Galilei, who was only 24 years old, was the undisputed authority in the field of mathematics. The young man was instructed by the Academy to calculate the size of the underworld, and it was necessary to be based on the creation of Alighieri. And Galileo enthusiastically set to work.

There were already certain outlines in this area, the Florentine architect Antonio Manetti had already tried to describe the structure of hell in mathematical language. Manetti also imagined the underworld as a huge cone-shaped funnel, closed by a dome, which was formed when Lucifer was cast down from heaven.



Galileo's first task was to determine the size of the funnel. From Dante's poem it was already known that in the center of the dome that covers hell is Jerusalem.

The sun was already approaching, we are invisible,
With that horizon, whose half-day circle
The top lay on top of Jerusalem

It was also known that the "gates to hell" are located in the labyrinths under the temple of Apollo near the settlement of Kuma.

According to the known distance between Jerusalem and Kum, Galileo was able to establish the diameter of the infernal funnel, it turned out to be approximately 5500 km (according to estimates of that time, the cities were located at a distance of about 2700 km from each other).



After analyzing the lines of the Divine Comedy, Galileo came to the conclusion that the radius of the Earth coincides with the diameter of the cone, therefore, at a depth of 5500 km underground there is the top of hell, where Satan languishes.

Based on the calculations of Manetti and the book of Dante, the young mathematician came to the conclusion that the generatrix of the cone of hell makes an angle of 60 degrees with its base.

Galileo's next step was to apply proportional scaling to the Divine Comedy data. He compared the sizes of all familiar objects with the parameters of the devil. Thus, it was possible to establish that Satan had a height of 1180 m.



Since Alighieri pointed out that hell is covered with a dome, Galileo decided to calculate the parameters of this dome. How thick should it be so as not to crumble under its own weight?

Galileo took the dome of the Florentine Cathedral as the basis for his own calculations. Its thickness, with a diameter of 45 m, was 4 m. Having made calculations using the "method of simple proportions", similarly to the growth of Satan, the mathematician came to the conclusion that the thickness of the dome of hell should be 460 kilometers.

But the great Italian was wrong. The proportions were correct for a cathedral, but completely unsuitable for a dome of such enormous size. Galileo realized his mistake while giving lectures on the structure of the underworld, he realized that the thickness was too small, and the dome could not withstand its own weight.

Galileo preferred to keep silent about this fact, but later he deduced the famous square-cube law, which is still used by many engineers.

Thank you.

Religious dogma supported by fiction, even if it was epic poetry, it still wrong. Hell is a myth, a very bad myth. Dante got it wrong. Milton got it wrong. Mary K Baxter got it wrong. Most of what used to be known as Christendom got it wrong.

1. There is no mention of Hell in God’s Creation of the Cosmos – therefore, Hell is uncreated by God or anyone else. See Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 65:17, Jeremiah 7:31, 19:5. John 1:3 explicitly states that God made all, and that no other person or agency made anything. The Bible contains many instances of “heaven and earth” paired together as a term…without “hell” being involved, i.e., no “hell and earth” or “heaven and hell.”

2. In the first chapter of Genesis, it is stated six times that God saw that what He had made was good, excluding Hell as being possible, as the Creation could not have been wholly good had Hell been in existence. See Genesis 1:10,12,18,21,25,31.

3. The Creation is properly a hierarchy, not a dualistic Heaven versus Hell, with the Earth and humans as a contested prize, fought over by God and Satan. See Genesis 1:1, Job 1 & 2, John 1:3, Philippians 2:10, Revelation 5:13.

4. God made both good and evil, for the same Hand that planted the Tree of Life also planted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Therefore, Satan did not make or create evil. See Genesis 2:9, Isaiah 45:7, Lamentations 3:38, Amos 3:6.

5. The Bible makes no connection between Satan and Hell, so Satan is NOT the Prince of Hell, but is bound to the Earth. See Job 1:6-7, 2:1-2, Zechariah 3:1-2, Revelation 2:13, 12:9.
6. The Law that God gave to Moses warned of death, but did not specify punishment in Hell, or warn of it. Punishments were delivered in the real world, and the most severe was simple death. See Genesis 2:17, Exodus through Deuteronomy, Romans 6:23.

7. All the consequences of human disobedience to God are worked out in the real, here-and-now world – not in Hell. This includes death, destruction, perishing, God’s wrath and His cursings. See Deuteronomy 28:15-68, 30:19, Ezekiel 32:32, Romans 13:4.

