Eleventy brought up a great point as a response?

Question

Eleventy:"I read this short story called "The Ones Who Walk Away." It was about an incredibly happy town, where nobody was ever sad. Then you find out they're just happy because they are not this one citizen, who is constantly being tortured in unimaginable ways. They acted like they didn't like the fact that he was in pain, but in actuality, their happiness depended on it."


Do you think the whole Hell thing was historically set up to make Christians feel good by making non-believers the scapegoat as in the story?

"Or if the hypothesis were offered us of a world in which Messrs. Fourier's and Bellamy's and Morris's utopias should all be outdone, and millions kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far‑off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torture, what except a specifical and independent sort of emotion can it be which would make us immediately feel, even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the fruit of such a bargain?"

-William James

Answer 1

This idea is echoed in the work "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffler. He studied the psychology of lots of groups, not just religious but military, fraternity, even Ladies Aid Society. They all have a little "hell" they invent for outsiders who are not part of the "group."

It's how you know your group is special - when there is a place for the excluded ones to go.

Answer 2

Possibly.
A more plausible explanation of a need for hell consists of a simple fact: manipulating fear leads to results.

It's what Palpatine did to Anakin. You didn't think Lucas came up with all that on his own did you? Star Wars is an assimilation of many cultures and religions, and the Bible contributes it's use of fear to the Sith (and Buddhism contributes the knowledge that fear leads to the dark side, which in this case is Christianity, or at least a Christian ideal).

Answer 3

This is for me totally untrue,it is a fact that believers and unbelievers have good inside and who would possibly get their kicks from seeing another person suffer so terribly,our first instinct is to go to the persons aid, not stand by enjoying it, I know that I would not just stand by and I don`t think you would either.