Interesting article on the development of the Hell Myth, and how most of what exists about it comes from the imagination of Dante Alighieri and Thomas Milton. Good stuff for disempowering the idea of hell, which doesnt even fit with Biblical scripture...
The argument over the doctrine of 'hell' nowadays always brings me back to the words of Robert Green Ingersoll.
"Now this doctrine of hell, that has been such a comfort to my race, which so many ministers are pleading for, has been defended for ages-by the fathers of the church. Your preacher says that the sovereignty of God implies that he has an absolute, unlimited, and independent right to dispose of his creatures as he will, because he made them. Has he? Suppose I take this book and change it immediately into a servient human being. Would I have a right to torture it because I made it? No; on the contrary. I would say, having brought you into existence, it is my duty to do the best for you I can. They say God has a right to damn me because he made me. I deny it."
"Nothing could add to the horror of hell, except the presence of its creator, God. While I have life, as long as I draw breath, I shall deny with all my strength, and hate with every drop of my blood, this infinite lie.”
Extremely good thing to read! Thank you so much for posting.