8. All people die, but none of them go to Eternal Conscious Torment – only to the grave or pit...and non-existence. See every instance of personal death in the Bible, with “hell” (if present) properly replaced with “sheol” or “hades,” as so often noted in the center or marginal reference column.

9. For the Hebrews, “sheol,” (hidden, covered and unknown), was the state, condition or place of the dead. It was where the body returned to dust and the spirit returned to God (Who gave it). See Genesis 3:19, Ecclesiastes 12:7.

10. Eternal Conscious Torment depends on the concept of the Immortality of the Soul, and that comes, not from the Bible, but from Greek philosophy, from Socrates and Plato.

11. Hell, by definition, opposes the Gospel (the Good News) because Hell can only be Bad News for those who are thought to be sent there – and thus, for most of living (and dead) humanity.

12. Hell violates God’s Law, specifically the Law of the Jubilee, which sets all those in servitude free. Those who die are freed from sin, as prophesied by the Law of the Jubilee. See Leviticus 25:8-13, Isaiah 1:18, Romans 6:7,16.

13. The idea of damnation of people to Hell is at least absurd, and possibly blasphemous, due to the presence of God’s Spirit of Life in each of us. See Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7,3:19, Ecclesiastes 12:7.

14. Hell, like Babylon, is confusion. Hell is hot, but it’s also cold as…Hell. Hell is bright with fire, but it is dark. Hell is separation from God, but Mary K Baxter depicts Jesus touring Hell, chiding the damned. To go to Hell, you must be dead, but to be in ECT, you must be alive, but you’re dead, and on and on… Literary descriptions of Hell, especially as seen in the works of Dante, Milton and Baxter, are clearly fictional and un-Biblical.

15. God’s plan for the wicked is to destroy their wickedness, not to annihilate them or send them to Hell. See Psalm 1:6, 7:9, Isaiah 1:18, Jeremiah 3:12, Habakkuk 1:12, Philippians 3:21, Hebrews 10:26-27.

16. God speaks of ransoming/redeeming ALL from death and the grave – without exception. See Psalm 49:15, Ezekiel 16:55, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 1:10.

17. God is both willing AND able to save all – something denied by both Calvinists and Arminians. Given that He is omnipotent, we can ALL look forward with confidence to our eventual salvation. See Psalm 49:15, 86:13, 103:8-14, 136, Isaiah 1:18, 6:7, 25:7-8, 26:19, 33:24, 43:25, 44:22, 45:8, 55:8-9, 57:16, 64:6-9, Jeremiah 3:12. Lamentations 3:26-32, Ezekiel 11:19, 16:55, Hosea 13:14, Micah 4:5, 7:18-19, Ephesians 1:10, Philipians 3:21, Colossians 1:19-20, I Thessalonians 1:10, I Timothy 1:15, 2:4-6, 4:10, 6:13, II Peter 3:9.

18. God compares Himself to a cleansing or refining agent – usually as fire, but sometimes as soap. Therefore, all instances of supernatural fire should be interpreted as being for refining and/or purification, not damnation. Fire in the Bible is never Hellfire, but natural fire or God’s Fire...or as I like to call it, Godfire. See Malachi 3:2-3, Matthew 3:10-12, I Corinthians 3:15.

19. If God’s Fire is for refining, and for baptism as John the Baptist stated in Matthew 3:11, then that which is burned up must be our carnal, sinful nature. It is symbolized by unfruitful trees, tares, chaff, wood, hay and stubble – by anything unable to endure the Fire. See Matthew 3:10-12, I Corinthians 3:11-15.

20. “Hell” is used in the King James Version (and others) to replace four other words: “Sheol,” “Hades,” “Gehenna” and “Tartarus.” None of these four refer to a place of damnation or Eternal Conscious Torment. Two of the terms come from pagan Greek mythology. See any decent dictionary, especially the Oxford English Dictionary.

21. When we dig out mistranslations and peel away misinterpretations, we find that Hell is an overlay, an imposition, an insertion into the text. With Hell so deconstructed, the Bible and God are both silent on Hell. See Numbers 23:19, John 14:2.

22. Christians should not follow the Hell of the ancient, pagan religions, such as the “Hel” we find in Norse mythology, but follow the truth of God’s Word, which does not contain either the concept of Hell or even the word “hell,” except in imperfect translations.

