Mark Clark opens Chapter 5 with what he calls “the problem of hell.” It’s a curious way to frame a moral horror that most of us, Christian and non-Christian alike, instinctively reject. Rather than confront this intuitive revulsion, Clark’s goal is to explain hell as reasonable, even necessary, within the Christian worldview. His case begins around a literal campfire — a moment of spiritual reflection that quickly flares into warnings of divine vengeance.
In this post, we’ll analyze the opening tone of Chapter 5 and its first section, “Campfire and Hellfire,” and examine how fear-based belief and authoritarian assumptions undergird Clark’s defense of eternal torment.
A Problem Framed with Certainty
Clark admits, “The doctrine of hell is emotionally and intellectually repulsive to most people,” but insists it’s “not only necessary” but “good news.” Rather than pausing to explore why so many humans recoil from the idea of hell — or whether that revulsion might be evidence against its validity — Clark doubles down. He presents hell as both Jesus’ teaching and a logical consequence of justice.
This is a classic move: start with an emotionally difficult premise, acknowledge its discomfort, then attempt to recast it as a misunderstood good. In rhetoric, this is called “reframing.” In theology, it’s sometimes called gaslighting.
Campfires and Conversion
In the “Campfire and Hellfire” anecdote, Clark recounts a youth retreat where teenagers sat around a fire and shared emotional confessions. Some admitted fear about death or expressed concern for their unsaved friends. Clark writes that the pastor leading the event pivoted to a warning: “If you don’t know Jesus, you’re going to hell.”
Clark then asserts that many of the youth gave their lives to Jesus that night, claiming this as a success story. But let’s pause and ask a deeper question:
What kind of worldview requires a child to fear eternal conscious torment in order to be considered saved?
When fear is the tool of persuasion, consent is undermined. And when that fear is eternal — a never-ending nightmare from which there is no waking — then the moral foundation of the faith is on trial.
The Real Problem of Hell: Not That It’s Unpopular, But That It’s Immoral
Clark sets up hell as a stumbling block for modern people because it’s offensive to our moral intuitions. But instead of asking whether our moral intuitions might be pointing toward a more humane truth, he insists the problem lies with us.
This is the great reversal: rather than the doctrine of hell being scrutinized for cruelty, you are scrutinized for questioning it.
And yet, that very question is central to The God Question:
If an idea is emotionally traumatic, ethically indefensible, and historically weaponized — is it more likely to be true, or human-made?
An Imaginary Solution to an Imaginary Problem
Clark doesn’t prove the existence of hell. He simply asserts it — because Jesus said it, the Bible teaches it, and justice demands it (we’ll explore those claims in later sections). But his foundational assumption is clear: hell must exist because humans are sinful and a holy God must punish sin.
But what if the problem isn’t sin — at least not as defined by ancient tribal codes or authoritarian churches?
What if the real problem is this: we invented a problem (original sin) and then invented a horrifying solution (hell) in order to control behavior, enforce conformity, and keep the faithful afraid?
That’s not divine justice. That’s spiritual abuse.
Final Reflection
The image of teenagers trembling around a campfire, pushed toward belief by the threat of eternal suffering, is not an argument for God — it’s an argument against religious coercion. If the God of Christianity were real, and hell were a place of eternal conscious torment, then nothing about this world — or this gospel — could be called “good news.”
In the next post, we’ll examine Clark’s section titled “Jesus, Teacher of Hell,” and assess the specific claims about what Jesus taught — and what kind of teacher he would be if those teachings were true.
God or Delusion? 