A few quick thoughts on Hell

Obviously as an atheist, I believe hell is nothing more than a fiction for adults to inspire them to “follow the rules” of their religious leaders.

But for those who accept it as a real place, I’ve never understood a few of the concepts and perhaps you can explain the answers to me…

Now depending on the version of theism there are many different views of who will and won’t go to hell, so I won’t go into that other than to point you towards a post I originally created on the JREF forums and reposted here: “Questions for theists re: Innocence, Ignorance, and Hell“. I would suggest checking that thread though, as I bring up a few interesting scenarios about who will be sentenced to hell (infants, children, adults who never heard of the “true” god, etc), and checking the JREF forum for an interesting discussion…

But this post is slightly more abstract than those specific scenarios.

For the purposes of this post, I will define hell as:

Eternal punishment you are sentenced to by god for various acts committed while alive (or acts committed by your ancestors for those who believe in original sin)…

My biological mother was not married when I was conceived
My biological father was married when I was conceived (obviously not to my mother)
Am I guilty of adultery (or any other sins of my mother of father) through hereditary from the two of them? If not, why I am guilty of Adam and Eve’s sin?

Let’s say a man rapes a woman, and she gives birth to a child. Is that child a rapist due to the circumstances of it’s conception?

Even a simple glance at this shows the horrendous nature of such an idea. Each person makes their own choices, and to hold them responsible for the choices of their parents, much less their ancestors from thousands of years ago is  not only illogical, but is morally unjustifiable by any conceivable code of ethics.

Let’s say that somebody steals a piece of gum off a co-worker’s desk. Typically a rational person would say that is bad, and the person deserves some punishment, but a lesser punishment than somebody who commits a car-jacking. In both cases the crime is theft, but one is understood to be a more violent crime than the other.

So all rational people can agree that there are different levels of crimes, and that those crimes are deserving of different levels of punishment.

Now let’s imagine a typical person, lives a generally good life, but does typical things that most of us do. This person perhaps fudges his taxes a bit to save a buck, lies occasionally to get a preferable outcome, wants what is best in life, perhaps as a kid stole some a toy or something. But generally this person lives a good life.

Now if this person is part of the “true” faith, believers in that faith would agree that they are going to heaven and not hell, but if this person is not part of that faith, are these crimes enough to warrant ETERNAL punishment? I can’t imagine any reasonable person saying they do, but if you believe they do, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

But let’s make it easier; let’s take the most horrendous people of all time. Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Jeffrey Dahmer. Charles Manson. My adoptive mother. These people would generally be listed among the most horrendous, despicable people of all time by most people (with one possible exception; people who have not met my mother might only choose 4 of those in this list).

How much punishment is fair for the crimes they have committed? Would some number of years per life they negatively affected be reasonable? If we made that number something extraordinary? Let’s say each life they negatively affected is worth 100 years, 10,000 year, or even 1 million years punishment.

Now if the concept of hell is correct that it is ETERNAL punishment, no matter how horrible a person is, what could they do that is worth hell for all ETERNITY?

So if the typical understanding of hell is correct then hell is not a place of judgment for mankind, it’s a place of vengeance.