Sentenced To Infinity

Douthat tackled the hell question this week:

Atheists have license to scoff at damnation, but to believe in God and not in hell is ultimately to disbelieve in the reality of human choices. If there’s no possibility of saying no to paradise then none of our no’s have any real meaning either. They’re like home runs or strikeouts in a children’s game where nobody’s keeping score.

My view here. Sean Carroll doesn't subscribe to the same vision:

I don’t know of any theological descriptions of Hell that involve some version of parole hearings at regular intervals. The usual assumption is that it’s an eternal sentence. For all the pious musings about the centrality of human choice, few of Hell’s advocates allow for some version of that choice to persist after death. Seventy years or so on Earth, with unclear instructions and bad advice; infinity years in Hell for making the wrong decisions.

And Adam Serwer questions the utility of hell:

Judaism makes few claims to understanding what happens after you die. Nevertheless, Jews adhere to a faith that called upon its adherents to act morally without a vivid conception of Hell for more than a millenium before the rise of Christianity.

And that's proof you don't need hell to feel guilt.