Is Hell a real place or a metaphor to deter evil-doers?

Metaphor

3 of 105

by Currie Jean

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Is hell like the bowels of a dungeon, brimming with medieval torture devices like the iron maiden, thumbscrews, and stretchers? Is it bloody? Do people repeatedly regrow their limbs, only to have them crushed or torn off again and again?

Does hell have many levels that gradually get more terrifying and awful the further one goes down? How many levels are there? Is there only one? How do you know?

Some say that in hell's lakes of fire, your skin melts off, and the heat is so hot that your skin fuses back onto your body, and burns off again: an eternity of unthinkable agony. Do you think this is possible? If so, do you think you have any way to be sure, other than by trusting the authority figure who tells you so? Is there any actual evidence, aside from hearsay?

Hell arose from culture. Its description grows and changes over time; in a way similar to biological evolution, cultural and religious convictions evolve too. Hell is a part of this.

If you've ever heard people discussing hell, you know it isn't based on anything but an idea of what the worst torture imaginable could be. You can make up anything, the more awful the better, and become convinced (if you're so inclined) that it exists, simply because it fits the description that has already been accepted as real by some religious groups: the most awful place imaginable.

Once you're sure that the most awful place imaginable exists, you can put whatever awful thing you like in it. Then, those things - especially when brainstormed and agreed upon in groups - can become internal, mental evidence of such a place, even though the existence of this place has never been supported by any external evidence.

We can imagine awful places, but that doesn't make them real, even if they seem real. The big problem is that while mature adults realize this, children often don't. What convinces children that hell is real is the same thing convincing them that Santa Claus is real: the inborn gullibility and acceptance which, most of the time, helps them to learn.

Teaching children to believe in hell is a cruel, cruel joke, akin to mental terrorism, and in some cases, a form of psychological abuse. If you tell a child that her thoughts, which she is unlikely to be able to control and never should have to, will cause her to be sent to a place full of torture, violence, and pain, she's likely to believe you, and she's likely to be terrified. Hell is created in a child's head by that child's terror of it - it is created, for that child, when he or she is told hell exists.

It's the parent or clergy-person who sets that child up for the psychological terror of believing in a mind-reading, cruel deity. It's the parent or clergy-person who sends a child to that hell, that fear of thought crime, that catch-22 saying "be yourself, but control your own feelings and thoughts." These parents and clergy-people are guilty of legal, but immoral, child abuse, and it's their responsibility to realize this and put a stop to it.

We can't control our thoughts or feelings, and trying to do so leads only to varying levels of cognitive dissonance and denial. Most children can't even control their actions - yet they're being told, by those who teach about hell, to believe in overblown and unreal consequences rather than the real consequences of immoral action. This is wrong - it replaces moral understanding and empathy with terror, nightmares, and oppressive thinking styles.

After all, belief in hell doesn't inherently deter people from doing actual evil: it deters them from allowing their allegiance to stray from a particular leader or authority figure who claims to speak on behalf of an imaginary terrorist in the sky, for example, the god of the Abrahamic religions. Hell doesn't convince people to do the right thing, it convinces them to stop thinking for themselves and follow rules which, due to the traditionalism rampant in religious circles, are usually no longer useful or helpful.

Things change, and commandments grow obsolete. Political laws morph to accommodate this in modern cultures, while religious ones hardly do. Sure, some of the basics are okay, like "love your neighbor," and "turn the other cheek," and "don't steal," but these rules are only fitting to most situations, not all situations. Further, they have their own reasons for being important - we don't need a book, a deity, and his threats to tell us how to be moral.

Love and kindness help humans to function together, societally, politically, and personally. We need it from one another, and we feel good giving it to one another, not on the basis of reward or punishment after death, but because we are naturally empathetic. When we love, it feels good intrinsically - that is, in and of itself. We like being kind. We like sharing. We like giving, and we enjoy it because we love to see others happy, and have good reason to think others want us to be happy as well. It's a part of who we are: we human beings have a lot of good-natured drives inside us, and the more we nurture them, the less apparent it is that we need ideas of hell and heaven in order to keep them.

Yes, hell is an idea used by leaders to control their populations. While it isn't really needed anymore - if it ever was - it served its purpose in its time. Now, we have democracy, in which the leaders no longer have ultimate control, and it's evident that this way, people can be happy and lawful without being afraid of fire and brimstone. It's time for hell (and heaven, for that matter) to be put to rest in the history books, and start teaching young people about ethics and morality. It's time to stop terrorizing them by telling them that it's virtuous to oppress themselves.

People are better than hell, and it could be argued that no human deserves to suffer in the ways hell is said to make them suffer - that's right, not even child molesting pastors. With the right encouragement, we can form functional communities of healthy, sensitive people, without putting anyone through mental hell at all.

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