What About Hell?

     When someone expresses doubt about the existence of Hell as a real place where 'non-believers' reside in eternal torment, he may be referred to one or more of many places in the Bible which seem to apply to such a place.  See, for example, Rev. 14:11, Mark 9:43, Luke 3:17, ll Pet. 2:1, Matt. 5:27-30 or Mark 9:48-49.  And there are others.  Christians are urged to take all these references literally. 
      Nothwithstanding insistance otherwise, however, Hell may be a metaphor for the source of the evil which is sweeping the world. Is it only that which matters?  Are bread and wine literally body and blood?  Even those who answer yes --- Roman Catholics, for example --- will admit that these elements are wine and bread to a chemist but they contend that they are converted to something else in some mystical or metaphorical sense which no one but Catholics, and perhaps a few others, even claim to understand.  The Catholic doctrine is called 'Transubstantiation'.  The Lutherans have a variation called 'Consubstantiation'.  Does it really matter?  Jesus asked for an act, not understanding (this do, not this understand).  He did not care about actual physical facts but only their meaning.  Or is that entirely true?  Without going too far into that, there is a good deal of support for those who believe that the physical facts and the literal reality of events reported in the Bible does matter a great deal.  Was there a real Abraham, a real Moses?  I go from one side to the other on such questions.  I tend to believe along with C. S. Lewis that the earlier events may have a mythical aspect to them but that there is no doubt about the reality of Jesus, the Virgin birth, miracles, crucifixion and Ressurection.  Where the mythical blends into the literal, while even then retaining something of the character and flavor of myth, I don't know.  But the Christian story is true.  Everything depends on its being true and there is sufficient support for it to state categorically that it is true.
      Is Hell real?  Yes, you can see it in the eyes of lunatics, of those who are slaves to alcohol, of sociopaths, of people so burdened with guilt that they cannot get through the day without breaking down.  Are there demons, those denizens of Hell who are said to torment the damned eternally?  There are certainly human demons --- Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and conspicuously those lovely Jihadists of the Middle East who think they are vindicating God's will by torturing and decapitating people, blowing up buildings, passenger jets, trains, night clubs and theatres, and oppressing women.  Yet I have to admit that there is more to it than that, joining to a degree those who advocate belief in Hell as an actual place.  There is an evil force making its way across the world with frightening effect.  We see it in "spontaneous" protests and riots, in crazed Jihadism, roaring and seeping into societies everywhere and threatening civilization.  We see it in the horrific crimes which are committed with the insistence that they are  in compliance with God's will.  Though I am not convinced that Hell is literally a place, it is very likely something more than just a state of mind, though it is certainly at least that, and that is bad enough.  Beyond that the notion of a literal Hell in a specific place seems far-fetched.  The Earth itself is constantly changing locales within the Solar system, and the Solar system within the Galaxy, and no doubt the Galaxy with reference to the Universe itself.  The similarity to a physical Hell, however, lies in the fact that it would be impossible for all of the hellish events going on around the world to be the result of some master plan, coordinated efforts,, a grand conspiracy promoted by people gathered in a room somewhere plotting.  There are plots going on here and there; in Washington, Tehran, Wall Street, union meetings, Moscow, Caracas and elsewhere;  no doubt about that, but not one grand plot.  At least not one grand human plot. There is simply too much hell in the world for that.  Hitler did not sit around hatching wicked schemes with George Soros.  They didn't even know each other.  Yet we see it as if everything had in fact been orchestrated at some central venue much like, if not actually, a real hell by a real devil.  Which makes me tend to believe that such a grand ongoing conspiracy exists in reality but not in some human board room or meeting hall.  What's the point of these evasive and presumably immaterial conspirators?  Whay bother with plots and conspiracies designed to injure humanity without any apparent benefit to themselves? Do they never quit?  Why don't they get bored?  I find street riots, wherein teenage boys throw rocks at tanks, and that sort of thing, just plain boring.  It's all the same.  It may take place in Paris, or Seoul or Cairo but if you've seen one you've seen them all.  And evil dictators who all seem to wear some sort of bizarre or garish costume with a strange hat, or a hat that's too big.  They want power.  But what will they do when they get it?  Do they even know?  Yet it never stops and this to me suggests something very evil going on the origin of which is not apparent.  Where does it originate?  Who originiates it?  And why?