Editor, the Times:

People who have been writing in with their views on hell probably should read the comment of Bertrand Russell, in which he states quite accurately that "most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false."

Certainly uninformed comments about the Christian doctrine of hell fall well within the meaning of that quote, as it is a most damnable doctrine in all its ugliness.

It's highly likely that those individuals that have written in so certain about hell only know about it from reading the New Testament.

As most of the true believers who know about hell as a certainty, only because of what the New Testament says about that man-created hell-hole, I challenge them to read something like The End of Christianity.

This book is a collection of essays edited by John W. Loftus, a former minister, who coined the phrase 'outsider test for faith.'

That test alone is enough to shake any believer to the core, and open their eyes to greater possibilities than they ever could have imagined before.

One essay in particular on the subject of hell by Dr. Keith Parson called Christianity's Most Damnable Doctrine, is spot on in how it dissects and repudiates what he calls the "repugnant fantasies of hell," which are "rationally and morally indefensible."

You think the church is all about hope, faith, and charity?

You think it exists because a loving God used his own son as a scapegoat?

Bull feathers. No, the doctrine of hell was invented to support the church because its moral authority is paper thin.

True believers want you to think that if you deny hell then you must also deny Christianity. Not true.

But thank you, those writers claiming to know what hell is, you make me say 'thank God' I'm a secular humanist and know that skepticism is its own virtue which is learned and not inherited.

Robert T. Rock Mission