Why Hell Exists

I think I've figured out why Hell exists and why God seems to lie about it. According to most of Christendom (and probably many other religions, for that matter), there is a place called Hell, a place of eternal suffering, fire and brimstone, where the wicked are tortured for eternity. According to the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it doesn't quite work like that. In our teachings, there are two or three places that could be considered analogous to "Hell," even though none of them really matches the traditional version of Hell.

One of those places is Spirit Prison, which is where wicked spirits go before their resurrection and final judgement. Yet, it's not quite the same as the traditional depiction of Hell. I don't know how much suffering happens in Spirit Prison, but I do know that it's temporary. Everyone who enters Spirit Prison will ultimately be let out, be resurrected, and face Final Judgement, where they'll be sent somewhere else.

One potential final destination, and the second possible "Hell"ish location, is the Telestial Kingdom, which is the final destination of murderers, rapists, and other unrepentantly horrible people. This is where most evil people will spend the rest of eternity. Yet, it's not really "hellish" at all. In fact, we've been told that the Telestial Kingdom is even nicer than the world we live in now.

The one place that comes closest to Hell in our theology, in my opinion, is Outer Darkness, a place of no light and no glory, where the unforgivable live out the rest of eternity as far from the presence of God as a creature can get. I don't know whether there's fire and brimstone in this place, but I know that it won't have a lot of people. Specifically, I know of only two people who will (or have been) sent there: Judas Iscariot and Cain, who murdered Abel. Other than a sparse handful of people who sinned against a perfect knowledge of their sin, Outer Darkness is reserved for Lucifer himself and the angels who followed him. It is the worst place a person can, theoretically, end up, but it's not the place where most bad people will go.

So, if no place in existence matches the traditional depiction of hell, why does the image of hell exist? Why are we warned about the risk of ending up in a place that doesn't actually exist?

My guess is that God is employing the Spaghetti Method. To test whether a spaghetti noodle is cooked enough, some people will fling a cooked noodle at the wall and see if it sticks. If it sticks, the spaghetti is done. Hence comes the idea of figuratively throwing every idea at a figurative wall to see what "sticks." Only, in God's case, He's not dealing with a single spaghetti noodle or a single wall. He's dealing with all mankind and every idea that can be invented. My guess is that God throws so many ideas at the wall, including the (empty) threat of (a nonexistent) hell, not because He hopes that some of them will stick, but because He knows that all of them will.

People are different, and different people are motivated by different things. Some people are tempted by the allure of heaven, so God promises them heaven. Some people are scared of the prospect of hell, so God threatens them with hell. Some people will only worship the God who is the greatest, so He claims to be omnipotent. Some people will only worship a God that they can bond with, so He lets us call Him "Father." By offering people many different ways and reasons to come to Him, God ensures that there's a path and motivation for everyone, including those who are only motivated by their desire to stay out of Hell. God offers different ideas to different people, so He can be whatever each person needs Him to be.

And who knows? Maybe most of it is mostly true. There are places of at least temporary suffering. There are places where the wicked are sent to face Eternal Damnation (even though that doesn't mean what most people think it means). There are places and conditions that can be described as Hell. Similarly, God, our creator and thus our "Father," is functionally, mostly omnipotent, and between the various degrees of the Three Kingdoms of Glory, there's probably a Heaven for just about everybody. Almost all religions have at least some truth to them, if we allow for some creative interpretations of actual truths. The traditional depiction of Hell may be an exaggeration, but it's close enough to various truths to not be a total fabrication, and even if it was completely made up, it was probably made up by people misinterpreting the Word of God. We can't blame God for people misinterpreting what He said, blowing it out of proportion, and adding fictitious details. We can't blame God for the untruths and exaggerations that some churches teach in His name. Even if Hell is a lie that people tell each other, that doesn't mean that God Himself ever lied about it.

There are many teachings, some of which contradict each other, or at least seem to, and many of them exist because that's what people need to hear. Some people need for comforting promise of heaven to give them something to reach for. Some people need the threat of hell to put some fire under their feet. God and others offer people various teachings in order to motivate them to do what they should. As long as people hunger for different carrots and avoid different sticks, there will be different teachings for different people. So, maybe that's why the idea of hell exists. True or not, the concept of hell can be motivating, and some people need the threat of hell or the promise of heaven or some specific idea of God in order to motivate them to go in the right direction.