Originally posted by mdhall
Sounds like Karma and Reincarnation.
PS-Punishment for a few generations does not equal eternal punishment; it's still temporal.
But, I find both Hell and Bad Karma tools used to motivate humans into "doing the right thing". I do not think the "right thing" requires a negative motivator essentially the equivalent of a holy spanking.
If you love your ...[text shortened]... ntil you stop running from fear of suffering (hell or reincarnation as a lesser life form).
Karma, bad or otherwise, is not meant to motivate humans to do anything. It is a law of nature; the law of gravity doesn't "motivate" objects to be attracted to one another - they operate on objects regardless of what the objects desire. The Laws of Karma operate similarly.
Of course, in the Hinduism of the Upanishads, Karma and the doctrine of rebirth operate in the universe of maya and are illusionary. There is only the one without a second.
EDIT: The Buddhist take on Karma:
Happiness and misery, which are the common lot of humanity, are the inevitable effects of causes.
From a Buddhist point of view, they are not rewards and punishments, assigned by a supernatural, omniscient ruling power to a soul that has done good or evil. Theists, who attempt to explain everything in this and temporal life and in the eternal future life, ignoring a past, believe in a ‘postmortem’ justice, and may regard present happiness and misery as blessings and curses conferred on His creation by an omniscient and omnipotent Divine Ruler who sits in heaven above controlling the destinies of the human race. Buddhism, which emphatically denies such an Almighty, All merciful God-Creator and an arbitrarily created immortal soul, believes in natural law and justice which cannot be suspended by either an Almighty God or an All-compassionate Buddha.
According to this natural law, acts bear their own rewards and punishments to the individual doer whether human justice finds out or not.
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm