How do you explain eternal torture in Hell?
I think it's going to come down to trust Hassan. Are you willing to accept that you are human and don't know the future and that God will be just to all of his creation. I don't know the answer but I have some thoughts.
The soul is something we just don't understand. It could be that some souls are just going to be bad and will never fully correct themselves so that God can forgive and purify them of their evil. Why God created these souls? I have no idea. Could God have created souls that would never go to hell? Yes he could but he hasn't and only God knows why.
Maybe there are some souls which simply refuse to obey God and will revert to evil each time they are forgiven. They feel punishment and ask for forgiveness. They are forgiven then they revert back to their old ways. Why they do that I don't know. If we look at the Iblis/Satan he could simply say "OK God I know I'm going to hell so I'll just pray to you until Judgement Day and forget about misleading the humans". Has he done it? No. Instead he doesn't care he'll keep on doing what he shouldn't be doing.
There are some people who keep going to prison. They get punished, they serve their sentence and then released. Soon after they are back in prison. These kind of guys keep going back into prison. Maybe someone needs to ask them why they keep offending. If they say "I just like doing bad things" then what do you do? If you change the soul of that person so that he no longer sins then is he that same person or is that a new person? I think it's a new person.
I agree it's hard to understand but maybe this is where we have to put trust in God. Everything good we have has come from God. Your friends, your family your intellect all the beautiful things in the world. On top of that God has promised even better things in the hereafter. Does it no make more sense to accept we are human and are not capable of understanding certain things and trust the being who has brought us into existence and cherishes us all? if we don't like hell then can we not wait until Judgement Day and ask God to make us understand?
By saying hell is a fiction is not good. The enormity if it is not realised by most of us. First thing is that we simply don't know. That is the truth. I think because of people picking and choosing what they like about religion is what has caused a lot of misguided people. They spread this onto new generations and then soon the one religion becomes many.
Topic: A letter to Ali Sina