You write that “Hell could, in principle, be a necessary condition of existence.” Why? What could be “necessary” about eternal torture? Keep in mind that many Christians do believe that Hell is a place of fiery, eternal torment. Many Christians have been saying and believing this for centuries. Notice though that I didn’t say all Christians, because some go for a muted or toned-down idea. Even the Catholic Church seems to be pulling back, with Pope Francis saying, in 2016, that Hell means being “far away from the Lord for eternity” (whatever that means). Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese says “Hell is not about fire and brimstone; it is about our freedom to say no to God, our freedom to reject love and choose loneliness.” Oh? If people say no to God, then what happens to those who “reject love”? Reese and Francis don’t say.

Throughout most of history, Hell has been perceived and believed to be a place of punishment. And yet here is Francis: “Souls are not punished. Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and go among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear. There is no hell — there is the disappearance of sinful souls.” Hold on a second there, fella. My “soul” (I don’t believe in souls) is going to disappear? I will cease to be (to cite the famous Monty Python dead parrot sketch), is that it? If that’s the case, then why should anyone worry about what happens when one rejects God? After all, one can’t be conscious of one’s disappearance, right? To say otherwise makes no sense. (Also, it seems like God is a narcissist. Why does the Big Kahuna of Existence need to be “contemplated” or worshiped? I don’t like this God guy. Never did.)

I’m sticking to what I said. To even conceive of a place of eternal punishment — again, most Christians believe this — is to engage in psychopathy, that is, to take some measure of enjoyment at the suffering of others. “I’m up here in Heaven having a groovy time, and it’s good to know that those who never repented are being roasted over a fire forever.” You may respond with some high-falutin’ theology, but that won’t do any good because I reject the underlying premise on which I’m supposed to take theology seriously.

The “afterlife” is perhaps the single worst idea ever invented by humanity, and inventing Hell (or Jahannam, if you’re a Muslim) makes this idea worse.