Let's re-think eternal damnation.

I grew up going to Sunday school and, when I couldn't avoid it, church service. And it doesn't seem to matter what denomination or what creed or -ism you subscribed to: there was always the awful promise that if you didn't do what you were supposed to do, in accordance with the particular rules of your religion, there would be hell to pay. Literally.

I was always uncomfortable with the idea that your earthly sins would damn you to an eternal punishment. That seemed way too harsh, considering that we humans come into the world knowing nothing and don't learn nearly enough before we're gone. An eternity of torture for sins of ignorance or mental incompetence or disease is in no way compatible with any compassionate religion. Shouldn't there be a point at which you can repent and be, if not forgiven, at least not damned to burn forever?

Say you were sorry -- and mean it -- and promise to do better in an afterlife?

Most of us probably don't give much credence to an eternal hell, but I think a modified version would serve us all well. Suppose you were sent to hell -- however you imagine it -- for just a certain period, like a jail or prison sentence. A year or ten or longer. But because the eternal pain you would have to endure is, in theory, so extreme, how about just a month? A week?

Would seven straight days of torture make you repent all your sins? How about five minutes?

In other words, how much afterlife pain and trauma would it take to make you understand the sorrow you'd brought to others and make you swear to come back, in the next life, as a better person? Not just because you'd endured all that awfulness but that you -- finally -- understood what it felt like to those you'd inflicted it on. I'm thinking that five minutes of being raped and stabbed to death, in the face and throat, over and over, might leave even the most sadistic rapist weeping for his sins. Eye for an eye. But for (very) limited times.

I don't think hell is worth much as a concept unless it includes the chance to redeem yourself, any more than I think heaven can mean eternal peace and happiness. Come on: How many people do you know who deserve un-ending glory? Even the best of us, being human, screw up from time to time. Shouldn't our time in heaven or hell be dependent on how much we screwed up, and how often, and how much we felt sorry about it later, or how often we rose above our own selfish instincts and then fell back later into our old ways? Maybe we should just be sent to hell or be let into heaven for a little while, and then we're cast back down into this imperfect life again, to prove ourselves all over again.

Conditional heaven; conditional hell. A sentence but not a life, or eternal life, sentence.

A few days here, a few days there. Ultimate bliss or ultimate damnation. But just for a while

Should a president who started a war when he didn't need to be sentenced to an eternity in hell? Of course not. But wouldn't it be reasonable to think that he might have to spend a long weekend being treated for the same kinds of horrific wounds his policy had inflicted on so many young people? Loss of limb? Sight? Brain trauma? (Yes, this is politics, but politics is life, and you know it.) All our leaders who send young people into harm's way should spend some time in a hell of their own making, just to see what it was like. Friday through late Sunday of nothing but horrible pain. The kind that comes from having your legs blown off in an IED explosion and then waiting, maybe a long time, for help to come. Or the life-long misery of being blind or brain-injured; a real burden to the fiancee or wife or husband who married you, before the war, with someone much more complete and competent in mind.

A long weekend and then some.

So what do we do with the real villains of history? Hitler and Stalin, whose mis-placed ideas of world domination almost brought life as we know it to an end? How long do they get to spend in hell? Weeks? Months? Years?

Do you know someone who could use five minutes in hell? Someone who abused his children even when he knew better? Someone who stole from loved ones who were in need themselves?
Someone who said something about somebody else that ruined that person's life? Maybe me. Maybe you. A little severe punishment might jolt any of us into realizing our wrongs.

It's all just speculation. None of us has a clue why we're here or what's expected of us or how or if we're ever going to be judged. But because so many rascals here on earth are never punished, we have to imagine a dimension in which they will be. Again, it's only human.

But we should remember that whatever perfect system of judgment we imagine for others also applies to ourselves. Whatever hell you imagine for those you despise, imagine for yourself, too.
When you die, do you need a few minutes in hell to understand the suffering you've caused?

Of course this is all just ignorant hypothesizing. My real advice is to embrace the mystery and live the best life you can. We're all on this Mystery Tour together, no?