Is Hell Symbolic?

Is Hell Symbolic?

Copied below and boxed in red on the right side is the claim regarding Luke 16:23 on this page that hell doesn't exist and is only mentioned in the Bible as "a symbolic place or condition wherein all activity and consciousness cease":

This claim is contradicted even by the Watch Tower Society's own New World Translation in the left column, which says that the rich man is "in torment" (Luke 16:23) in hell and said, "I am in anguish in this blazing fire" (Luke 16:24) in "this place of torment" (Luke 16:28). A person who says, "I am in anguish in this blazing fire" is obviously very much "conscious."

You were taught that this is just a parable, so allegorical and not real, but the Bible doesn't say that this is a parable, which never names anyone; in this passage, Jesus specified "Lazarus" and "Abraham" by name. And even if it were a parable, Jesus' parables described what is real and physical - eg. sower and seed (Matthew 13:1-23), wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30), mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32), fig tree (Matthew 24:32-35), etc. - to teach what is spiritual. So whether or not this passage is a parable is irrelevant since in either case, it refutes the claim that Jesus was describing something that isn't real.

Moreover, this isn't the only mention of hell in the Bible, which teaches that those who continue to sin, including blaspheming the Creator God as a creature and lying about what the Bible says will "go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched" (Mark 9:43) "where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Luke 13:18).