Hell As A Self-Inflicted Choice

By Roshel

She had recently launched a website, and she had excitedly emailed her friends and relatives to inform them about it. A few of them wrote back, sharing her enthusiasm and giving her encouragement. But many others simply ignored her mail. She could understand why: the sort of things the website discussed—issues related to God and the soul, life and its purpose, death and the Hereafter, and so on—just didn’t interest them at all.

One day, a cousin of hers popped up on the screen of her mobile phone. Although she hadn’t met him in years, they exchanged messages every once in a while. She had recently texted him about the new website, but he hadn’t replied to her message. She wasn’t at all surprised, though—she knew he wasn’t interested in things like religion and spirituality.

After they exchanged pleasantries, he excitedly informed her which part of the world he was presently in (as a senior executive in a multinational corporation, he travelled a great deal). “I’m in Iceland, almost at the top of the world, now!” he gushed. “And next week, I’ll be in Hawaii! I’m really looking forward to luxuriating on a beach in the hot tropical sun!”

“Lucky you!” she responded. “God has blessed you with many opportunities to see the world.” “By the way,” she continued, “did you look at the website that we’ve started? I sent you a mail about it a fortnight ago.”

“I had a quick glance at it,” he replied. “But most of the articles are about God.”

“Yes, and so?” she asked.

“Well, the thing is that God and I have never exchanged even a single word all my life so far,” he responded. “And so, to be honest, your website isn’t really something that resonates with me.”

His words pricked her like a thorn. She knew that he didn’t share many of her views, but she never expected him to be so brazen. Imagine not exchanging even a word with God all his life so far—for more than 55 years! She shuddered at the thought and did not respond.

“You’ve fallen silent,” he texted after some minutes. “Hope you aren’t upset with me.”

“Well, I don’t quite know what to say,” she wrote back. “If you’ve never exchanged a word with God in all your 55 years, who do you think is responsible for it?”

“I guess I alone am responsible,” he replied. “You see, unlike you, I don’t believe in God, and so I don’t feel the need to talk with Him since I believe He doesn’t exist. The reason I haven’t ever exchanged a single word with God all my life is the same reason why I haven’t exchanged a single word so far with, say, a six-winged fairy from Pluto—because I don’t believe that there are any six-winged fairies, on Pluto or on any other planet for that matter.”

“I understand what you mean,” she wrote back. “You don’t believe in God, and so, quite naturally, you don’t feel the need to communicate with Him. But suppose God, the Creator of the whole universe, does indeed exist, wouldn’t you think it might give you great joy to talk with Him?”

“The fact of the matter is that I am VERY happy the way I am,” he wrote back. “And so, I have no need of God to make me happier.”

“If I understand you correctly,” she replied, “you think you are very happy without giving any space to God in your life, and you want to keep it that way.”

“Exactly,” he responded. “I have no need at all for God to make me happy or feel fulfilled.”

“In other words, you want to lead a life independent of God or without God,” she wrote back.

“Well, if that is how you want to put it, I guess you could say that,” he replied.

“Do you realise that this is exactly what my interpretation of what is called ‘Hell’ is—existence that is without the presence of God, be it in this world or in the world that comes after death?”

“I’m not sure if I understood you,” he texted.

“Well, my understanding of Hell (which is different from how some of those religious texts describe it) is that it is a state of being that is divorced from God. People who want to live their life divorced from the presence of God, giving no room for God in it, are voluntarily choosing Hell or a hellish state (understood as a state of being bereft of God’s presence) for themselves, here in this world and in the world to come after death. You could say that they willingly choose to live in Hell or a hellish state—in a state bereft of God’s presence,” she wrote.

“So, you can see that if they find themselves in Hell or in a hellish state,” she continued, “it’s their own fault, not God’s, because they want to live apart from God, which is what Hell is basically about. For them, Hell is a self-inflicted choice. They choose to live in Hell—away from God—and that’s what they will get. It’s a choice they themselves have made.”

“Hey, are you saying that I will go to Hell after I die because I don’t believe or want to believe in God? Why would a supposedly all-loving and all-compassionate God send me to Hell simply for not believing in Him and not wanting to have anything to do with Him? That seems really brutal!” he retorted.

“Well, given that my understanding of Hell is existence bereft of the presence of God, if you want, and voluntarily choose, to live life here without any room for God in it, you wouldn’t want to live in joy in the presence of God (which is what I understand by what is called ‘Heaven’) after you die, would you? If you don’t want to have anything to do God here, not even wanting to exchange a word with Him, you would probably not like to live with Him for eternity after you die either—which is what my understanding of Heaven is basically about. You’d probably like to live without God after you die, too—which is what I think Hell is. So, as you can see, it would be you who would be choosing Hell for yourself —inflicting a hellish future upon yourself— in the Hereafter. That being the case, you can’t blame God at all if Hell, by which I mean existence bereft of the presence of God, is what is in store for you after you die,” she wrote back.

A silence prevailed for a while. Then, he wrote, “You know something? I’ve never thought about such things this way before. What you are saying does seem to make some sense.”

“Do ponder on the matter for at least a bit,” she replied. “It’s the most serious issue of anyone’s life.”

“I promise to do so,” he replied. “I know what you say is motivated by a concern for my wellbeing.”

“Bye for now! God bless you and protect you wherever you are—in Iceland or in Hawaii or wherever!” she wrote back. “I better sign off now. It’s well past dinner time!”