“If you are not good, you will go to hell”, who was not educated in childhood and at some point heard this mixture of warning and threat about our behavior? Not knowing exactly what it was, just that it referred to a bad and very hot place, we were scared and temporarily corrected our behavior, but soon after everything was forgotten and we went back to messing with the adult's life. The question is whether any kind of attitude is really worthy of a just punishment from such a hell, a period in which a person would be stuck for a long time paying for the mistakes he made in life.
Hell is a term used by different religions, mythologies and philosophies, representing the abode of the dead, or place of great suffering and condemnation. The origin of the term is Latin: infernum, which means “the depths” or “the underworld”. The meaning attributed to the word "hell" is currently represented in Dante's The Divine Comedy, which has a very similar description to Christianity's concept of a hot and torturous place, although other religions also present similar explanations on the subject.
Regardless of whether hell exists or not, the fact is that its dark details have been used as intimidation throughout history. Many people stopped performing illicit acts fearing hell, but that doesn't mean they were good. Acting right out of fear doesn't make you good, because, in theory, if you don't have the punishment you will act badly.
In general, Earth is not an easy place, even some people portray that hell is truly located here. It is not possible to have an exact and full view of the magnitude of the entire planet and also of all habitable life, so it is up to us to build a heaven or hell in our lives.
Whether you like it or not, the other side is far more worthy of doubt than certainty. In addition to doing good regardless of whom, you must do good wherever you are later taken, for that is the essence of true goodness. After all, before you go somewhere after death, your actions will bear fruit in life. And these fruits can be delicious as heaven or spoiled as hell, it depends and always will depend on you.
- Text written by Diego Rennan from the Eu Sem Fronteiras Team
