Basically, everyone's vision or idea of hell is what has been told them by a book, or books, or perhaps they've dreamed it or something.

No one has actually experienced it, and come to tell us about it, have they? I mean, if no one really factually knows what happens when we die other than 'what is written', then how can we really say there is a hell?

The same of heaven, I suppose. Ok so there are all kinds of stories of the tunnel of light when you die. People with near death experiences who see this tunnel, and see all their friends and family waiting for them.

It's an interesting idea, but who's to say that it isn't entirely your mind, flashing memories when your heart stops? Your brain loses blood and doesn't get new blood. Perhaps this tunnel is an effect of the lack of blood? Since we're all built generally the same way in the brain area, and brains tend to require the same conditions to function well, then would it not be reasonable to say that the same experience may happen under the same change of condition?

Anyway, really, my point/argument/question is how can all these people threaten you with hell? How can they say "you will burn in a lake of fire"? There is no way to know for certain that there IS a lake of fire.

Reading the description of the levels of hell (I haven't read Inferno yet) it seems to go into so much detail. Where is this detail coming from? Where is the guy that came back and said "Dude, don't go to the Malebolge, man. They stuff you into holes with fire at the bottom, make you wallow in poop and dip you in boiling pitch. You better not be fraudulent or malicious".

To me, all this sounds like an elaborate scheme to keep people from behaving like assholes or being annoying. Look, don't be depressed or you'll end up mucking about in the river Styx. It's like fairy tales for kids. Don't go wandering in the woods, because there's an old lady in there who eats children. And while you're at it, don't eat candy because if you develop the taste for it, you won't be able to resist her candy house, and she'll eat you up.

To me, it's fairly obvious, the comparison between fairy tales and religious shizzle. Don't do this stuff, or this horrible thing will happen. It seems like an exceptionally well crafted way of controlling the masses.

In the jewish faith, it seems a lot of the rules pertain to health and cleanliness. Don't eat pork. Why? It's a sin. But really, in the days when these rules were forming, pork that was even slightly off would kill you. So it's easier to say don't eat pork because you'll go to hell. People will be more afraid of that than "don't eat pork you'll probably get sick and die". With a starving people to take care of, you need enough fear to keep them from doing it. No one is as afraid of just getting sick than they are of burning in a lake of fire with Cerebus gnawing on your arm.

I know I'm mixing religions here, but the idea is the same.

Similarly, circumcision seems to be a hygiene thing. It's not an offence to god to have a foreskin. According to everything, god made you AND your foreskin. To remove it as an offence would be to insult something he made, or insinuate that his creations aren't perfect. Anyway, really, to take off the foreskin would probably prevent bladder infections and things, in a time when it was difficult to keep clean due to the invention of showers being 1000 years away.

I know I'm getting silly. But if you really think about it, these are all creative ways to keep your people healthy and keep your people from doing horrible things to each other, as best you can.

The threat of hell is certainly an effective way to achieve this.