I tend to think of Hell as a temporary condition, not a permanent one. I can't see any useful point in having "eternal damnation", but I can see a point in experiencing unpleasant consequences as long as you remain in an unpleasant attitude, so to speak. In other words...God doesn't condemn anyone to Hell, they put themselves in Hell on the basis of their own general attitude....and an attitude can change as time goes by!

When I'm speaking of "Hell"...I don't have any particular picture or definition of it in my mind. I'm not imagining the traditional fiery pit or anything like that. Likewise, in the case of Heaven, I'm not imagining any particular traditional scene either...not the clouds and harps, etc, nothing like that.

Why? Because I don't know yet, that's why. And I don't necessarily accept other people's versions of it, because they probably don't know yet either...nor do I literally accept versions of it in some ancient holy book such as the Bible, because the writers may not have known either, and furthermore they may have been speaking in symbols and metaphors rather than in literal terms.

Then too, there could be a great many different forms of both Hell and Heaven, many different levels and degrees of both...so one person's description might only apply to one of them.

For instance, I remember a rather funny cartoon in the Far Side. A guy has just arrived in Hell and he's looking around. It's a sort of barren, empty place without any vegetation or buildings, but there are a lot of people scattered around in easy chairs, all sitting alone and watching television.

"Wow!" he says to the Devil, "You've got TV here."

"Yes," replies the Devil with a wicked grin. "Unfortunately...it's ALL we've got!"