Hannah Arendt's Description Of Hell

When I was a child, my parents had told me hell was a place for people who defied God. Their description of hell was this fiery habitat for demons, where humans would have to spend an eternity being punished for their sins. For many people, the threat of eternal damnation is terrifying, let alone a child. It was so alarming that for a while I simply shut out any questions that might undermine my assurance of salvation. I was taught that hell was run by a demon known by many names; the devil, Satan, Lucifer, and the Fallen Angel. Lucifer was his God-given name, he was once formerly known as the Angel of the Light. Lucifer was blinded by his pride, wanting to be God himself. God saw this as an act of rebellion and banished him from heaven. Satan was marked as the ultimate sinner who defied the Creator. God is supposed to be a loving and merciful, so why would he condemn his children to an eternity of damnation? Did Christians conjure up the belief that the devil was more powerful than the Bible depicted because they did not want to associate God
About fifty-eight million people were killed amongst the two world wars. It is hard to even believe that God could stand by while people are dying from senseless acts of violence. The philosopher Hannah Arendt writes in her description of Nazism: “The devil has become us, in a way. He is less personified as some evil creature. It’s the human who creates hell on Earth.” As more heartache arose it made it harder to believe that God, by doing nothing, is contributing to the suffering of humans. People started to believe that evil might even be held within the church. The church was concerned with this belief because it caused many people to leave the congregation. So they immediately tried to shut down this notion by bringing back the image of Satan as a winged, horned figure who controls people, who is the one to blame for human suffering, not