by Christine G.

Created on: April 21, 2008

If hell is a real place, I am probably going there. To me, it is morally repulsive to worship a god who claims to be the greatest lover ever, and yet abandons (and even condemns) his beloved creations to eternal torment. Apparently, this god is so insecure that he has to threaten people into pretending to love him. That sounds like a pathetic bundle of ultimate evil. This is a god I could pity, if he were not so dangerous. This version of god is like an abused child with absolute power, playing control games in a futile attempt to own what must be given freely. This god is a projection of our most darkly vindictive selves. If we become like the god we adore, we are well advised to focus our attention on a more ethical model.

Hell does not deter people from evil, any more than the death penalty does. If anything, it will encourage further evil. Those who have already crossed the line and merited the ultimate penalty have nothing no lose. A serial killer who has killed thirteen victims will not make things any worse for him or herself by killing fourteen. Anyone who believes that s/he faces eternal damnation has no reason to abstain from further evil. Life would have only one goal: to defer the inevitable torment in the next life by surviving as long as possible in this one, even if that requires feeding on fresh human blood on a daily basis. At that point, all moral boundaries are gone. Good and generosity are meaningless.

There is always the possibility of repentance, of course. According to most theologians, repentance has to be truly sincere to impress God, who knows everything and will know exactly how much the penitent really mean it. How sincere can repentance be when it is motivated by the fear of punishment? True repentance says, "I am sorry for the harm I did, and I want to do everything I can to make it right." Repentance at gunpoint says, "I am sorry I got caught; I am sorry I am accountable; I am sorry you are more powerful than I am; I will do whatever you tell me because I am afraid to do anything else." Pretending to be contrite is a violation of personal integrity. The phony penitent will inevitably become more resentful, more cruel, more treacherous, more dangerous.

Hell is a metaphor for the evil we carry inside. Every time we pretend to forgive without working through our fear and resentment, we add another tool to the eternal torture chamber we are furnishing to punish people who have harmed us. Every time we are afraid, we shore up our superiority by imagining that someone else is in greater danger of God's wrath than we are. Every time we feel helpless to retaliate against evil, we imagine a place where retributive justice will finally be done, with eternal interest. As long as we can visualize hell for others, that hell is still burning in our own hearts. We shake with fear, knowing that we deserve to go there just as much as the people we hate. Fear breeds violence, cruelty, power-seeking, greed, and every vice that promises us the illusion of relief and safety. Fear stokes the fires of hell until it is no longer a mythical location in the next life, but a reality to torment us here and now.

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