Interesting to look at the parallels of this interpretation and the modern open pit mine.
Drawing upon the “Labour’s” of hell moving stones and high heat it seems like hell is a forge or foundry or quarry or all of the above. Perhaps Satan is simply the Forman for the soul gulag that refines spiritual materials
Looks like Satan is mining diamonds!

Jokes and parallels aside very cool post ty.
a reply to: RussianTroll

Thank god we have Lazarus Short here to correct Galileo by simply quoting bible verses.

You have never heard or read even one single word from god. You have only ever read mans words about mans god. Sad but true.

a reply to: Lazarus Short

originally posted by: Athetos
Thank god we have Lazarus Short here to correct Galileo by simply quoting bible verses.

You have never heard or read even one single word from god. You have only ever read mans words about mans god. Sad but true.

a reply to: Lazarus Short

I, as an Orthodox Christian, generally believe that Paradise is life in the presence of God. and Hell is life in its absence. Everything else is from the Evil One.

a reply to: Lazarus Short

So what if some reject God, don’t want salvation, are they forced into relationship with God

Perhaps "hell" is a reference to the underground base near dulce "dulce base"
It does not have 9 layers but pretty close, and there are some freaky human experiments going on there, conducted by aliens.

Level 6 is also called the” Nightmare Hall “because of the genetic lab. The reports of workers who have seen bizarre experiments are like, “I saw people with more feet, half a half-octopus, but also reptilian people with hands of people crying like babies. So is a mixture of lizards – humans, fish, seals, birds, and mice, all kept in cages. I also saw winged humanoids, grotesque creatures like bats, one meter to over two meters high, but also gurgling and reptilian beings.
“Level 7 is even worse, rows and rows of cold-kept human mixtures. Large storage containers for humanoid embryos at different stages of development. People in cages, usually sedated and drugged, who sometimes scream and beg for help. We have been told that they are incurable fools, following very risky drug tests to cure madness. We were advised not to speak at all. At first, I even believed it all, but by 1978 some workers discovered the truth … “

matrixdisclosure.com...

[Laz smiles] Athetos, if you only knew...

originally posted by: Raggedyman
a reply to: Lazarus Short

So what if some reject God, don’t want salvation, are they forced into relationship with God

If they reject God, it is because they have not met Him yet.

a reply to: Lazarus Short

Drops the mic and walks away.

originally posted by: Tagz
a reply to: Lazarus Short

Drops the mic and walks away.

[picks up mic] We see "hell" in a lot of English Bibles. In the 1611 KJV "hell" is found along with "hel." I found "hell" in Beowulf, as well as "hel" and "helle." Now, Beowulf is set in Denmark and surrounding lands, so I then looked at Norse mythology. There, I found "Hel," who was the goddess/ogress of her afterlife realm of "Helheim" or "House of Hel." It was where you were thought to spend eternity if you did not rate going to Valhalla.

Clearly, "hell" is pagan.

a reply to: Lazarus Short

Thanks for this post. I agree 100% that there is no eternal "Hell". Some people who have had near death experiences do describe being in a place of fire and torment, but commonly that the moment they asked for salvation or for life, they were immediately rescued from that place. It seems that there may be a purgatory, or a temporary place of "cleansing flame", which the bible/Jesus seems to allude to on numerous occasions.

In place of an eternal Hell, there does seem to be a "second death", or the permanent death of the soul/mind. It's interesting to consider the concept of the "bottomless pit" here, where various sources claim that demons or evil spirits are sent to die - in essence, a place of absolute nothingness - "bottomless pit" - where you simply exist as a disembodied consciousness, or a soul, until your mind itself decays into nothingness and suffers the "second death".

The idea of a place of torment that is inescapable is a direct contradiction to the logic of God. It would require either that God is unwilling to forgive some and would instead choose to make them suffer inescapably for all eternity despite their realization of error or desire to be with him, or that conditions have been created in which God's forgiveness/power is limited, where he is powerless to offer salvation past a certain point.
I have tried explaining the concept to Christians that God's love, power and forgiveness are infinite, that salvation is available to ALL people, and that if he wills that someone survive and be with him, he has the power to make it so. This has been met with much resistance. Apparently a lot of Christians absolutely hate the concept that all people can have eternal life if they want it, to the point that I've been accused of not being a Christian myself. It seems common that they cling to the idea that salvation is only for people who hold certain beliefs rather than all people equally, particularly the belief that God was unable to offer salvation without Jesus physically being crucified.
I find the idea of a limitation of God's ability to offer salvation to be blasphemous, and I think any churches who teach this are wicked and deceiving for the sake of pandering to the mentality of "my group is better than their group because our beliefs are correct and theirs aren't".

