God Does Not Torment Souls

1. What have religious leaders taught and done about “hell”?

IT HAS been a common teaching in Christendom, as well as in the religions of the Orient, that “souls” of wicked persons undergo cruel torment after death in a fiery “hell.” Since they have this inhuman belief, many religious leaders have thought it to be a fine thing to persuade the rulers to torture and burn people alive in this life also, especially if they held to another faith.

ORIGIN OF “HELL” TORMENT TEACHING

3. (a) Which religions have taught a hell of torment? (b) How have some of these teachings varied?

³ The idea of a “hell” of torment stems from ancient Babylon. It is found also among the religious teachings of ancient Persia and Phoenicia. The Encyclopedia Americana (1956 ed., Vol. 14, p. 82) says:

“While there are many and significant variations of detail the main features of hell as conceived by Hindu, Persian, Egyptian, Grecian, Hebrew and Christian theologians are essentially the same.”

Though most religions of history have taught that there is a fiery “hell,” their teachings have differed as to its purpose. Says the Encyclopædia Britannica (1971 ed., Vol. 11, p. 320):

“The Roman Catholic Church teaches that hell is a state of punishment for those who die unrepentant in grave sin. Hell will last forever; its suffering will have no end. . . . The traditional Protestant teaching on hell remained until modern times substantially the same as Catholic doctrine and is still held by many conservative Protestant groups.”

On the other hand, Hindus and Buddhists teach that hell is a place of purification, akin to the Catholic “purgatory,” and that a person who goes there may have a rebirth, though rarely as a human, after his evil karma (deeds) have been burned up.

4. (a) What are the Buddhist hells like? (b) What similar teaching does the Roman Catholic religion have?

⁴ Describing the Buddhist hells, the above edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica states:

“There are eight hot hells and eight cold hells plus the realm of the pretas (ghosts with small mouths and great stomachs who are tortured by hunger and thirst). A person is born in hell as a result of the ‘ripening’ of his evil karma.”

On page 104 of this book, some idea of the supposed fiendish tortures administered in this “hell” is given in an illustration taken from a Buddhist scroll entitled “Kanzen Choaku” (meaning, Recommending the Good, Disciplining the Bad). It has many similarities to the “Inferno” of the Roman Catholic Dante, a portion of which is shown in this book on page 105.