Eternal punishment is pointless.

[Brian37]

Where can knoweledge of Hell be sourced? Only the bible can provide such knowledge/or verify it. The catholic version of hell has it's roots in various religions it has assimilated over the centuries. The biblical version is not so elobrate, with different levels of hell and or puratory where the devil rules the realm. All those elements were borrowed from the greeks, pagans and roman mythology.

If you want to talk about the God of the Bible or the Hell of the bible then it is to the bible we must turn to for reference.

It's still just your word against theirs, they read the same bible as you and they win on the numbers. If you are all drawing such different conclusions from the source you're telling me to look at, you must see why I require more than just that one source to believe that your (or any individual) interpretation is more accurate than any other.

Um no, it is not his word against theirs. The third option is that all of it is made up his and theirs.

Motifs of divine reward and divine punishment existed in polytheism and monotheism. This was a result of human gap filling and flawed perceptions. Back then the ruling classes in both viewed their fortunes and misfortunes as coming from a higher power. Getting stuck on details does not change that.

Humans even today in monotheism and polytheism have various superstitions to explain why good and bad happen. Even "Karma" is a superstition that claims your prior life and next life are part of a reward punishment motif. Even to the point in some sects that buy that, that if a kid is born with a birth defect the "karma" is deserved to the point that natural birth defect will be treated as a punishment.

This religion says this, and that religion says that, does not change that those flawed perceptions, regardless of detail, are primitive ways to explain our real behavior of child regulation from parents.

It still amounts to superstition in trying to explain why good and bad happen.