I love the divine comedy, I have kept the book I read in college with me all this years.

The depiction of the hell cone, reminds me of the umbrella corporation hive.

originally posted by: Raggedyman
So what if some reject God, don’t want salvation, are they forced into relationship with God

From everything I understand, nobody is forced. People can choose to reject eternal life and have true death - the death of the soul, or the "second death". This is part of the reason that suicide is considered so dangerous - because it entails a conscious desire to stop existing. If you carry that desire to stop existing with you spiritually, you run the risk of the true death. It appears that when people commit suicide, they put themselves into a unique position spiritually where they must wait in a "purgatory" or a neutral place until they choose to either live or die spiritually.

Glad you found this
Galileo, Dante Alighieri, and how to calculate the dimensions of hell

It is interesting subject
Antonio Manetti made first calculations and Galilei verifyed it.

originally posted by: Lazarus Short
If they reject God, it is because they have not met Him yet.

Or because there is no evidence such an entity exists or has ever existed. That’s the more plausible explanation

originally posted by: trollz
a reply to: Lazarus Short

Thanks for this post. I agree 100% that there is no eternal "Hell". Some people who have had near death experiences do describe being in a place of fire and torment, but commonly that the moment they asked for salvation or for life, they were immediately rescued from that place. It seems that there may be a purgatory, or a temporary place of "cleansing flame", which the bible/Jesus seems to allude to on numerous occasions.

In place of an eternal Hell, there does seem to be a "second death", or the permanent death of the soul/mind. It's interesting to consider the concept of the "bottomless pit" here, where various sources claim that demons or evil spirits are sent to die - in essence, a place of absolute nothingness - "bottomless pit" - where you simply exist as a disembodied consciousness, or a soul, until your mind itself decays into nothingness and suffers the "second death".

The idea of a place of torment that is inescapable is a direct contradiction to the logic of God. It would require either that God is unwilling to forgive some and would instead choose to make them suffer inescapably for all eternity despite their realization of error or desire to be with him, or that conditions have been created in which God's forgiveness/power is limited, where he is powerless to offer salvation past a certain point.
I have tried explaining the concept to Christians that God's love, power and forgiveness are infinite, that salvation is available to ALL people, and that if he wills that someone survive and be with him, he has the power to make it so. This has been met with much resistance. Apparently a lot of Christians absolutely hate the concept that all people can have eternal life if they want it, to the point that I've been accused of not being a Christian myself. It seems common that they cling to the idea that salvation is only for people who hold certain beliefs rather than all people equally, particularly the belief that God was unable to offer salvation without Jesus physically being crucified.
I find the idea of a limitation of God's ability to offer salvation to be blasphemous, and I think any churches who teach this are wicked and deceiving for the sake of pandering to the mentality of "my group is better than their group because our beliefs are correct and theirs aren't".

Well said! Jesus the Christ said that we would all be salted with fire, but the fire is misunderstood. It is not "hellfire." It is Godfire! If people see themselves in fire in dreams or visions, it is the fire of God's zeal (misunderstood as "wrath") which is applied to us to burn away our dross, tares, chaff, wood, hay and stubble. It is an instrument of salvation.

I have written a long essay on the subject of Godfire.

originally posted by: noonebutme

originally posted by: Lazarus Short
If they reject God, it is because they have not met Him yet.

Or because there is no evidence such an entity exists or has ever existed. That’s the more plausible explanation

You have not met Him yet...but you will.

a reply to: trollz

What is ‘eternal life’? You’ve mentioned it a couple times now. What does it entail? What does it mean?

In your opinion, what happens to those who accept God and believe in him when they die? In this eternal life, what do you do for eternity? Do you go to the pub? Skydive? Learn languages? Hang out with friends?

I’m curious to know what EXACTLY you believe happens in this eternal life you get if you believe in God

a reply to: Lazarus Short

I can’t meet someone who doesn’t exist. And what about aliens on worlds light years from us. Is he their god too? Do they meet him as well?

What about polytheists? Which god to they meet as they believe in many? And which god are we talking about? Odin? Ra? Wotan? Genesh? Allah? Zeus?