VIDEO CNN's Jeanne Moos asks what people think about hell Windows Media 28K 80K

August 31, 1999
Web posted at: 11:16 p.m. EDT (0316 GMT)

(CNN) -- Dante laid out the floor plan of hell, Woody Allen used hell as a location in a movie, and many people would like to buy their enemies a ticket straight to Hades.

But does this place with the epic reputation really exist?

Pope John Paul II stirred up controversy recently when he suggested that hell is a state of mind -- rather than an actual location.

He also spoke of two other locales -- heaven and purgatory -- but it was his words on hell that got him in hot water.

Watch this report as CNN's own devil's advocate tries to navigate the narrow path between opposing opinions.