It’s fun to play with once in a while, but if we were only allowed to talk about falsifiable stuff, we’d have to get rid of all our forums except the Natural Sciences one. Probably a great deal of that one, too. 
Sâmkhya, please, are you talking seriously? Are you willing to tell us that you believe in eternal suffering? Did Pascal (taht genius) really believe in hell? Why belief in hell is required? Why? I can’t grasp the meaning of these words (maybe because they haven’t any meaning). Please, dear, ours life is not ETERNAL, it is a MOMENT. It seems to last a long time, but when we’re close to death we realize that it lasted only a few minutes. That’s not rethoric. There’s no truth, no sureness about anything BUT the insignificance of our lives. If a hell does exist, a heaven also exists, doesn’t it? So, “the good will go to heaven and the bad will go to hell”. Simply put, this is ridiculous. There’s no separation after that. There’s nothing. We’re finally all equal when we are close to death: all of us have the same destiny: an absolute emptiness and darkness waiting for us…definitely. 
the old freewill argument. it’s a good defense if you see free-will as the single most important thing to god.
yet i have never read or heard a satisfactory account of just why free-will is so important that it makes up for such bad deeds as the battering and rape of an old lady… or genocide… or unneeded torture.
all who have helplessly lost hope, apart that life is a gift. Socrates urged that the soul is what makes a body alive.Death occurs when the soul ceases to animate the body. 
Actually, you only go to hell if you accept Pascal’s Wager… 
Pascal’s Wager has so many implied assumptions it would be hard to count them all. The real statement would look more like:
If there is a hell, and if there is something/someone (god) that takes people there for some reason, and if the reason for going to hell is known, and if there isn’t a maximum size limit in hell, and if only one particular religion can escape hell, and if and if and if… then you should probably believe in X God of Y religion.
Also, what you meant to say, was you should believe in the most “reasonable” religion that contains the notion of hell, which is kinda self-contradicting.
Personally I would be very interested of a description of these eternal sufferings before I start believing in any of it. To start with, hell after life would effect my soul only not my body. My only fear being alive is that I can not do anything for the people I care about. If you are telling me that in haven you are part of a group influencing life on earth and residents of hell can only sit at the TV and watch, then I do afraid of hell.
Hell, as a state of suffering either during life or after death, cannot be eternal. Accepting that the abstract power of good (or God) is the only thing that is eternal; one then accepts that the opposite of good (evil:darkness) is merely an absence of good:light, with no real power or substance in itself, and also the opposite of eternal, i.e. temporary. Therefore, the manifestation of evil or imbalance, suffering, is only temporary, both here and after death. You’re right, the concept of “eternal damnation” has been devised by our fellow men who desire to control the gullible; it can stimulate church attendance and donations. The first kabalist to propose the existence of evil (“shattered vessels”) lived in the middle ages, and attracted a new following; the kabalists of old taught that all that was created was “very good”.
Hell on earth (the suffering we all experience to a degree during life) is obviously temporary. It’s the hell after death we’re talking about here – whether it’s eternal or not. Starting from dictionary definitions, i see that the most weighty entry is the theological one referencing the disputed “eternal misery and suffering”. The Bible definition is “the place where the spirits of the dead are, identified with Sheol and Hades”. Hades => “home of the dead, beneath the earth” (Greek Mythology); Sheol => (Hebrew, shaal, to dig) (similarly defined).
The only part of a person that remains as an abstract “record” of his life is the mental energy or dead mind that continues to exist, it is said, for roughly a thousand years before dissipating completely. A dead mind is commonly known as a ghost. There are many planes of mind during life, and the plane that one’s mind dwells on during life is relative to the plane one’s mind or mental energy goes to at death or separation of the spirit and mind from the body. The lowest planes of mind are “reserved” for those who have lived negative, destructive lives; early philosophers knew that the “spirits of the dead” (read the mental energy or dead minds of unenlightened, destructive people during life) were bound to the earth, inhabiting a “low place” (which is more an abstract than actual physical location). The suffering of these dead minds is no longer conscious as it was in life, and there is no physical suffering of course. The uninspired, ungodly, disrespectful, hateful and destructive thoughts of the “spirits of the dead” or dead minds can detrimentally influence the minds of the living who lack the protection of the Self, Spiritual Consciousness, or facet of the Spirit of God within, also known as the Atman (division of Brahman). But there is nothing to fear in dead minds or anything else; they have no real power.
luxin
luxin729y@yahoo.ca
“Live unknown”
Hell seems very much to be here on earth when you consider some of the people on this forum. The insults I have had thrown are remarkable. These people are like black , lost spirits.
