Heaven or Hell?

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell. Thoreau and Nietzsche kept the Christian God alive by battering him relentlessly. Pilgrim John Smith, in 1614 said that "Great civilizations have no advantage in nature but they are beautiful by long labor and diligence of industrious people and art." Pull these three observations together into a unified whole to conclude that financial and spiritual success necessitates failures and reconstructions, that challenging a belief can strengthen it, that hard work and perseverence help some people to triumph over other people in their creations and accomplishments. Without an occasional fall one cannot humbly rise; without honest questioning, one cannot find satisfactory answers (or not). Without persistence and responsible self-sufficiency based upon moral principles, what culture could possibly advance, what person could hope for any reward (or punishment) beyond earth for earthly accomplishments?