-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Don (as in "Donald," but his friends always call him "Don") Ardell, is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. Already working in the "Wellness" field for quite some time, and therefore well-aware of his name, I met him for the first time at the 1986 National Wellness Conference in Stevens Point, WI. I was giving a paper on "The Role of the Physician in Health Promotion/Disease Prevention." Don, if I recall correctly, was giving a paper on what he came to call REAL Wellness (Reason, Exuberance, Athleticism, and Liberty), as well as a talk on the then-in-development sport of triathlon racing (which, as it happened we were both doing --- Don very rapidly, myself very slowly --- and I was writing about it [book still available]). Finding that we had a lot in common, both in the arena of wellness and health promotion, as well as politics, we soon became fast friends, have been such ever since.
Among other things, Don publishes an on-line periodical called the "Ardell Wellness Report" in which he discusses the latest developments in the arena of REAL wellness, which goes well beyond the matters of health clubs and healthy eating. As the concept of "wellness" has come to influence the lives of an increasing number of people, Don has remained on the forefront of developing what it really means. In recent years, Don has become increasingly interested in the "Reason" and "Liberty" components of REAL Wellness, especially as organized theism (that is belief in the concept, if not the person[s], of God or gods) has come to play an increasingly important political role in the United States. This of course is also a major concern of mine, from the time (1996) when I published the projected-future-novel "The 15% Solution," which predicted a takeover of the United Sates by a Christian Nationalist movement growing out of the Republican Party. Hmmm! (See the most recent version [2013] of the book, and such columns as "Abortion-Rights-Once-More-into-the-Breach.")
As it happens, Don and I are both outspoken atheists and supporters of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Among his variety of publications, Don periodically publishes the "Real Wellness Report." The most recent one, No. 855, deals with matters of organized religion and its impact on politics and culture in the United Sates. (The AWR can be accessed through awr.realwellness|AT|gmail.com Email address.)_">awr.realwellness|AT|gmail.comEmail address. )_ For that issue, Don asked several of his friends to contribute an essay on the concept of "hell," (or "Hell," if you prefer that formulation). I was honored to be included in that group. Here is the original of the essay that I sent to Don. With the onrushing intervention, through the Republican Party, of U.S. Christian Nationalism, to which the concept of "sin" --- and for some of the believers-in/followers-of it, of course "hell" --- in the political economy of the United States, I thought that you might find the essay to be of interest.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Concept of "Hell"
"Hell," that is some place or other of eternal punishment after death if you were not really "good" in the way that that particular church to which you subscribe, prescribes it, does not, of course, exist. Or, if it does, no one, individual, community, organization, or what-have-you, has ever been able prove its existence in any visual/tangible way --- and lots of time has been available to do so since the concept first made its appearance in the minds of the powerful-who-wanted-more-power some millennia ago --- and to deny its existence. For me, that's proof that indeed it does NOT exist. Neither does "heaven" or "God" (or gods, although it is Gods --- of the Greco-Roman variety --- that seem to be much more fun --- especially when played by Laurence Olivier and the like), or any other supernatural concept. Exist, that is in any tangible reality. But they do exist in concept. And aye, there's the rub.
Hell, however most interestingly described by Dante in his "Inferno," is a truly made-up thing. (And Dante did indeed do that "making-up" VERY well.) But what power it has over certain people, and that's why Hell, or rather the concept of hell, is so damaging. Not to individuals after their passing (because there isn't any such thing), in some form or another to have them "pay for their sins," but to the society, the culture, the politics, indeed in the religion(s) is which the concept exists. It is an entirely negative concept. It is a cudgel that its promoters hold over the heads of the unfortunate who believe in it, in order to get those believers to behave (and think too) in certain ways that in the long or short run benefit their promoters.
That benefit can come in the form of obedience, of devotion, of money, of following a certain political path, of leading life in a certain way, e.g., no divorce regardless of how bad the marriage is for one or both parties. "Hell," that is the concept, is indeed hellish (as in hellfire and damnation"), as the term is used in the English language and doubtless in many others to repeat: for the negativity, the fear, the unthinking obedience, that it causes to occur in the minds of its believers, and the power over them that it gives to its promoters (which power they would not otherwise have).
Yes indeed. "Hell." What a totally made-up, hellish concept. The only good thing it does supply us is all the wonderful turns of phrase it has inserted into our language, as in:
"Hellish" itself, to
"The hell with it," to
"Until hell freezes over," to
"That [whatever] must be hell," to
"There will be hell to pay [for whatever],"
And so on and so forth.
And with this little treatment of the concept, which must stand "somewhere between heaven and hell" in quality, we come to the end of it with, "oh, what the hell."
