If all the great philosophers are truly roasting in Hell, I'd rather be there with them than in Heaven with the sheep.

Why would the philosophers be in Hell?
Do people get damned for trying to discover the truths of existence?
Wasn't Jesus a philosopher?

Well, I'm going by what I can recall of Dante's Inferno (and extrapolation), really.

Dante's Inferno, that one's on the 'to read' list....

I agree completely. A number of brief excerpts in high school really doesn't cut it.

I hear the trip through Purgatory and Heaven are significantly less interesting, though.

My high school reading consisted of Shakespeare and Dickens, with a pinch of Twain and Orwell.

Schools shouldn't have a banned book list, if you ask me.

Actually, the great philosophers are resting cheerfully in Limbo, in a rare sunny patch of ground, and they're more comfortable than anyone else on that plane. Dante explains that they're so loved by the folks in Heaven that their existence is almost pleasant, even though they're heathens and banned from Salvation.

Oh, I know that. I'm just extrapolating the principle of Dante's Inferno to traditional approaches to Christian Hell.

That being said, my main gripe is that they aren't in Heaven in the first place, really.

That was one of Faust's rationalizations in the Marlowe, as I recall. But it didn't avail him much in the end.

I mean, if one posits a fire-and-brimstone hell, how much can one enjoy the company of the wise whilst having one's skin peeled off by demons?

Mutton roast, Rolies?

I wouldn't mind hanging out with them. Besides, they're in the part of hell that isn't that bad, it just isn't heaven.