Hell isn't about being fair or second chances. If you mess up royally you pay for it. No amount of sorries is gonna change that.

When the book of revalations says that hell is going to be destroyed in the lake of fire that is a misstranslation it is supose to mean that the grave will be destroyed so there will be no more death. This is true for the whole bible there is literaly no such thing as hell acording to the bible our curent concept comes from the romans greeks and vikings. So hell as we curently understand it is a pagan myth that then was made popular by Dante's inferno. So if you really want to know more about Christianity as acording to the Bible you should read this http://www.hell-is-a-myth.webs.com/hellisamyth.htm it isn't too long and it makes its point pretty early so you don't have to read all of it.

to make people believe in god-best marketing trick and pr ever.

"believe in God?"
-"no"
"why?"
-"no reason"
"damn.wait a momen.....I'll give you a reason.you will rest in hell if you don't believe"
-"I'm already in hell"
"but you will enter paradise if you believe in god"
-"deal.i believe in god"

I heard about that as well, the problem with christianity is that the bible has lots of no translated words that cause misinterpretation

interesting, the Hebrew word Gehenna is like the Arabic word Gahannam which translates to hell

thanks for the link, I'll read all of it later

Calvin and Hobbes actually do get the name from the philosophers Calvin and Hobbes, of all things.  And what Mr Kahn had said is the Reformation's view of humanity, which takes the Augustian view of human beings to full extent.  Under the Reform view, humans are nothing but piles of dung with the white sheet of Jesus covering them so God sees the white sheet of Jesus.  Humans are considered totally depraved and full of sin, and thus worthy of Hell.  Only good people do is because God wills it.  This has been a view prevalent in Western Christianity, particularly under the Protestant side.  You als see how the Halo is done in art, where it is a ring over people.

Eastern Christianity had nothing of Augustine, so you don't see this.  Total depravity isn't there, and thus you see a halo coming out from a person.

And this issue gets a lot deeper, can take up a lot more text, and really has little to do with this thread directly.

Another interesting, but longer, read: http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?file=article&name=News&sid=455 

I know the term and understanding of 'hell' that is perpetuated today is due to mistranslations. This has some other interesting concepts, one of them being that those who do evil will be 'burned up' in a second death that results in them not existing anymore (clearly not being tormented forever), while those who chose the 'gift' of eternal life will live on forever in some kind of new existence.

Very well explained in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72eJeryrQeI&feature=player_embedded#!

That was a good video in that link mabey you should embed that I don't know how. The most interesting part was "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Mathew 10:28" This clearly shows that there isn't eternal sufering because it says that the soul will be destroyed. Considering the context of this vese it should be clear that the word hell is mistranslated.