Irational fear of hell still naggs me from time to time

[Astonished]

Being a young adult, the idea of hell doesn't really make a whole lot of sense- yet I still fear it! I think it makes sense that the concept would have been created to scare people into being law abiding citizens in a era where law didn't exist. There was no police to stop them, so fear was the only surefire method. Today, people still buy into the fear. Although this explanation makes the most sense, I still fear the concept, that if I don't believe and I end up being incorrect, that I may suffer an afterlife of torture. Some of my fear stems from a few videos and books I have read about people who make the claim that they visited hell-- I KNOW! Being a young adult I should know better than to buy into some propaganda online or in a book, but for me, it's easier said than done. I want to let go of this, but I feel the best way to do this is to write down why I fear it, and deduce some logical conclusions with the help of others on a site where religion isn't the primary focus. On the contrary, logic is the primary focus.
I saw a few videos where people either had a Near Death Experience, or had a dream that they visited hell. What I found to be somewhat frightening was the fact that many people described the same concepts in their versions of hell. Commonly, they were:
- fire and brimstone
- demons which look like reptiles that attack them
- the people who say they went to hell often report being put into a cage or a cube
- they hear other people suffering and whaling
- often they get burnt or beaten, and when they lose a piece of skin or a body part, it grows back and they get tortured again.
Now, I know this all sounds like some fairy tale, but I saw at least 10 accounts like this. I don't know what to make of it. I know the concept of fire can be found as early as Augistine in the 300s or 400s, and I know the bible implies torment to those who do badly in their lives. Much of the imagery isn't too much of a shock there, but the idea that people report a multitude of cases seeing demons which they report look similar among accounts, and often torture or laugh at people suffering is what I cannot understand. Being raised Christian, I always had an image of what hell may look like. I could totally imagine how my brain during a Near death experience or a dream could create most of the fire and suffering imagery, but I would never expect hell to be filled with demons who look like reptiles. I asked some of my Christian friends, and they say the same thing. Why then, is this demon thing so consistent across "hellish" experiences? If I could get a logical answer to that, then I would be willing to say that these experiences are nothing more than a brain that is scared and confused trying to fill in the gaps during an episode. Does anyone have a plausible explanation here? It would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks and have a great day,
Arsoo

When are people going to wake up and prosecute the people who do this shit to kids? Fuck me.

This makes free will an absolute nonsense term. This goes beyond carrot and stick. What kind of god dangles this and 'heaven' (which is basically going to be psychological torture for eternity as opposed to physical) over our heads? What kind of god creates us with a biological impossibility to actually follow his bullshit rules so condemnation is inevitable? What kind of god creates such a thing in the first place? What kind of god who believes in justice or mercy uses an unending punishment for a finite crime that he himself has regularly violated and yet holds himself above? What kind of loving god doesn't realize the difference between conditional and unconditional love so as to hold our feelings for him hostage?

Just content yourself knowing that everyone who thinks they're going to heaven is in all likelihood still going to hell for being unrepentant sinners (they're the Dunning-Kruger-est folk out there) so you'll have plenty of company to help distribute the temperature down there more evenly, and how absurd the idea of a god who at one time killed the entire world and then flip-flopped and decided to offer mercy, except that it negated the previously held idea that the afterlife was more of a neutral ground like Hades' underworld and gentle Jesus meek and mild was the one who came up with eternal torment. And heaven cannot possibly be what they think it is or that they'll still be themselves there (unless as they sometimes say, that heaven is the endless contemplation of the suffering of the damned; THAT part I believe. But even that has to get old after a while. But it sure suits cocksuckers like Pat Robertson and the like.)