by Adam Birmingham

Created on: December 29, 2010

It is not hard to see why one would be enamored by the idea of a heaven and a hell, of the good guy coming out on top and the bad guy getting his just desserts, but there is not proper reasoning behind the concepts of a physical, existing hell, it cannot abstain from the same scientific principles that guide and govern what we acknowledge as "real" and "existing" simply under the guise of it being an idea of religious or supernatural origin.

The most forthright issue in this debate is that there is no definitive way to actually prove the existence of a hell, however, the generally accepted concept of a Christian hell, as described by Dante Alighieri, features a ninth innermost circle that is completely frozen over, this is, in fact, impossible, as we already know that the core beneath the Earth's crust is molten to the center. To put it in layman's terms, hell simply could not exist on Earth.

Another issue that requires addressing when exposing hell as a metaphor is acknowledging that the church most likely used it almost entirely unopposed power to convince feudal Europe that there was a hell. When asked on how they accomplished such a feat one should realize that while nowadays the perception of what actually is a wrong deed or action varies from person to person, this change in perception from person to person was not nearly as prevalent in times such as the middle ages, when the concept of a hell was more thoroughly explored by the church, so deciding on blanket terms for a hell would not be met with nearly as much difficulty or debate as said terms would be now, there were two very clear cut definitions of what was good and what was evil back then, which makes grasping the concept of hell much easier, if nothing else.

 As difficult as it may be for some to face, in all likelyhood hell was an idea invented by man to deter man from evil doing, by implementing an irrational fear of eternal suffering for this evil doing. And while I in no way condone evil actions, deterence by deception will not aid or abet the problem, only exacerbate it, hell should be accepted for the metaphor that it is and like an old fable, the moral is what is important, not the circumstances that caused it's manifestation.

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