I often muse at the prospect of hell, wondering where it is from. It is surely not a comfort to anyone, and is surely destructive in the extreme. Do religionists push hell because they think it's true? Is there some sick warped pleasure in the notion of all the unbeleivers going to hell?

    I will be upfront. My purpose in life, at this point, is to find out if there really is ANY grounds for the idea of eternal or thousand-year long super-worse the Auschwitz torment. As I look around at Christian's saying Jesus is the only way out of Hell, and Muslims, just as well meaning saying that works + obediance to Allah > Selfish Deeds = Paradise. On one level it makes sense, but on another it doesn't.

    Hell is in my opinion the most anthropomorphic trait ever pinned to the concept of the Infinite One. I posit that Hell of tortures is a suspect doctrine, EVEN IF A PERSONAL GOD EXISTS, for the following reasons.

1) If God really cares about whether I am circumcised, whether I guzzle bear or enjoy too much Greenguy's Link-o-Rama, then he obviously is concerned with human well being. If he is concerned with human well being then we can construe the oft flouted definition of mercy to be such a great mercy of infinite grace, that I can hardly concieve of it. Saying God is merciful four thousand times per holy book still doesn't necessarily make it so.

2) If God is less human-like, or personal, then he would have no reason not to make Hell for people, but he would likely throw us into it for decidedly random reasons, and would likely simply have us be annihilated instead of suffer eternally. Of course, maybe we are innately immortal, in which case why not just make a really dark wastebasket or bury us under some black holes?

Now if we assume there is a Personal God, but don't consider any religion The Truth(tm) I ask which is more logical:

1) Hell is an intimidation designed by the religious leadership for their own ends.

2) God is only caipable of acting out punishments on an infinite scale.

3) God has some overly anthropomorphic, almost to the point of being mundane, purgatorial system as in some Catholic beleifs or in Islam by some interpretations.

4) Considering how long you can talk about religion, earnestly wondering, without reaching a conclusion, how can the punishment of nonbelievers be even remotely sane.

Anyone who wants to kick my reasoning in the nuts and warn me of the Hellfire, please do so