by Cameron Foster

Created on: March 22, 2009   Last Updated: May 25, 2009

This essay intends to show that Hell does not exist because a loving God could not make such a place. Demanding a literal interpretation of every word in the Bible is what gets you into a shaky moral position of having to say Hell is real.

Pastors and religious teachers pronounce that "God's ways are not our ways", and indeed this statement is in the Bible. This religious trump card is generally invoked when some aspect of Hell (or our lives in general), does not makes sense. However, this does not give God a "free pass" to be a monster. Maybe it's their teaching that's the problem. Mankind has an inherent desire for blood and vengeance but if we don't get any better than that from God we're all in a big pickle.

The numerous accounts of wholesale slaughter in the Old Testament only strengthen this theory: A literal reading of these accounts will show that "God did it", while a more objective approach might conclude the Israelites acted in self defense or pre-emptively. Since all societies in the ancient world were exceedingly brutal by modern standards, this should not come as a shock. But none of this means that "God" provided literal instruction in vanquishing millions of people. After all, everybody who was killed in Noah's flood would be in Hell right now if that were true.

How could all-powerful loving Deity personally orchestrate such carnage and claim he is good? It cannot be done no matter how much "mystery" is invoked.

The ancient mind was conditioned from birth into a worldview of great superstition and mysticism which continued up until the time of the Renaissance. Dante's Inferno is a fine example of the fear Hell provides to keep people in line, but also the satisfaction it brings many in a sense of justice done. Neither of these motivations make Hell real.

People ultimately are judged on what they do and not what they believe. The paradox is of course that the stronger you believe something the more likely you will act upon it; perhaps this is why the Bible warns is to feed the spirit and not the flesh.

The reality we find ourselves in is that we have no tangible way to know what comes after death. We choose to accept promises of Heaven and Hell on faith.

As for me I'm very confident that we're going to be held accountable for what we do and not what we think. A loving God and Hell as taught in the Bible are mutually exclusive.

The trouble with Hell is that men want to see other men in there. God does not want to see us in there.

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