“Time of death: 8:45pm”.
A sentence similar to this one spells the end of your existence. Your thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams and desires all cease to be. Everything that you once were has gone – leaving but a bag of bones and flesh that shall soon decay and rot, while all manner of insects nourish themselves on the bits that still remain. It is the tragic, but at least consistent, end of the line for every living thing on the planet.
Until…
You wake up. You feel fresh, healthy, at peace. You look around and find yourself in a new realm, a land of beauty and calm, vibrant and lively. It takes a while to notice that the woman next to you is your grandmother. Oh it has been so long since you have seen her, and she is no longer the saggy breasted, senile old bag you remember her being. Instead she is in the prime of her youth, mid twenties, her hair long and flowing, coloured like a field of buttercups in the height of summer. Her body is pert and tight and she flitters around like a butterfly looking for nectar. You see your mother with her, no longer ravaged by age, the cancer that worked its way through her like a plague absent, her health restored.
It doesn’t take long before you are surrounded by loved ones. Your father and brothers, your cousins and aunts – all with you now, happy and smiling. They welcome you with open arms, as ecstatic to see you as you are to see them. For an instant you are the happiest dead-alive man in ‘after-existence’.
“Where’s my daughter?” You ask, looking through the crowd of loved ones in front of you, searching frantically for the person you love more than anyone else, the one person you could never live without. It takes a while before you find out that your daughter isn’t actually in the same place as you, instead she resides in a pit of never ending fire – a fire so intense it would make the sun look about as hot as a snowball.
You grab those around you, asking if there’s anything you can do, if there’s a way of making an official complaint, if there is a way you can rescue the person you love the most from a place created for the sole purpose of burning humans for eternity. You find out that there’s nothing you can do, that your daughter ‘chose’ her fate. Naturally you argue against this, and ask to know what evil action she committed that resulted in her ultimate never ending punishment in a pit of fire and brimstone where there is wailing and the gnashing of teeth.
“She believed in the wrong God”, you are told. “She never accepted Jesus as her saviour, and thus chose to burn”.
You look around you, absolutely gob smacked that these people can’t see a serious issue with what they have just said.
“Imperfect creations can’t make imperfect choices?” You ask dumbfounded.
“Imperfect choices have consequences,” they respond coldly.
It is at this moment you realise that ultimately, whether in heaven or hell, you are destined to an eternity of suffering. For ever and ever and ever you will know that the person you love the very most out of everyone you’ve ever known is burning. That fact will sit in your mind festering with each and every passing day of a never ending existence – and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. By day you worship and bow to this God, the image of your daughter in indescribable agony fresh on your mind. By night you worship and bow to this God, the image of your daughter in indescribable agony fresh on your mind – and that is all you do.
Forever.
As luck would have it however, God eventually comes to visit you with a unique offer.
“I give you a choice: Would you like to swap places with your daughter?”
1) “Yes!” You say without hesitation, knowing that such a sacrifice is worth it if it saves your daughter.
This is invariably where the whole story falls apart. By saying “yes”, you are putting a human before God – which goes against the very reason you were made by him. If you would choose to be away from this God, you would never get to be near him in the first place. So while a “yes” answer is certainly more humane, more moral and more loving – it is not in keeping with the reason for your existence.
2) “No!” You exclaim, knowing that this God demands worship and servitude, that love belongs to him and him alone. Your daughter burns but you get over it, it’s her own fault anyway. The old words of Jesus resound in your ear; “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple.” You realise that you were made not to love other humans, not to even love yourself, but to simply love and worship God. That is the entire point and purpose of your existence and ‘after existence’, nothing else matters.
While not everyone has this particular view of heaven, they will generally assert that the afterlife involves some people being there and some people not being there, (good/bad – although exactly what that entails is debateable). As a result the same problem remains – unless of course they simply do not care about their loved ones once they’re in this realm. If so they’re not themselves anymore, in which case I would argue as to its value and indeed the value of ever having lived a mortal existence in the first place.
A couple of things need to be clarified:
1) Will we or wont we give a damn about our mortal loved ones once dead. If the answer is yes, how exactly do we engage in an eternal life with the knowledge that they’re burning, and even more so how can we even consider worshipping and serving a being that is ultimately responsible for their predicament? If the answer is no, I would indeed ask what the value is in having any feelings for others while living a mortal existence when that is going to be the overall outcome in the heavenly realm.
2) Although some clearly don’t have the problem that I do, I cannot establish how there is any remote value or worth in worshipping one entity for all eternity. I am currently writing another version of this story, (for a short story competition), and at this moment have the line:
“So, what have you been up to since I last saw you 300,000 years ago?”
“Worshipping God, you?”
“Same.” Long pause. “So anyway, do you remember that girl that flashed her boobs at us when we were fifteen?”
“Yeah, that was great that was.” Both men stared into their non-existent pint glasses.
While this is an attempt at a witty look at heaven, I find it quite pertinent to express my distaste at the notion of worshipping one entity, (that does not need worship), for eternity and can only wonder how anyone could keep that up for such a length of time. Does the very idea not seem astoundingly boring? Ok, I am sure this space entity will love and revel in the fact that billions of souls are bowing to it’s every move and serving it’s every whim, but what about the souls? In short: What is the point other than to feed a god’s omni-ego?
Any decent answers welcome.
P.S I know I have touched on this before, but there was no satisfactory post made in response to it. As such I have rewritten the idea and will try again.