Incapable of communicating well. They resort to vulgarity. Well, hell is full of this sort of thing. Thankfully though I am not tuned in to this frequency, I can hear it, but it has no effect on me. But how sorry I feel for those tuned into hell fm in their own minds every day.
Yes , they come across as secure , rational people at times, but in their minds, well, there is hell fire. Created by their ego, and selfish animal instincts.
Your contribution to this topic is off topic, please keep on the topic that stands. Thanks
Has no effect? My God, man, you’ve spent all day whining like a little girl about the offenses that you have taken!
This has gone beyond ridiculous. Get a hold of yourself!
Trapped!
Jerry is correct, and though I must say I have contributed to this fact but merely make a point that Iron Dog cannot in any way contribute to a conversation in an intelligent manner, infact all he seems to do is say, “I’m getting yelled at by these stupid people” and everytime he always ‘tries’ to make it fit the conversation… ppleassseee… its getting Iron Dog and it seems like all your doing now it just posting just post. Which would then lead me to believe your trying to ‘up’ your post count…
Its getting old and finally I have decided to do something about it by contacting the admins. Now Iron Dog if you have anything to contribute to conversation wise in a discussion feel free but your ranting and whining is getting old and shouldn’t be tolerated.
And jerry, for something to take effect, it can be seen better illustrated with some of the folk here who swear and rant.
Before you make assumptions about me , check my post, I am not effected exactly because I dont lose it, the others I am talking about have lost it, as you would see if you read my letters. They have been trapped, this is the laugh of it all.
Look on it not so much as whining, but responding to horrible vile comments that you obviously have not seen or read anything about.
I have informed the admins of your vulgar swearing and aggresivness also lasko. I think it is you who will come out the worst. But for now, I must move on, and finish what I came here to do. I can offer you no more time.
I’m sorry but it seems you are trapped in your own words Iron Dog
This is funny because there are countless posts in which you have told myself and Dr.S and various other to Scram because our imbicile simple minds cant comphrehend your awesome description of nothingness.
Call it whatever you want to. Why are you bothering to respond to the comments at all? Why are you running to the administrators like a child who was kicked on the playground? I don’t care what the conversations were about and I don’t care who was making what comments. This immature behavior is polluting what is otherwise a fine place, one that I very much enjoy visiting. All day today, whenever I check in, I have felt as though I have been visiting a day care facility. Put your sensitivities away. Somebody calls you a bad name, ignore him. (For the love of Christ, I learned that in kindergarten).
Be a man!
(Lasko you’re not helping).
I know and I have realized this Jerry but I only have done what I’ve done because it is my religion that he has ridiculed from the start and I think it is in my due place to correct him when he makes a mistake regarding me religion. Now I have said some things I shouldn’t have but then again I’ve also been contriibuting to conversations in the process…
Pascal’s Wager is like clinging to a straw to escape drowning in a river: Sure it may help you, but it probably won’t. It’s the wrong reason to believe in God.
The only reason one should believe in God, is there own personal Faith in God. Personal experiences that further their belief, and experiences that make them closer to God. One should not believe in God if they do not fully believe.
As far as I know, no religious authority advocates the entrance into heaven and the escape from hell based upon Pascal’s Wager as the basis of belief. Therefore, believing in Pascal’s Wager-- but not the actual doctrines-- would not be sufficient to save you from hell anyway. (If we even want to play that game).
And as the last two posters noted, fear of a punishment does not equate to faith. Finally, as a flip-side to The Underground Man’s earlier argument, a god that I see as worth believing in would not enable an individual to go to heaven based on merely calculating the odds and siding with caution. But that’s just a personal opinion. Save a spot for me in hell if I should have played the numbers!