- For the album by the Swedish band Opeth, see Damnation (album).
In Western Christian traditions, damnation to hell is the punishment of the Christian God for persons with unredeemed sin. Damnation is a primary motivator for conversions to Christianity.
One conception is of eternal suffocating heat, being taunted by demons for all eternity.
Another conception, derived from the scripture about Gehenna is simply that people will be discarded (burned), as being unworthy of preservation by God.
In both conceptions, Jesus is accepted as the Lamb of God, able by perfect sacrifice to atone for one's sin, though one is required to accept Him. This acceptance is said to constitute salvation from sin, and therefore from damnation (though a debate exists between Christians over the role that works play in salvation).
In Eastern Christian traditions (Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy), it is not seen as a legalistic punishment meted out by an angry and vengeful God for a slight against some set of spiritual rules. Instead, it describes a state of separation from God, a state into which all humans are born but against which Christ is the Mediator and "Great Physician".
"Damnation" (or, more commonly, "damn") is widely used as a moderate profanity. Until around the mid-20th century damn was a much more offensive term than it is today (its usage in the film Gone With the Wind in 1939 shocked some audiences), and was frequently represented as "D--n," "D---," or abbreviated to just "D."
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