Regards,
A sentence similar to this one spells the end of your existence. Your thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams and desires all cease to be. Everything that you once were has gone – leaving but a bag of bones and flesh that shall soon decay and rot, while all manner of insects nourish themselves on the bits that still remain. It is the tragic, but at least consistent, end of the line for every living thing on the planet.
Until…
You wake up. You feel fresh, healthy, at peace. You look around and find yourself in a new realm, a land of beauty and calm, vibrant and lively. It takes a while to notice that the woman next to you is your grandmother. Oh it has been so long since you have seen her, and she is no longer the saggy breasted, senile old bag you remember her being. Instead she is in the prime of her youth, mid twenties, her hair long and flowing, coloured like a field of buttercups in the height of summer. Her body is pert and tight and she flitters around like a butterfly looking for nectar. You see your mother with her, no longer ravaged by age, the cancer that worked its way through her like a plague absent, her health restored.
It doesn’t take long before you are surrounded by loved ones. Your father and brothers, your cousins and aunts – all with you now, happy and smiling. They welcome you with open arms, as ecstatic to see you as you are to see them. For an instant you are the happiest dead-alive man in ‘after-existence’.
“Where’s my daughter?” You ask, looking through the crowd of loved ones in front of you, searching frantically for the person you love more than anyone else, the one person you could never live without. It takes a while before you find out that your daughter isn’t actually in the same place as you, instead she resides in a pit of never ending fire – a fire so intense it would make the sun look about as hot as a snowball.
You grab those around you, asking if there’s anything you can do, if there’s a way of making an official complaint, if there is a way you can rescue the person you love the most from a place created for the sole purpose of burning humans for eternity. You find out that there’s nothing you can do, that your daughter ‘chose’ her fate. Naturally you argue against this, and ask to know what evil action she committed that resulted in her ultimate never ending punishment in a pit of fire and brimstone where there is wailing and the gnashing of teeth.
“She believed in the wrong God”, you are told. “She never accepted Jesus as her saviour, and thus chose to burn”.
You look around you, absolutely gob smacked that these people can’t see a serious issue with what they have just said.
“Imperfect creations can’t make imperfect choices?” You ask dumbfounded.
“Imperfect choices have consequences,” they respond coldly.
It is at this moment you realise that ultimately, whether in heaven or hell, you are destined to an eternity of suffering. For ever and ever and ever you will know that the person you love the very most out of everyone you’ve ever known is burning. That fact will sit in your mind festering with each and every passing day of a never ending existence – and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. By day you worship and bow to this God, the image of your daughter in indescribable agony fresh on your mind. By night you worship and bow to this God, the image of your daughter in indescribable agony fresh on your mind – and that is all you do.
Forever.
As luck would have it however, God eventually comes to visit you with a unique offer.
“I give you a choice: Would you like to swap places with your daughter?”
1) “Yes!” You say without hesitation, knowing that such a sacrifice is worth it if it saves your daughter.
This is invariably where the whole story falls apart. By saying “yes”, you are putting a human before God – which goes against the very reason you were made by him. If you would choose to be away from this God, you would never get to be near him in the first place. So while a “yes” answer is certainly more humane, more moral and more loving – it is not in keeping with the reason for your existence.
2) “No!” You exclaim, knowing that this God demands worship and servitude, that love belongs to him and him alone. Your daughter burns but you get over it, it’s her own fault anyway. The old words of Jesus resound in your ear; “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple.” You realise that you were made not to love other humans, not to even love yourself, but to simply love and worship God. That is the entire point and purpose of your existence and ‘after existence’, nothing else matters.
While not everyone has this particular view of heaven, they will generally assert that the afterlife involves some people being there and some people not being there, (good/bad – although exactly what that entails is debateable). As a result the same problem remains – unless of course they simply do not care about their loved ones once they’re in this realm. If so they’re not themselves anymore, in which case I would argue as to its value and indeed the value of ever having lived a mortal existence in the first place.
A couple of things need to be clarified:
1) Will we or wont we give a damn about our mortal loved ones once dead. If the answer is yes, how exactly do we engage in an eternal life with the knowledge that they’re burning, and even more so how can we even consider worshipping and serving a being that is ultimately responsible for their predicament? If the answer is no, I would indeed ask what the value is in having any feelings for others while living a mortal existence when that is going to be the overall outcome in the heavenly realm.
2) Although some clearly don’t have the problem that I do, I cannot establish how there is any remote value or worth in worshipping one entity for all eternity. I am currently writing another version of this story, (for a short story competition), and at this moment have the line:
“So, what have you been up to since I last saw you 300,000 years ago?”
“Worshipping God, you?”
“Same.” Long pause. “So anyway, do you remember that girl that flashed her boobs at us when we were fifteen?”
“Yeah, that was great that was.” Both men stared into their non-existent pint glasses.
While this is an attempt at a witty look at heaven, I find it quite pertinent to express my distaste at the notion of worshipping one entity, (that does not need worship), for eternity and can only wonder how anyone could keep that up for such a length of time. Does the very idea not seem astoundingly boring? Ok, I am sure this space entity will love and revel in the fact that billions of souls are bowing to it’s every move and serving it’s every whim, but what about the souls? In short: What is the point other than to feed a god’s omni-ego?
Any decent answers welcome.
P.S I know I have touched on this before, but there was no satisfactory post made in response to it. As such I have rewritten the idea and will try again.
Regards,
