Is Hell Real? Why I Don’t Believe in Hell

Why I Don’t Believe in Hell

Is hell Real?  What is hell? Where is Hell?  I stopped believing in hell in my late twenties. Eternal hell is perfectly fair—when you can look every soul in the eyes and say: Did I not give you perfect parents? You were never hungry, bullied, teased, or emotionally abused in any way…

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By, Cassandra George Sturges

When I was kid, my parents taught me that Satan was a red man with horns on top of his head, who had a long tail with an arrow at the tip of it. They told me that he was once angel in heaven with God, who had a beautiful singing voice. 

I forget the dirty details of his departure from heaven, but I remember my parents saying something along the line of God kicking Satan out of heaven because he was jealous of the other angels.

My parents told me that Satan was also called the devil and Lucifer and that he resided in hell to make sure that all bad and evil people burned eternally. They told me that only bad people go to hell—like people  who lie, people who don’t clean their rooms, bathe, and brush their teeth, eat their vegetables, listen to their parents, get bad grades and so forth—you know—all the major stuff when you are a young kid.

I remember wondering if Satan worked for God; were they a team.  Did God say to Satan, I will take the “good” people and you take the “bad” people. I didn’t understand if God would forgive some of my sins or all of them—or did God and Satan negotiate to determine if I was worthy enough to go to heaven. I knew that I hadn’t murdered or killed anyone—yet. LOL (Okay, I am cracking myself up) But did this mean that all people in the military was going to hell or did they get a special permission slip from God to kill other people.

As I got older, I was told things like, “The idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” and “The Devil made me do it.” My parents and church explained to me that if you are a good person, and you do something bad it is not your fault—it is Satan’s fault.  I would hear people in my community say, “The Devil’s Busy—ain’t he?” whenever there was a scandal like a leader or pastor of a church cheating on his wife. I was getting more and more confused about this whole going to hell and eternal damnation thing.

I got baptized when I was 18-years-old because I didn’t want to go to hell. I remember when they dipped me in the water, I was so afraid because I can’t swim, and I was hoping not to drown –because then the devil would take my soul.

Is hell Real?  What is hell? Where is Hell?  I stopped believing in hell in my late twenties. I was a social worker and I had several cases where children were being molested, neglected, and sexually abused by their parents-- who were molested, neglected, and sexually abused by their parents and so forth. The generational cycle of self-destruction, exploitation, and pain some of us break  the cycle and the rest of us are bound for hell? I can't wrap my head around the definition of hell.

One day I was called to pick up a little girl on my caseload who was no older than 5 or 6 years-old who was found in the boy’s bathroom trying to molest the young boys in her class. I had had several cases similar where children had been sexually exploited and abused --and they would attempt to sexually engage other children and adults because of their psychological conditioning.

On this particular day, I look back at the beautiful little girl in the back seat of my car and started bawling and talking to God. I said, God, one day this little girl is going to be on somebody’s stripper pole or a prostitute. Or maybe she will just be promiscuous and people will call her sluts, whores, and tramps. (We didn’t use terms like thots back then.) But, no one will know her story, God. They won’t know the pain and abuse that she has suffered from the times she was  6 months old. 

So listen God, how is it fair to create a hell for eternal damnation for people who were never given a perfect life to begin with.

Eternal hell is perfectly fair—when you can look every soul in the eyes and say: Did I not give you perfect parents? You were never hungry, bullied, teased, or emotionally abused in any way. I have given you a perfect body, family, and life conditions and you broke the rules-- so to hell you must go.   

In my opinion, under these circumstances, hell may be a fair option...

I told myself after that day, I would always give people, “the benefit of the doubt” because you never know what a person has gone through in life—and whether we see it or believe it-- people are doing the best that they can. 

As humans, I think we like to judge other people, but the truth of the matter is —if you had walked a single day in another person’s shoes you may not be the person that you have become today.