Hell is a very touchy topic for the religious, and you can understand why. Hell is the way you control people. You better do what we say or you go to hell. You may do fine in this world, but oh, eternity is stretching out ahead of you and it's all going to be hell.
Sam Harris does an interesting thing. He says to an audience, after determining that most are not Muslim, for example: "All right, you Christians, you atheists, realize that there are perhaps a billion Muslims on Earth who are dead certain that you are going to hell." He pauses for the kicker: "Notice how little sleep you're losing over that thought."
Religious folks don't realize that their warnings about hell are about something we consider to be imaginary. We don't care. You might as well tell me I'm going to Oz. It's related to the concept that we're all atheists. Even the religionists are atheists. They're atheists about every other god except theirs.
Not one of them believes in Zeus, a few believe in Vishnu. They're fine being atheists about that. We just go one god further. We take it all the way.
'Bound by disbelief'
You have to admit, though, that this is a little weird, gathering here together. A lot of you came from other places, even other countries, to meet here in Madison, Wisconsin. We're all bound by disbelief. There's a certain disadvantage to this, you have to admit. We don't have soaring cathedrals. We don't have special outfits. We don't really have rituals.
Yes, we do have faith, if you'll pardon the expression, in things like reason and facts, scientific inquiry, the truth and the pursuit of it. But still, we're all about not believing in something. And let's face it, there's no such thing as a Round Earth Society.