I believe there is no hell. If God is in heaven and He created the earth, so good and beautiful, then where did hell spring from? God created man and woman in His own image, to live, love and cherish each other; or to live without and apart from each other, if they didn’t choose marriage. God thinks positively and believes in His creation. So wouldn’t God think positively, and think heaven for His people? Why would He think negatively or want hell for them?
To the human mind, there appears to be a logical reason for hell. Arguably, if there is heaven, then there must be hell too, just like there is good and evil in the world. So, it seems to stand to reason that if there is heaven, then there must be hell. But metaphysically speaking, heaven doesn’t presuppose hell. Heaven is purity, sublimity, bliss, divinity, and much more. There is no place for hell in a heavenly state. Here on earth,we have got so used to thinking that heaven and hell are opposites. In a world that is so full of negativity, it is not difficult to imagine hell. When we think of hell after life as a punishment for our misdeeds on earth, visions of gigantic raging flames come to our mind.
We think of our so-called enemies, who have harmed us, being consigned to these flames. Hell is our idea of divine retribution. But there’s a fallacy in such thinking. Where there is divinity, the question of retribution doesn’t arise. Divinity is above retribution.
Retribution is a human act, fed by a feeling of revenge. In a blissful, heavenly place, beyond this universe, there is no room for hellish revenge. Heaven, like God, existed before human beings came into existence. Obviously, there was no hell then. So did hell spring up after God created man and woman? Did God create hell in anticipation that humans would do evil, and, therefore there should be a place for such wayward souls? From my understanding of a God who is kind, loving and forgiving, the answers to all these questions would be an emphatic ‘No.’ Can you imagine a father building a house for his children and alongside a prison to dump them in, were they to go astray?
If you can’t imagine such a scenario for an earthly father, it becomes all the more difficult to believe that a heavenly Father would have built a hell for eternal damnation of sinners. It is also said that Satan rules in hell, just like God is seated in His throne in heaven. Who created Satan? Was it God?
Why would God create Satan to punish those who have sinned? Why would an all-powerful, all knowing Supreme Being take the help of Satan to make His people suffer at the devil’s hands for their so-called sins? And is Satan immune to suffering? Is he sinless given that he has the right to punish sinners? If he is so sinless, then shouldn’t he be a saint? The more I think of a hell, the more ridiculous the idea seems to get. So, till I find a logical reason for a hell, the best explanation for it is that God created man for a brief sojourn on earth and an eternal life in heaven — and at some point in human existence man created hell for himself. There’s no hand of God in this.