Well first, regarding the Hell discussion...
I thought it was the case that mainstream Protestant understandings of who goes to Hell were predicated on the idea that Original Sin ensures damnation? (i.e., it's not so much that disbelief in Jesus per se sends you to Hell, but rather that Original Sin guarantees you'll go to Hell unless you accept the intervention of a Savior.)
Incidentally,
gei'hinnom ("Gehenna") in the Hebrew scriptures simply refers to the literal valley of Hinnom, reputedly once a place where children were sacrificed to pagan gods, and in Biblical times used as a garbage dump and a place for tossing the bodies of dead animals and criminals. Fires were continuously kept burning there to keep down both the stench and the bulk of the waste. By the time the Talmud was recorded, however (and presumably several centuries earlier), some rabbinic commentators had developed
gei'hinnom into the concept of a "place" analogous not to Hell, but to Purgatory: one where the dead undergo temporary "purification" through torment, thus readying them for the possibility of resurrection in end times (the latter based on Daniel 12, the only unambiguous prophecy of resurrection in Hebrew scripture--though Daniel was not considered
nevi, a prophet, within Judaism, except by apocalyptic sects like the Essenes). However, a few of these commentators opined that extremely wicked people might remain in
gei'hinnom forever (one rather nastily named four contemporaries whom he thought especially good candidates). So, while there were some apocalyptic sects within Judaism that took
gei'hinnom to be a place of eternal punishment, this has never been mainstream Jewish understanding. (
Sheol is something completely different, and more akin to the Greek notion of the realm of the shades; again not a place of damnation, though.)
BonosSaint said:
Do you think God knew exactly what he was getting into when he created man? Did he deliberately create a being he knew was capable of defying him once he granted free will or did he miscalculate man's recalcitrance?
I don't really interpret the Genesis story literally enough to answer this question the way you've posed it, but there is a comical
midrash (non-Talmudic commentary) recounting the lengths God went to conveniently "forget" to mention to the angels that humans had indeed been given the capacity to choose whether or not to do good. Also, according to the Talmudic and Kabbalistic understandings of Genesis 1 I mentioned earlier, the bestowing of free will was definitely intentional, because God requires the help of beings endowed with moral choice to help Him complete and sanctify the ongoing work of creation.
) I can make myself believe in such a god just to avoid the possibility of hell. And I can't help but wonder about people who do believe it, if they actually believe it, or if they are just covering their asses. And if it's the latter, wouldn't any god worth his or her salt know? 
