Is Hell or Prison the best cure for immorality?

[Chad32]

All religions as of now have at least some concept of divine punishment for immorality and it seems to me that this has worked to a varying degree all until mankind stopped believing in hell. Although there are the religious wars and what not. But on the small scale level it seems to have done something.

Is a just hell better than a just prison?

Couple things: one, if we're talking about a just hell, we can't be talking about any of the religious ones, because an eternity of any kind of punishment isn't just, nor can it be a cure for anything- as you allude to in your thread title- because it's clearly not there to get anyone better. It's there as retribution for not staying in line.

Secondly, does a punishment devised by an entity that assumes power for itself without ever having to earn it, who excludes the possibility of ever being recused or losing any of that power no matter its abuses, who requires no consent in order to govern you, and assumes a worldwide jurisdiction independent of any kind of legal checks and balances, sound just to you? If any person did it, you'd consider that an unacceptable dictatorship; why does whatever form of god get a free pass?

Got to agree here. Anyone who thinks hell is permanent can't call it a cure for anything. It isn't rehabilitation. It's retribution. Plus most people have heard the saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The only reason anyone would think that Yahweh is the paragon of virtue is that he says he is. This is despite doing things that many modern audiences think is nothing short of grotesque.

So no, there is no justice in what most people think of as hell. The absolute worst prisons in the world are automatically better just because they aren't permanent.