(January 20, 2013 at 9:34 pm)AtlasS Wrote: The million dollar question. Yet, many religious people (if not even all) failed to justify why the creation of hell is justified in the first place.
Islam for example, states that god created everything for a reason, a righteous,100% justified reason, hence one of god's name in islam is "the just".
And I present an answer, obtained from studying the quran for some time.
One of the biggest argues of atheist against islam, is odds. The world was created by an odd action caused a big bang, then everything else, including human existence was an odd, evolution of a primary creature.
Hell, is exactly the same as atheist believe : odds.
On earth, the climate is good, humans can eat, humans have obvious superiority over other creature, all the odds are with humans to build, live & have fun.
On hell, it's the negation of that.
God gives people who didn't believe in his creation & denied, he gives them exactly what they wanted : a random place.
Climate ? well on earth, it was cool, bearable. You said it was an odd ! okay ! what are the odds, of the sun being too close ?? you'll burn right ? but wait ! you said it was an odd ?? then, try this one odd : you're created (randomly) on the sun ! yaaaay !
food ? well on earth, it was nice, tasty, gives you life & energy, but you said it was and odd ! okay, try another odd : food is burning, it's not tasty !
and so on.
if you followed the description of hell in the quran, it's the negation of earth, in every tiny detail.
from my point of view, it makes total sense.. if you denied the blessing of your parents for example, then it's better for you to leave the house, and not to cry from the cold & the life of poverty.
god just states to humans, that without him, the world would be just like hell (mostly because of the stars getting so close to the land, if it has no rotational system (hence, the earth is the one who rotates around the sun)).
Most Jewish traditions do not accept hell as a reality. However, the concept is not limited to the god/s of Abraham. I visited a museum in Japan that depicted the tyranny and oppression of Japan and in it were depictions of their concepts of a "hell" as well.
People falsely think that the concept of hell is new in human history or limited to the modern monotheistic gods.
Fear of eternal torture is not a new concept to humanity because of modern monotheism.
Prior polytheism also had it's concepts of eternal revenge. It really stems from real evolution in our human behavior of "in group" vs "out group" psychology. Humans like to think that their local club will defeat evil and win the day.
