Is Hell Good for Society?

Does hell truly exist? Italian archaeologists announce the discovery of a "Gate to Hell"--known as Pluto's Gate--among ruins in southwestern Turkey.

The gate, thought to be a portal to the underworld, was located in the ancient Greek city of Hierapolis. Accounts talk of a cave filled with toxic vapors, where anyone who stepped nearby would die immediately. The “Gate to Hell,” known as Ploutonion (in Greek) and Plutonium (in Latin), was a cave that leads to the mythological Greco-Roman underworld.

Gate to Hell is a Dangerous Place

According to the Greek geographer Strabo (24 AD), the cave was “full of a vapor” that was “so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground."

He added that any person or animal that came near the entrance “met instant death.” Strabo wrote that he threw in sparrows, where the birds “breathed their last and fell."

A team led by Italian archeologists, after extensive research about the mythical portal, made this discovery. During the excavation, the team noticed the hazardous properties of the cave. A number of birds died as they tried to get close to opening, killed instantly by carbon dioxide fumes.

The discovery of this Greek doorway to hell renews an age-old question; “Does hell really exist?”

Hell Has Benefits for Humanity

There is no doubt that hell—real or not—has a significant role for humanity. According to a recent study of the effects of religious beliefs on crime, believing in cursed punishment in the afterlife helps control crime rates.

Societies with a stronger belief in hell have members less likely to commit crimes than those who believe in a divine reward for good deeds.

The findings are consistent with evidence that psychic punishments are cultural constructions that had spread across multiple ancient civilizations. Belief in hell (or some sort of eternal damnation for sins in the physical realm) effectively motivates people to work together, suppressing urges toward anti-social behavior.

Between 1981 and 2007, researchers from both the Universities of Oregon and Kansas collected survey data collected from more than 143,000 people in 67 countries. In the survey, they asked people about their beliefs in "Heaven," "Hell" and "God."

Then, the researchers used United Nations statistics from the same period to view rates in a series of wrongdoing, including human trafficking, homicide, theft and even auto theft.

More Effective than Heaven in Reducing Crime

One of the most compelling findings was that religious belief does not have a consistent effect on the way people behave. Once religion is broken down into various constructs, such as the belief in hell versus believing in heaven, relationships between religion and crime seem to change.

Not all religious beliefs are equal when it comes to heaven, hell and eternal punishment. A supernatural punishment results in increases in normative behavior, but the idea of a divine good appears linked with decreases in moral behavior.

In fact, the two differences seem to go in opposite directions. Those who believe in heaven more than hell are more likely to commit crimes as opposed to those who think hell will punish them for their crimes.

Then again, places where people have an equally strong religious belief in heaven and hell, the two trends seem to cancel each other out, with no hint of a correlation.

Why would a belief in hell cause reductions in crime?

One theory is about the mechanisms of belief. It could be that people without a strong belief in justice in the afterlife think they can get away with their crimes. There is a lack of divine dissuasion.