"I simply cannot believe in Hell. Those who do believe in it, in a literal sense have clearly never put much thought into it."
I agree with you. I don't think Hell is a literal place like Dante invisioned (no flames please, just an opinion. Pun intended). Suffering my be inferno-like, but I simply believe you take the spirit that guided you in the physical world into the next one. If your a hateful/ate-up terrorist here, that's what your going to be there. And ultimately cut off from all that's good there. Call it what you like.
Read Luke 16: 20-25 and Rev 20.
It's real, and there is only one way to avoid it.
According to scripture the lost will join "the rich man" from Luke 16 in hell at death
until the final judgment when all the lost will join Satan and the fallen angels in the lake of fire.