For all you Bible literalists out there:
I experience pain as a physical human because my human body has pain receptors. If when I die and go to hell (and if your belief is correct then that is indeed where I am going), will your loving God be outfitting my soul with spiritual pain receptors (and teeth to gnash) such that I never miss even the briefest agonising sensation of his righteously created fires of eternal torment?
Wow! That's a mouthful!
I am not so sure that hell is a place of literal fire. The Bible is full of metaphors. At one place Jesus described hell as a lake of fire. At another place it is described as a placeb of outer darkness. Well, how can you have literal fire and yet have a literal darkness? The two seem contradictory, which makes me to think that these are merely metaphors to describe what hell is like.
Fire symbolizes the torment in hell. The torment would come primarily from the sense of the loss of God for all eternity. You will realize by then that God is the source of all good. As Augustine once said "Thou hast made us for Yourself. And our hearts our every restless until they rest in Thee". True happiness can only be found in God, and the torment would be the realization for eternity you are seething with regret for missing that true happiness.
Fire is also a symbol in the Bible for hatred. God is love. He is the source of all love. God gives the gift of his love to all of us, even when we do not seek Him. Theologians call this common grace. Without this common grace, we would be unable to love our spouses, our children, our friends, etc. If we go through life saying that we do not need God, that we do not want God, then at Judgement Day, God gives us what we want. We want our lives without God. Very well. He gives it to us. He withdraws Himself entirely from us. That means He even withdraws that common grace from us. We are no longer able to love our spouses, our parents, our children. or our friends. Anyone we meet in hell would be nothing but a source of irritation toward us. Others in hell would just increase our rage, hatred, anger, jealousy and resentment. That hatred would burn into our souls, just as it were fire. This hatred toward others can be so string that it can be very, very painful. I know that from first-hand experience. I once hated someone so much that it caused me physical pain. Fire also symbolizes guilt and shame. For all eternity, the sins that he has commited are always before him.
This brings then the symbol of outer darkness. If only those in Hell would repent, then I would think they would be accepted into heaven. But although they are filled with regret, although they realize that God is the source of all good, they are unable to repent. They are in darkness as to realizing the remedy to getting out of hell. They make all the excuses for why they should not need to repent. They will blame others instead of blaming themselves. They curse others in hell that they knew for being the reason they are in hell. This only alienates them more from everyone else in hell. Darkness also symbolizes loneliness. Although there are others in hell, their hatred cause them to feel aone. Darkness also symbolizes emptiness - nilhilism. It is a feeling that nothing really matters. There is no purpose to one's existence.
So this is what I see hell is like - everlasting regret for losing God, who is the source of all good, for all eternity. As a result of losing God, to experience for all eternity guilt, rage, hatred, a darkened mind, loneliness, and an inner emptiness.