Well EH i can answer this with remembered exerience.

Haveing heard about hell at an early age i didn't pay much attention to it until i reached an age when i grew aware inexplicable 'bad' things happened to people and heard it was god's will.

So "god's will" becomes both the cause and the cure for suffering and sorrow. Yet, even if one were not religiouse the unexplained causes would be enough to drive most to invent a god if they didn't have one already, a kinda big pappy interested in one's welfare.

i suggest that two things drive the hell factor, fear and insecurity, resulting from man comparing himself against the cosmos.

When one has thier own children out of fear for thier eternal survival one teaches about hell and what it means to be disobedient to god.

If, at some point, one finds the whole idea of such a god beyond endurance one rebels and if in that rebellion begins to investigate, and carry it far enough that investigation is freeing.

Heaven and hell have been so deeply taught in tandem that i often wonder about those who choose to believe in heaven and disregard hell...IF, it is only a matter of preferance, the hell part of the equasion hasn't been answered, only shoved to the background and still a part of the psychie.

But yeah, for some, the idea of hell and the cruelty of a god who would condem those he sometimes calls his children to it, is not to be borne.