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Metaphor

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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,

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