While I was trying to get some answers yesterday about Hebrew translations, I emailed from a jewish website in which they had some hebrew writings and the torah on there. I was asking if a hebrew translation to english was done correctly, it was a scripture with the word hell, and he said it was done correctly, except that the word wasn't hell but pit, grave, etc, that those scriptures never teach of a hell, it was apostasized and jews know those scriptures to mean plain old death.
See, so more then just JW's know hell isn't real or taught in the bible.
What if God had distributed truths throughout civilizations and the world, and when they understand the truth, and combine knowledge, that it will dispel all the false teachings and bring out the truth.
Example......in the bible Paul speaks of the third heaven. In the Qu'ran there is a scripture speaking about the 7th heaven or 7 levels of heaven, something to that extent. Both bible and Qu'ran don't give much of any further details on the matter. Low and behold, long lost books or claimed ones, thousands of years old, contain parts speaking about the 7 levels of heaven, and making all of them tie in together.
Bottom line, there was at some point an understanding, and common knowledge, but it's been lost. It was either false teachings, in which the books speaking about it are false, twisted teaching, or lost knowledge which is on the verge of coming back.