MeDotOrg wrote:The concept of hell can be understood as a projection of the human subconscious. I don't think the origins of hell were birthed in spiritual greed. Certainly throughout history people have exploited the fear of hell as a powerful religious motivator. A lot of this is done deliberately and cynically. But the images of hell are varied and perverse, and the concept of hell is a both a reservoir and a wellspring terrors, faced and repressed.
MeDot Org your observation certainly makes sense to me. People talk about a cliché of people fighting or struggling with their own demons. People struggle with fear and chaos. People struggle with how to deal with destructive people. There are ways people get discouraged , destructive, angry and vengeful. They create hell and spread it as far as they can. People know these real life hells and create stories and pictures about them. Stories and images that express these fearful things are spread far beyond any particular religion but as religion proposes messages of how to overcome and escape these real, earth based hells the imaginary images get used in the religious message and blend into it.