Regarding the earlier question about the idea of Hell.. the descriptions used are the closest metaphors that the authors could achieve for what it really is, a separation from God or Allah (or whichever god or gods you choose). The idea is that even though the Diety loves you, the pain caused by the separation from said Deity would cause total grief and anguish as if being burned by fire.
As to the comments about the correlation between the Old and New Testaments: a counter question. Why do the stories HAVE to be true? Would the story being made up diminish any of the value gained from the moral of it? I tend to see the whole of religious text as parables, a set of stories to give us a guide to live by so to speak.
Aren't we tolerant of others religions here? No one is forcing their beliefs on anyone else, we still like the Atheists. Religion has NEVER been the reason for any evil done on this earth. Greed has. Humans have. Powerful men want to be even more powerful men. Every war fought in history can be boiled down to greed, even if it was advertised as something else.
