The Penguin Book of Hell
...Little child,” wrote the English Catholic priest John Furniss, “if you go to Hell, there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every minute forever and ever, without ever stopping.” Why would anyone want to infect a child’s mind with such a terrible fantasy? The answer, at least in part, has to do with the dream of regulating behavior through fear. Even when they are not being policed, the idea goes, people are more likely to behave themselves if they believe that they will be punished in the afterlife.
But already in the sixth century, one of the first great writers about hell, Pope Gregory the Great, ruefully acknowledged that the warning is not very effective. And the long history of human behavior bears witness to the truth of this acknowledgment. The strictly instrumental use of hell finally boils down to a remark quoted by Voltaire: “My good friend, I no more believe in the eternity of hell than yourself; but recollect that it may be no bad thing, perhaps, for your servant, your tailor, and your lawyer to believe in it.”...
Link: The Penguin Book of Hell
(no message)