EH...

"Because life is unfair, we invent life after death to square it all up? I don't think so, and it is as repulsive a notion as anything I've heard."

Repulsive yes, but nontheless one of the reasons for a hell concept. More repulsive to most i think is the idea things do not even up and balance out. That would imply would it not, that life has no grand purpose and no grand destiny for man? And a divine being would cease to be a caretaker, leaving man to his own devices. To many this would be harder to bear then the hell concept.

EH...

"What about non-Christians? There are a few, you know. They go by names like atheist, Buddhist, Jews, Muslim, Jain, Hindu and many more. Yet the Christian religion says all of them are going to hell for not believing the Christian religion -- EVEN IF THEY NEVER, EVER HEARD IT!"

Exactly my point. It's all about appeasement according to one's own particulair christian rote, if another professed christian cannot avoid hell what chance does a non christian have? To put a fine point on it there are some chrisitan sects who believe there will be a chance at resurrection for those who have been ignorant of christianity, thier own brand of it of course. And, Buddhists believe thier brand of hell is also democratic enough to admit not only thier own who cannot fullfill the precepts but also those who have never heard of Buddhism, ditto Hindu, tho there is a chance to redeem oneself thru rebirth.

EH...
"How's that for justice from a loving god? It is without a doubt the most outrageously cruel garbage in all of man's many religious notions."

Agreed, agreed and agreed again. To the point at one time i felt what man calls God should be indicted for it, and looked for ways and means to do it.

From my previouse post on the subject:

"By the way, not to pick on just the christians, there is also a Buddhist hell, and a Hindu hell, tho one is not sentenced there by a big boss weighing one's pluses and debits on a scale."

EH response....

"That's a poor reason to accept hell. There are many things that lots of people accept as true which I do not."

There is, in most minds only one reason to accept hell, and that is the opposite, heaven, the two concepts are often more then not taught together. Heaven is the big reward for pain and suffering and devotion in the face of those ,the end purpose of one's well lived life.

There's that word 'purpose' again.

The superstitiouse idea of punishment from an unknown being is so ingrained even today among well educated and savvy people there can be a temporary 'slippage' into that mode, i saw it this afternoon in a man's commentary on the natural disasters of the past few days. He caught himself almost immediatly but i thought it was interesting.

Gods, made in man's image so it might explain the unexplainable and be approachable in a way man understood from his own dealings with others of his kind, and so it might sanction some actions, governments and laws, rewarded by heaven if obeyed and punished by hell if not. Thus would man be taken care of, justice be satisfied, and chaos avoided by appeasement.

If you think such gods, the product of human minds is disgusting, well, see what else human minds are capable of when they think they are not in controle and what they will do to gain controle.

(By the way, for a previouse poster, Hitler did not invent genocide, it was Nationaly practiced long before the 20th century and there is a record of it.)