Hell is not a fun place to be, if it exists at all. This is clear not only from the sources that describe hell in the religions, but also the artistic depictions of hell by Dante and Milton in the west. Such depictions are not restricted to the West, for the underworld features prominently in the ancient mythologies around the world: Chinese mythology, Native American mythology, Mesopotamian, He- brew, Ancient Persian all describe conditions of the underworld in terms of misery and suffering of the denizens of hell. Whether human or not, the spirits in such a hypothical place are not generally described as having fun. Heaven, whatever other characteristics it must have, should at least lack this ”not fun” characteristic that hell must have. I am not saying that fun characterizes heaven, but that it must be missing in hell.
There is a large variety of experiences that individuals will consider fun. The diversity is so large that the only characteristic in common between different people’s fun is the joy and euphoria they describe rather than a particular event that they say caused this joy. Reports of such experiences are exceptional rather than widespread in our world. Indeed, what is widespread is misery if we are to go by a quick and dirty sampling of world events - deaths, conflict, despair, poverty, homelessness, etc. affect a majority of the world directly. Even if all these human beings have very different things that they consider to be fun, what is clear is that such things are clearly not happening in their lives.
There have been various attempts to solutions to ”social ills” but they of- ten rely on underlying assumptions about what people need. A prominent such attempt is that of Marxists, for example. Marx’s economic and political theory, often known also as historical materialism, has the model of human be- ings where material conditions are the determinants of human living conditions. Such concepts as ”means of production” and ”the proletariat” dictate both the description of the state of capitalism and the consequent changes necessary to remove these ills. But these theories rely strongly on material conditions de- termining human lives. If this presumption is not true, then the theory cannot be accepted as a hypothesis about reality, in the scientific sense. I will attempt to provide some counterexamples to the hypothesis that material conditions
108 CHAPTER 20. HELL IS NOT A FUN PLACE TO BE determine human living conditions.
The world record for a human being to have survived without food is 94 days, as recorded by Assume that this is not a hoax but it is true. This would seem to contradict the assumption that food is an absolute necessary for human survival in the short term. I have personally experienced about 10 days or so with very little food - in this period, I had eaten either a single muffin per day or nothing at all in that period. For me, this was sufficiently long a period to decide that it is possible to overcome feelings of hunger and attachment to the material universe sufficiently so that food is not a primary precondition for survival, although it may in fact be necessary for functioning of the physical body for periods longer than, say 94 days in the extreme. I am not suggesting that en mass we go on a hunger strike. The issue at hand is whether material conditions determine human living conditions. They don’t always. In fact, asceticism is practiced by a wide variety of spiritually inclined people in regards to various material attachments.
But if material conditions alone do not determine human living conditions, are there other factors that, when combined with material conditions, that can provide a more coherent set of determinants? The religions claim the authority on this question in various ways. The scriptural answers involve an omnipotent being who is the creator of the universe whose activity determines our individ- ual and collective experiences. Indirect evidence from observations about actual human living conditions should cast doubt on this answer. As a model of abso- lute reality, these religious answers have counterexamples. If the messengers of God had promised a utopia, the kingdom of God, then such a promised has not been fulfilled for humanity as a whole, after the elapse of a long period. Two millennia after the appearance of Christ, longer after appearance of Moses, and 1300 years after the appearance of Muhammad, there is little indication of a ”kingdom of God” that is manifested in human civilization. Note that I am not targeting a particular religious group, as several religions refer to what may be a single God entity in the scriptures. Also, individual followers and institutions of these religious traditions have questioned and modified what they believe are revealed truths from God. I accept the existence of an entity who is the source of these revelations, and believe that this entity has deceived humanity in dif- ferent ways. The most obvious is the promise of a ”kingdom of God” that has shown little evidence in our living conditions. This promise is encapsulated in the Jewish faith in the Messiah, in Christianity in the Second Coming of Christ, and in Islam in the occurrence of a Mahdi. The Jewish prophesy is longer than two millennia, the Christian one is around two millennia old, while the Muslim one is around 1300 years old. Note that all three of these religions refer to the same entity, ”God” who is believed to be the creator of the Universe, and the source of this promise. Why such an omnipotent being would require such long periods of time to deliver on His promise is a legitimate question; furthermore, the existence of at least three different faiths should also be of concern. The usual explanations are based on various shortcomings of human beings for this condition of confusion. In Christian eschatology, the notion of ”sin” figures prominently. The explanation I posit, however, is the duplicity of the being
109 Himself in this situation. If His aim were not to deliver us to Heaven, but in fact to be a warden for us in Hell, the situation makes more sense.