When I stopped believing in Hell...

[Danger Mouse]

They tell you that if you're not a Christian, Hell awaits you upon death.
They tell you that if you don't obey the Ten Commandments, Hell awaits you upon death.
They tell you that if you don't follow various arbitrary laws, maintain certain values, opinions, and beliefs, or perform certain rituals, Hell awaits you upon death.
They tell you that if you're not in Church every Sunday, Hell awaits you upon death.
Protestants tell you that Catholics are going to Hell.
Catholics tell you that Protestants are going to Hell.
They tell you that if you don't live your life according to a literal interpretation of the Holy Bible, Hell awaits you upon death.

So according to this...the number of people NOT going to Hell must be about...oh...zero.
For a long time, I feared the idea and concept of Hell. Imagine it. A place of eternal tortures beyond that which the human mind can conceive of. This place, created by God, is where he sends his supposedly beloved children when they are bad.
I've heard people comparing it to a father punishing unruly kids. Last I checked, my dad didn't drag me to a torture chamber and put me in an iron maiden cause I used a cuss word.
The mortal mind, with its limited understanding of the timelessness of eternity, cannot comprehend how long 'forever' truly is. If there is a God, then God is timeless, and therefore would understand all too well what eternity is, and what it would mean to be forced to suffer for all time.
It's easy for those who believe they are right, and their actions justified by faith, to condemn others to the most horrible things ever conceived of.
I had a problem with Hell.
Then...
My stepfather, who I spent so many years of my life hating, had a major seizure and went to the hospital. He's been in a nursing home since then. He cannot speak. He had a leg amputated from gangrene. If he understands us at all, he can only communicate through nods or through the look in his eyes.
I hated him. He treated me like garbage, just like he did to so many people in his life. In my young and childish mind, I wanted to see him suffer.
And here he was, suffering before me. Suffering more than most human beings ever go through in their lives.
And I couldn't hate anymore. I couldn't hate this sad, broken shell of a man.
This man who they tell me, is destined for Hell upon death.
He has suffered enough, and no just or loving God could deny him the rest he truly deserves when he does pass on.
It was when I looked into his face on his hospital bed, that I said I could not believe in Hell anymore.
I cannot believe in something that would torture for eternity, someone who has suffered their entire life.
...Yet I still fear it, from being brought up to fear it, to fear judgement, to fear a God that casts away His children, tortures those He is supposed to love.
And cares not for the pitiful screams of the millions upon millions that he has already sentenced to the pits of eternal flame.
These are not the actions of a loving God. Rather, they are the actions of a vicious, capricious, sadistic nutjob.
Therefore, I realized if I were to believe, I could not include Hell in those beliefs. I simply could not. Because it contradicts everything else I believe in, because it blows it all out of the water, and pushes it all into a very, very dark place. Is not Love the greatest, the most important thing of all?

So...to all of you guys out there...religious or not...what is your perspective? Do you believe in Hell? If so, how do you reconcile the idea of a loving God to it?