The main purpose of any punishment is usually to rehabilitate offenders, to protect innocent people, and to deter people from committing crimes. If a punishment, or traits of a punishment, doesn't work to accomplishing these goals, then I'm not sure what its purpose could possibly be. Such a "punishment" might be created just so the convictor can fulfill a sick desire to watch other people suffer. If an eternal Hell does exist, lets try to see what its purposes may be.

An eternal Hell does not allow for rehabilitation. Obviously rehabilitation would be impossible to do with eternal Hell because the offender would never have the chance to re-enter the world. God doesn’t even give them the chance to improve themselves. Also consider the fact that if a God wanted to, he could rehabilitate his offenders through non-forcing methods. It's clear that God has the option to rehabilitate sinners, yet chooses to watch them suffer.

An eternal Hell is not necessary for protection. For humans, prisons are often the only way to protect the public from dangerous criminals. So sometimes criminals are placed in prison for their entire life. However, God would have infinite options to protect the “good” people. He could send offenders to an isolated place without inducing eternal suffering or he could just end their consciousness altogether, etc. There are plenty of less painful, yet equally effective alternatives to protect innocent people. 

An eternal Hell is not necessary for deterrence. God could make Hell last “only” one-million years and it would be just as effective a deterrent as an eternal Hell. Anyone who isn’t deterred by one-million years of Hell either (a) doesn’t believe in God, or (b) just doesn’t care about his future. Either way, extending the length of Hell to eternity wouldn’t change this person’s mind. So again, God has less painful, yet equally effective methods to deter potential sinners.

It looks to me like God just enjoys watching humans suffer. God has multiple options to handle sinners. Some options cause infinite suffering and harm. Others are not so painful, yet are  just as effective for any practical purposes. Yet God chooses the options that cause infinite suffering and harm. And for what reason Can anyone give me any practical reasons for making Hell last an eternity? I cannot think of any.

To make a point.

Hell symbolizes the ultimate punishment for the ultimate sin. If the length of your "hell visit" could be measured, then so could the importance of following God.


I can't think of a more effective way of encouraging people to follow a religion than telling them that eternal pain and suffering is the alternative. Well, except adding that an eternal reward will be given to you if you follow it.

The concept of Heaven and Hell exist in many religions, for example Buddhism. And it is described as equally horrific. This is not a concept isolated to Christianity and its offspring religions, and the existence of a God is not a requirement. It's a sociocultural concept designed to promote moral order in a society even for those who feel they have "nothing to lose" in this life, because it promotes the fear of losing everything after death.

God doesn't run hell, Satan does. Take your questions to him.

In some Christian circles, Hell is not a punishment that God inflicts upon us rather than a punishment inflicted upon ourselves, due to our "apartness" from Jesus.

The Calvinists, meanwhile, take the view that we humans are scum and deserving of eternal hellfire, and it is only the incomprehensible mercy of God that any of us get into heaven.

More mainstream interpretations of Christianity, however, either believe that Hell is for the few truly evil, or that upon the fulfillment of the Second Coming, all will be raised into Heaven, including the hell-bound

There isn't a Hell to begin with it's just to try and stop naive people that believe in that religious drivel from doing bad things.

No different from parents telling kids about Santas naughty list.

Now, posts like this aren't constructive. I get being non-religious, i'm patently agnostic myself, but this thread is not for questioning the merits of religion period, but to have a debate on what could be the cosmological or teleological reasonings behind having a permanent punishment for deceased souls.

The answer to your thread is quite simple the fact is that hell by your definition does not exist. Your concept of hell is not realy in the Bible, sure the word is in it but that is just due to mistranslation between Hebrew and Greek to english. I am not going to spend a lot of time giving evidence to why this is true so if you really want an in depth explination go to this link http://www.hell-is-a-myth.webs.com/hellisamyth.htm .

I agree with Khan

 @Yujiro what your purpose with that comment? Obviously you're either just trying to get under the skin of religous folks, or you are just not the brightest crayon in the box.

Pretty sure that Buddhism doesn't have a concept of an eternal hell. I could be mistaken, but I think Buddhism has, at most, a "hell between lives" kind of thing, where you experience some suffering before being reborn as a lower being, or something. Although I'm not quite sure about whether that concept comes from Buddhism or Hinduism (the two are closely intertwined in terms of western knowledge of them, although it's just as possible to be a buddhist christian).