heaven June 24, 2009
Posted by relsdork in christian, religion.Tags: afterlife, heaven, hell
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The idea of an afterlife is something I have a hard time embracing. I’m pretty sure I just stop happening at some point and I’m pretty cool with that. I think I will continue to exist in whatever contributions I make to the world and if I’m not contributing now, I might as well not exist, because wtf is the point if I just sit around and watch American Idol until I die? I think the best way to approach religion is to relate it to the present, because that’s kind of what we have to work with. I think religion is about now and it’s completely possible to have religion that says nothing about what happens after death… or at least a sense of “it’s not what’s important.” I mean, if all I’m doing is trying to live up to expectations of a deity in order to gain admittance to a certain realm or stay out of a certain realm or get to a higher level of a certain realm, that strikes me as shallow.
Since I was raised in a Christian home, I always heard about Heaven, and I always wondered how did anyone know Heaven existed? No one has been able to give me a satisfactory answer, because no one knows. I won’t be the least bit surprised if the concept was made up by someone who was afraid to simply cease existing.
If the idea of Heaven gives someone comfort and inspires them to live a fruitful life, that is fine; whatever inspires you to get up and keep going day after day, you know? But to use the concept of Heaven to try to control people’s behavior is cruel. “If you do this, you’ll go to Heaven….if you don’t do that, you won’t go to Heaven.” I never liked the way Heaven (or the threat of not going there) is hung over people’s heads. It takes all of the joy out of everyday life, at least for me.