Even though I am a longtime Dante fanatic, I do not believe in Hell (or Heaven, for that matter). Well, clarification is necessary. I DO believe that people can impose upon themselves a hell on earth by approaching their life, or unique situations in their life, with the wrong attitude. In addition, I think living people often suffer a hellish existence that is imposed upon them by others.
But as far as dying and going to Hell for living misdeeds (or failure to take Christ into your life), that’s pure bunk (or, as H. L. Mencken would say, buncombe). Yet, even such an arch-unreligious writer as Jean-Paul Sartre placed his protagonist, in the play “No Exit,” into a room with other people from which there was no escape, prompting the poor hero of the play to realize that “Hell is other people.”
Jim Carrey exclaimed that “hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they’re eating sandwiches.” But Lewis Black went even further: “If there is a hell, it is modeled after junior high.”
Naturally, the great Samuel L. Clemons aka Mark Twain weighed in on the subject too. He said: “When I think of the number of disagreeable people that I know who have gone to a better world, I am sure hell won’t be so bad at all.”
The concept of Hell infects all walks of life. The term is equated with suffering at all levels, even sports. You realize, of course, when the Cubbies will next win a pennant, don’t you? When Hell freezes over.