atheists: how do you think the doctrine of eternal hell was "invented"?

Sorry, many many religions have various versions of a hell, Christianity is not special in this regard,

I'd like to posit to other Christians that you have a point. Although this isn't conclusive reasoning, as Adam and Eve walked with God and were taught by him and continued to be faithful to Him even after their disposition from Eden that they had the true religion, and therefore all religions are derivatives of the truth. There may be something in the fact, that no other religion believes in a hell that the Catholics have sold to the Protestants.

Hell is not eternal, it ends.

how old are you luke?you sound very nieve,to control a mass of people and gain power over them so that they obey you blindly without objection you frighten them to death,you invent and tell them something that is so terryfying they dare not disobey so hell.the devil,monsters,evil spirits,are all employed and the threat of being put into a hell fire for all eternity is the last straw for these poor deluded and frightened people sad really that after all these years some people still believe in these silly made up fairy stories ok.

Probably because it seemed the most utterly disturbing and horrific form of agony, and so (rightfully) skeptical Christians would pee their pants in fear and guilt and run back to Jesus. It's to keep them in line, obviously. You can't see it? I'm sorry, truly.

And you are correct -- no grown adult should take a preacher talking about eternal hell seriously. You're on the right track.

No adult *should* take it seriously....but many wouldn't know "critical thinking" if it hit them in the face.

For the most part though, this is why brainwashing children is so very important. Get them before any possibility of critical thinking and you'll have (some of them) for life.

If theists weren't allowed to indoctrinate children under 12, religion would die out in two generations.

Politics.

“There were indeed references to reincarnation in the Old and the New Testaments. In a.d. 325 the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, along with his mother, Helena, had deleted references to reincarnation contained in the New Testament.

The Second Council of Constantinople, meeting in a.d. 553, confirmed this action and declared the concept of reincarnation a heresy. Apparently, they thought this concept would weaken the growing power of the church by giving humans too much time to seek their salvation.

Yet the original references had been there; the early Church fathers had accepted the concept of reincarnation. The early Gnostics-Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Saint Jerome, and many others-believed that they had lived before and would again.”

Many Lives Many Masters - Dr Brian Weiss

Dante's Divine Comedy really messed religous people up. Many of the ideas that a good many Christians have about what hell is.. comes from there. I am fairly certain if asked however they would insist it is biblical. It is not of course.

Islam has an eternal hell:

"Lo! Those who disbelieve Our revelations, We shall expose them to the Fire. As often as their skins are consumed We shall exchange them for fresh skins that they may taste the torment. Lo! Allah is ever Mighty, Wise."

-- Surah 4:56

You're right.

Hell isn't mentioned in the Old Testament.

It seems the same person who blessed the meek invented Hell for eternity....

Can you think of a better way to get selfish people to act selflessly than by convincing them of the biggest carrot v stick they can imagine?

Cos I can't.

Even more so thousands of years ago.

Actually, the concept of hell comes from other, older religions.