I would like to answer this and please don't take this like I am pointing any fingers at you or even anyone in this thread, it's just what I have noticed people do.
I think most people have a hard time believing in the doctrine of hell because they don't think they deserve to go there. They don't see sin as a big deal, at least not enough to send anyone to hell for eternity. Yet, that isn't the way God sees it. God thinks that sin is such a big deal, that it is so unforgivable in the sight of His holiness, that He sent Jesus to the cross to take the punishment for it rather than forgive it. He was willing to send His only Son to not only be tortured and humiliated, dying the worst death anyone could die, but also to bear all of His wrath against sin as well. That should give a picture of not only how much He loves us, but how much He hates sin. It was His love that sent Jesus to the cross but it was His holiness that required it.
We have a relative standard of goodness and we compare ourselves to one another. We think that as long as we haven't murdered or raped, we're pretty good people. Certainly no Hitler or Ted Bundy. Gods standard of goodness is absolute. He calls moral perfection good and everything short of that, evil. Without forgiveness of sins, even one transgression will send you to the same hell that Hitler and Ted Bundy are going to. Those should be sobering thoughts for every single one of us.
I think the punishment is always reflective of the value of the thing that the crime was committed against. God, being holy, has infinite value and therefore an infinite punishment is justified for transgressions against Him. The existence of Hell is therefore a testimony that points to His holiness and justice.
I think the final point is that no one has to go to hell. God makes a way of escape for every person, and He paid the highest possible price to make that available for every man woman and child on the planet. There is no reason that anyone has to go to hell excepting that they willingly choose to reject God and accept the consequences of rejecting His sacrifice for their sins. Ghandi, if he did not receive Christ as Lord and Savior, will not escape hell because his name would not be in the book of life. He was perhaps one of the best people we've had on this planet by human standards, but by Gods absolute standard he is no different than any other person in the sense that he was a sinner who needed Gods forgiveness for his sins.