Hell is a human concept of suffering. We suffer because of the ignorance of our actions and their consequences.
The answer nobody has, you have suddenly found. Traditional philosophical hubris, it's why nobody likes them.
You can throw around ambiguous terms all you'd like, saying that the meaning of life is social change or whatever, preaching social mobilization, etc., but that isn't really it. There is no heaven, there is no hell. There is no empirical proof for either. To have suddenly come to the revelation that they're there and that they exist is simply preposterous, and is certainly the reason why the first people the Romans seem to have killed after they conquered the Greeks were the philosophers.
Sure, let's go for some good old allegorical storytelling here. I suppose if you drop dead knowing you murdered thirty seven people and used their trachea as straws and their eyes as golfballs, you'll probably live out the eternity, in reality the blink of an eye, that it takes your conscious mind to finally let go of your body in some sort of guilty agony. Maybe, perhaps, but there's certainly no empirical evidence that somehow some vital life force suddenly flies out of your body, boards a rather shoddy bus, and ends up somewhere resembling Mexico or Guatemala where everyone wears red and has tridents and horns. Certainly not.
And there's certainly no pearly white structure in the clouds where self-righteous do-gooders go after they've supported twelve genocides and their god through thick, thin, and nuclear holocaust. There's no empirical evidence to say that some as of yet absolutely unproven, undiscovered, unevidenced vital part of the human "soul" goes flying into the air to join with some ridiculous vindictive deity in his house of light where everyone runs around praising Jesus. Certainly not.
Similarly, any conception of these concepts, be it the identical Jewish or Muslim perspectives where the names simply change, or really any theistic perspective, are fundamentally unprovable, because they are simply the ramblings of a human mind contemplating its own futility. Unfortunately, the answer is that you are a manifestation of your very selfish genes, wanting to pass themselves on to the next generation, your feelings be damned. Well, yes, that sounds significantly less attractive than running around giving money to the poor devout, trying desperately to reach that last damn criteria to get the doors of holyness opened up for you, but in itself it is an elegant universe. It is simply more gratifying to think of myself as a vessel for genetic passage than to really start genuinely thinking that if I get hit by a bus, I'll be going upstairs to meet all the ridiculously nice people and perhaps some relatives (But more than likely not, if you have the priveledge of knowing my family's history and the horrible, horrible things they've done to all sorts of people). I would love to think that I could go to the party that never ends, and I'm sure if the party that never ends
really exists, I'll be there (Really, does anyone think going to some ridiculous building with some evangelical demagogue every sunday will somehow buy you a ticket into the theater of eternity?). However, we should not confuse blind hopes and random thoughts of some way to explain our own mental agility and at the same time ultimate futility with reasonable thought about the end of human life.
While I'll admit the idea is a fantastic and fascinating thing, I certainly would love the best of food prepared by the best of imaginary chefs, playing chess perhaps with Albert Einstein (The very religious non-believer who, if the faith-heads are right, will certainly be spending an eternity roasting) on a grand boulevard looking out on an eternal ocean of serenity. Yes, it would be lovely, fantastic even, which brings us back to the root of the idea,
fantasy.
I must say, unfortunately, that when we die, we go nowhere. Personally, I'm hanging on to this life the best I can. There's nothing afterwards, you get one shot, live it up, live healthy, and live life while you can, because when the end inevitably comes, you shouldn't delude yourself with self-aggrandizing notions of salvation.
