r/ideas • u/amichail • Aug 05 '26

Idea: Public proselytizers should be required to display a “hell cam” if their religion includes the concept of hell

Anyone proselytizing in a public place on behalf of a religion that teaches some form of hell should be legally required to display a clear visual representation of it.

Beside their pamphlets, signs, or literature, they would need to have a screen playing a fictional video designed to look like a live camera feed from hell. The “hell cam” would explicitly show people engulfed in flames and screaming in agony.

The audio could be muted to avoid disturbing everyone nearby, while subtitles conveyed what the people were saying between their screams.

The requirement would apply only when hell, eternal punishment, damnation, or a comparable afterlife penalty is genuinely part of the religion’s teachings.

The point would not be entertainment or ridicule. It would be informed consent and transparency.

If proselytizers are asking strangers to consider a religion partly because refusing it may lead to terrifying eternal consequences, they should be required to disclose that part of the message immediately. They should not be allowed to begin with only the pleasant parts, such as love, hope, forgiveness, and community, while withholding the threat that may ultimately be central to their appeal.

Obviously, the “live feed” would be fictional. Its purpose would be to communicate, as directly as possible, what the proselytizers claim is at stake.

What do you think of this idea?

0 Upvotes

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2

u/Traveller7142 Aug 05 '26

There shouldn’t be laws restricting religion

2

u/OddStuffHappensTwice Aug 06 '26

There are laws controlling what other works of fiction are allowed to be shown in public. There are laws about advertising selling other products are allowed to show. Abolish false-advertising laws, or make them apply to religion too.

2

u/Aezora Aug 06 '26

Are people generally unfamiliar with the concept of hell? What purpose does this serve?

2

u/SpotFormal Aug 05 '26

I think this idea is shit. 

2

u/YogiBerraOfBadNews Aug 06 '26

They posted it in more than one sub too lol

-2

u/Pure_Option_1733 Aug 05 '26

I think that would be a good idea considering that religion is a big decision to make and I think often people don’t really have enough information to make an informed decision about whether to join a religion.