Hell is Full: The Max Capacity of the Afterlife

Does Hell have a limit to the number of souls it can hold? Such questions likely never come into the minds of many and not even those who hold devout religious beliefs in the planes of Heaven and Hell. To answer this question perhaps it is best to ask if Heaven itself has a max capacity limit. Some religious sects of Christianity believe that it does with the remainder spending eternity on a refurbished Earth restored to a paradise state. The limit for those who get into that Kingdom of God would be the renowned number of 144,000.

The number itself comes from the Book of Revelation referring to those who wore God’s name on their foreheads each from the 12 tribes of Israel. The argument has been made that these were the souls who were granted entry into Heaven and if the max capacity limit has been reached by these individuals, as well as past biblical figures, then where does this leave the rest? Naturally, the sinners are likely to outweigh the number of righteous. Righteous as defined by Abrahamic laws and sinners as defined by human nature. However, there are likely those who are righteous among the sinners. If the sinners were destined for Hell then what becomes of the righteous? It could be assumed that Heaven would make exceptions to the 144,000 limit, but imagine souls getting to live eternally in a new Eden. It also works as poetry since it shows how humanity was exiled from the garden and later returned to the garden with good behavior. Unfortunately, there will always be those who rebel against such paradise and social norms which means there will always be sinners. There will always be that need for Hell according to the system laid out by the Abrahamic religions. So then what would the max capacity of Hell be and why isn’t this seen as an issue?

It should become apparent that Hell would have a larger capacity than Heaven since humans are always so quick to sin instead of those who choose to act righteously. It seems only logical to assume that Hell has a limit if Heaven has a limit. The number of souls that could fit into Hell would have to be large enough to accommodate the punishments of so many damned there. The mass overpopulation could be a punishment in and of itself, but given how humans are naturally able to adapt to such conditions, see China or India as an example, it wouldn’t be a good long term punishment. This is when creativity would have to be utilized. Space should serve no issue if both planes were infinite and constantly expanding like the universe or even a Minecraft world. Though even these two things have limits and ends. Eventually, both limits for these planes would be reached.

There are a few solutions that could easily resolve the issue of overcapacity. The first one being a second death where the sinner’s souls would simply fade out of existence leaving only their bodies behind on Earth. The corpses would decay and absorb back into the soil to provide nutrients for Paradise Earth. This would only leave the righteous behind. This solution appears to be the most simplest one, but the other would be the creation of a second Hell. The first Hell will continue to operate as normal, but they would no longer take in any new souls. This would be the responsibility of the second Hell. This solution may prove to be a lot of work for whomever is responsible with building it.

Is there a reason why we should be concerned with such population counts? Not particularly since everything you’ve read here could simply be an elaborate fairy tale used to prevent chaos among civilizations that needed order. This by no means is an excuse for acting unrighteously. The truth is if someone lives day-by-day trying to do the right thing then they shouldn’t have to worry about being seen as a soul destined for any lake of fire. Some of these instincts come to us naturally without the need of religious doctrines. Not killing a member of your own species is a prime example. There are ways that such limitations could be solved but those are mostly in the hands of the higher ups. The only things that humanity should concern themselves with is not trying to implode in on itself and to just be kind to one another. If in the end, we all just fade into nothingness then we wouldn’t know if it was because we sinned or because there really wasn’t anything after death. Just be good and maybe someday you will get to see that blissful garden.

Image by Jeroným Pelikovský from Pixabay