The New Gospel

This teaching about hell, which the church took over from a fierce, apocalyptic strand of Judaism, and which it here put into “Jesus’” mouth, proceeds from a very impure consciousness, filled with fantasies of hatred and revenge and of an unforgiving, unjust god whose punishments are insanely disproportionate to the offences. ... If hell means anything in reality, it is the world of torment that humans create for themselves and for one another out of their own greed, hatred and ignorance.  It is not a physical place; it is a psychological metaphor.