On that particular example, it seems to me that anyone who fears hell is (at least) most of the way to Christianity already. Assuming it's the Christian hell they fear, of course, but then it's hard to see how fear of some other religion's hell would incline someone to become a Christian.
If you asked the people in question how their opinions evolved, do you think they would give an account that matches yours?
anyone who fears hell is (at least) most of the way to Christianity already.
A lot of religions have much unpleasantness in the afterlife as a possibility :-/
If I were to ask the question "What threat poses the greatest risk to society/humanity?" to several communities I would expect to get some answers that follow a predictable trend:
If I asked the question on an HBD blog I'd probably get one of the answers demographic disaster/dysgenics/immigration.
If I asked the question to a bunch of environmentalists they'd probably say global warming or pollution.
If I asked the question on a leftist blog I might get the answer: growing inequality/exploitation of workers.
If I asked the question to Catholic bishops they might say abortion/sexual immorality.
And if I were to ask the question on LessWrong (which is heavily populated by Computer scientists and programmers) many would respond with unfriendly AI.
One of these groups might be right, I don't know. However I would treat all of their claims with caution.
Edit: This may not be a bad from thing from an instrumental rationality perspective. If you think that the problem you're working on is really important then you're more likely to put a good effort into solving it.