Now, as I mentioned in my Death post, I did not consider religious possibilities. I will do so now. Now, suppose that there is at least one god, and this god cares about what people do in life, rewarding or punishing them in death in accordance with their actions. Am I in the least bit afraid of this possibility, and that I might go to a hell? No. And this is why:
If there is a god, and it is good, it would not let good people suffer in a hell. I refer to hypothetical gods with the pronoun it, by the way, because a being as powerful as what is tradionally described as a god would be above such things as masculinity or femininity. If there is a god who is good, it would by definition not let good people suffer in hell. I consider myself to be a fairly good person, or at least I try my best. Ergo, if a god would send me to hell, it is not good.
There are some religions that state that if you do not believe in a god, and specifically the god they describe, you are punished in the afterlife. But to me, this idea is simply inconsistant with the idea of a good god. If the god is good, it will not care if you believed in it or not so long as you have lead a good life. And if there is a god who punishes those who do not believe something for which there is insufficient evidence, well, I am forced to conclude that such a god would be evil. And if there’s an evil god, we’re all pretty much screwed anyway.
So although I believe it to be very unlikely that it exists, if there is a hell, and I went to it, I wouldn’t mind. Because I would not like the kind of god who would send me to one anyway. Hell is a very silly idea, really. In my opinion, is seems only created to scare people into belief. Which is useful if you happen to be running a theocracy. I, however, refuse to be scared by such things. Especially when, as I said, the whole idea seems artificial and unlikely to me. Frankly, the worst hell of all to me would be that of nonexistance. Because even the bleakest existance is better than no existance at all. But the good thing about that is, if I don’t exist, I won’t know it.
Hm, well I still have time, I think I’ll consider another religious afterlife I left out. The concept of nirvana, that is, escaping the cycle of reincarnation, assuming there indeed such a thing. To me, this doesn’t sound like such a great idea. I quite enjoy the cycle of reincarnation. If nirvana means becoming one with everything, I really don’t want to do that. Maybe I’m missing something here, but if I’m one with everything, and everything’s one, then everything is me, correct? So does that mean there is no me, or there is no anything else? I don’t really like either possibility. If everyone is one, then everyone is the same person, so there is no one else. Does anyone else find that extremely lonely and depressing?
So there you have it, my opinions on hell, and nirvana thrown in just for fun. I think my next post will be in the politics vein again, I’m tired of this religion stuff.
6d60 
April 12, 2009 at 9:55 pm |
Though I don’t agree, I love your thinking. I appreciate the honesty of your statement that “if there is a hell, and I went to it, I wouldn’t mind. Because I would not like the kind of god who would send me to one anyway.” I like to point out this very concept to those who despise a good God “sending” people to hell. I contend that we choose our own destiny…just as you’ve described.
I would, however, challenge your definition of a “good” God…as if the supreme being would be subject to your judgement of “good”. That’s the rub in the whole divine judgement thing—that God decides what is good and how you measure up to God’s standard, not the other way around.
I believe that God is so inconceivably good (read:holy, perfect) that any and all badness (read:sin, that which is opposed to God) can’t even be in God’s presence. So when we originally and continually chose/choose bad, we were done for (thus his justice). His goodness was shown, however, in that he provided a way (all through his effort and ability) through the sacrifice of his most precious possession—his Son (mysteriously a part of himself). And furthermore, he maintained our freedom by providing us the choice of whether to accept that gift—that way to escape the justice that we all deserve.
So, hell is very offensive and unfashionable, but I wouldn’t call it silly…nor does the Bible use it as a scare-tactic (the way many Christians do). You may be familiar with this explanation, but from what you said it didn’t sound like you necessarily understood it, so I thought I’d throw it out there for a thinker like you to give proper consideration to.