Exposing the Myth Of Hell
  by Phil Stahl

I recall my first exposure to the idea of Hell occurred while attending St. Leo's Parochial School in Milwaukee, while in the 2nd grade. At that time, our religion class featured books with colorful pictures to which our teacher, Sister Vivina, often referred.

In this particular lesson, Hell was the topic. To focus our attention, the goodly nun directed the class to a full page color graphic showing two hapless humans trapped in a grating full of flames. At the same time, a convincing looking pair of demons plunged pitchforks into their nearly bare hides. (They were shown from the back, and each - man and woman- retained a kind of loin cloth).

Questions? That was the nun's cue for us to report how terrified we were, and what we had to do to avoid this gnarly fate. I raised my hand:

"Yes, what have you to ask, Philip?"

"Uh…Sister, if Hell is so hot how come these people still have clothes on? Why weren't they burned off?"

The nun, her face reddening, ordered me to be seated and also noted a special place in Hell had been reserved for little boys who asked such questions.

That was my intro to this barbaric myth.

Christians profess a "God of love," but never hesitate to invoke eternal torment to enforce compliance and belief. Logically, this suggests that their quality of faith and ethics is insupportable without the additional imposition of some type of "divine" retribution for dissenters. A punitive ethics, then, is at the very core of the Christian religion, as it is many others. Sir Bertrand Russell identifies precisely the reason for the hold religion has on many ('Why I am Not a Christian'. p. 54):

"Religion, since it has its source in terror, has dignified certain kinds of fear and made people think them not disgraceful. In that it has done mankind a great disservice. All fear is bad."

To expose the Hell myth, one has to expose the power of fear over human minds -- the power to subvert will and thought, and bend it to what the purveyors of this misbegotten doctrine intend. That is, to use psychological intimidation and force to drumbeat all and sundry into the (particular) Christian fold, and to renounce all genuine, heartfelt intellectual investment in so doing.

How to surmount this? The latest findings showing that more than 99% of human genetic material (DNA) matches that of the chimpanzee have some biologists wanting to classify both chimp and humans in the same genus. Whether this will be done or not, the point is that we are primate (higher ape) relatives of the chimp. We have larger brains, but our brains generate their own internal fantasies and myths with which the chimp doesn't have to concern himself. Fantasies like Hell - and like the "soul" - which indirectly makes Hell credible since one requires an eternally-lasting entity to burn for eternity.

But the fact of human ape-hood excludes soul. Never mind any and all language delusions that fabricated such a fiction, or invested it with false validity and specious rationalization. Once humans renounce the childish concept of soul, they simultaneously extirpate the tandem concept of Hell.

This means a constructive and purposeful life, lived to the fullest potential because it's devoid of unnecessary fear and supernatural distractions.

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