From the thousands of people who have talked to me about this sort of belief, it seems to me that most of them are more frightened by not existing than by burning in hell. I see it as part of the grieving process of coming to grips with our mortality, a form of bargaining, saying "I wish there was a wonderful place of pure joy to live out eternity, but even burning forever would be better than ceasing to exist." Maybe a lot of humans simply aren't strong enough to take the remaining steps toward acceptance of their own finite existence.
What say you?
One model of stages of grief: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model
What say you?
One model of stages of grief: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model