Most Americans have misconceptions of hell

NEW YORK — Hell has no fury, period, according to a survey by U.S. News and World Report. The magazine found that while more people believe in hell today than did in the 1950s, most think of hell as a state of existence apart from God, rather than as a physical place. Although 64 percent of respondents said there was a hell, 53 percent described it is “an anguished state of existence eternally separated from God” rather than an actual place. Only 34 percent said hell is an actual place where people suffer eternal fiery torments.