A Brief History of Hell
Before we begin our examination of the arguments given against hell, it will be helpful to trace the development of eschatological thinking, from the earliest recorded speculations about the next world to contemporary attitudes. In this historical prelude we will chronicle the interplay of the various motifs--justice, love, punishment, and reformation--which characterize the modern debate. We will discover that both belief in and denial of hell have ancient pedigrees, and that the philosophical motivations for contemporary positions find their genesis in arguments of centuries past.
Providence, Freedom, and Human Destiny
According to some theists, God will never completely destroy moral evil or banish it from his creation entirely; instead, he will eventually confine moral evil to a specific region of his creation, a region known as hell, and those condemned to hell, having no hope of escape from it, will live out eternity in a state of estrangement from God as well as from each other. Let us call that the traditional doctrine of hell. Elsewhere I have argued that any form of theism which includes such a doctrine, even one that tries to preserve consistency by denying the universal love of God, is in fact logically inconsistent. But moderately conservative theists, as I have called them, have an argument for the traditional doctrine that some have found convincing, one that emphasizes libertarian free will. The argument is this. Because God is perfectly loving, he wills the good for every created person and wills the redemption of all who have fallen into evil; but because he has also given his loved ones the gift of freedom and some of them in fact exercise their freedom to reject him forever, it is simply not within his power, even as an omnipotent being, to redeem all of those who fall into evil. According to moderately conservative theists, therefore, the following hypothesis, which I shall call the Rejection Hypothesis (RH), is at least possibly true: (RH) Some persons will, despite God's best efforts to save them, freely and irrevocably reject God and thus separate themselves from God forever.
Main tendencies of religious consciousness development in modern society
The article is devoted to the investigation of the tendencies of religious consciousness development in modern society. At the present stage of development religious consciousness, like any other social and psychological phenomenon, is undergoing significant changes. The development of religious consciousness at the present stage of society evolution leads to the development of common moral norms and requirements. There is a tendency to reduce human ties with the religious community as a translator of religious consciousness. It is possible to speak about the transformation of religious consciousness but not about its disappearance.