Sunday, March 23, 2014
Posted in
Religion
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Before I talk about heaven and hell, I need to share an insight that I had.
I post a lot of anti-Christian articles on this site, and I finally figured out why I am so angrily anti-Christian. My best friend from childhood is a Christian minister who believes that I will end up in hell. More than a decade ago, he ended our relationship altogether. I understood to a certain extent why he did that. I was always critical of Christianity, while promoting Christianity was his job. He knew that I was gay, and because of that he considered me to be a "lost cause" (because my sexual orientation would always prevent me from hearing the "word of God"). Also, the one time that he tried to convert me, I rebuffed him in no uncertain terms. Nonetheless, having him dump me as a friend was painful, and it stings even to this day to know that he thinks I am a lost soul. (He even believes that his parents went to hell!) It was this double-whammy of being judged and rejected that radicalized me. I'm not saying that my views would be different if he hadn't been in the picture, but I probably wouldn't be so vocal about them. (Note: Since that time we have started communicating again, but only occasionally and superficially.)
Heaven and Hell
Years ago I was watching an Oprah Winfrey show on which she had some spiritual types who were sharing their views. Oprah went into the audience to take questions, and a woman stood up and ranted about how she believed in heaven and hell and couldn't accept any spiritual ideas that didn't include those things. The guests didn't know how to respond. They didn't try to argue her out of her beliefs, probably because they didn't want to alienate the Christians in the audience; but it was clear that they didn't believe in heaven and hell, and their reticence to defend their beliefs struck me as hypocritical.
I remember thinking at the time, "Why does this woman want to believe in heaven and hell?" I can understand believing in heaven because we all need a rest after living a difficult life. But hell? Who needs that!
Obviously, that woman didn't think that she was going to hell -- so the hell that she was determined to believe in was for other people. She seemed to be an angry person. It was clear that she had a lot of contempt for people, and she wanted the satisfaction of knowing that they would roast in hell for an eternity. To me that seemed like a pretty sorry mindset. There have been people in my life that I hated, and even hoped would die, but I never wished that they would be punished forever. Wishing people into hell is overkill. It also strikes me as a violation of the Christian spirit that you shouldn't judge people lest you be judged yourself. Forgiveness is a powerful Christian concept, but there's no forgiveness in a person who has such feelings.
Her determination that there be a heaven was also somewhat troubling, though less so. She was clearly assuming -- despite the fact that her heart was filled with animosity -- that she would end up there. Generally speaking, Christians believe that you go to one place or the other; there's no third option. According to the Bible, heaven is such an exclusive place that only ten percent of the population is likely to end up there; so for her to think that she would be one of the lucky ones was presumptuous at best. Heaven is a place of eternal reward. Did she really think that she had lived such a good life that she deserved to be rewarded forever?
What that woman needed to be told was that heaven and hell are regressive concepts. No person deserves eternal torment, and no person has earned eternal bliss (which would become tedious anyway). Believing in hell is indicative of a judgemental and mean-spirited nature, and such a belief can only create problems in one's life (and walls between that person and others). Although it is obvious that the world has bad people in it, wishing them into hell is the wrong thing to do. We all do bad things from time to time -- in other lives if not in this one -- and it is important to recognize that we are all blame-worthy (or blameless, depending on your point of view).
The title of this article suggests that I am going to analyze the Bible to determine whether it actually says that there's a heaven and a hell (it does, more or less), but that was never my intention. I've said in other articles that we need to take the Bible with a grain of salt. The Bible is the product of the ancient and ignorant Jewish culture, and it reflects all the fears and prejudices of that culture. Modern Christians take it as a matter of faith that the Bible is the word of God, but there's no evidence of that. When you read the Bible, it quickly becomes clear that it was written by human beings. The gospels are named for their human authors. You'll find the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, but you won't find a gospel of God. The psalms, proverbs, histories, prophecies and apocalyptic stories in the Bible were all written from a human perspective.
Taking the Bible with a grain of salt doesn't mean that you aren't a good Christian. Believing in Christ and believing in the Bible are two different things. As long as you believe that Jesus was the Messiah or the son of God, you are a Christian. Speaking for myself, I believe that Christ was a highly evolved soul, but I nonetheless believe that he had the same relationship with God that we all do.
In truth, I believe that the Bible provides Christians with a test of their characters. Christians with compassion and common sense will overlook the hell-and-damnation message of the Bible, while those who lack compassion will embrace it. The test is whether you believe the authority of your heart, or whether you subvert your inner wisdom to an external authority. God gave each of us a conscience, ideals, compassion and better instincts. Shouldn't those be our authority? In my opinion, God speaks to us from within.
That last statement is precisely what the Seth material says. Seth said that we are all part of God (the idea that God contains all things within him is called "pantheism"), and therefore we are all connected through God. The conscious energy that forms God also forms everything in the universe, and God's consciousness flows on that energy. Thus, the personal god is that portion of God that actually forms us. When seeking guidance, all we have to do is to look within, to listen to our inner voice. Of course, we all know about people whose inner voices tell them to commit crimes -- but I'm not talking about the insane. The test of whether you are hearing the right voice is whether the message is compassionate. If it guides you towards greater tolerance, compassion and understanding, you are on the right track.
The friend that I mentioned at the beginning of this article is a person who has subverted what was a naturally generous and compassionate nature to fit in with the harsh judgements of scripture, and he has suffered for it. In my view, people who hew closely to the literal meaning of the Bible are far more "lost" than those who follow their hearts.
I post a lot of anti-Christian articles on this site, and I finally figured out why I am so angrily anti-Christian. My best friend from childhood is a Christian minister who believes that I will end up in hell. More than a decade ago, he ended our relationship altogether. I understood to a certain extent why he did that. I was always critical of Christianity, while promoting Christianity was his job. He knew that I was gay, and because of that he considered me to be a "lost cause" (because my sexual orientation would always prevent me from hearing the "word of God"). Also, the one time that he tried to convert me, I rebuffed him in no uncertain terms. Nonetheless, having him dump me as a friend was painful, and it stings even to this day to know that he thinks I am a lost soul. (He even believes that his parents went to hell!) It was this double-whammy of being judged and rejected that radicalized me. I'm not saying that my views would be different if he hadn't been in the picture, but I probably wouldn't be so vocal about them. (Note: Since that time we have started communicating again, but only occasionally and superficially.)
Heaven and Hell
Years ago I was watching an Oprah Winfrey show on which she had some spiritual types who were sharing their views. Oprah went into the audience to take questions, and a woman stood up and ranted about how she believed in heaven and hell and couldn't accept any spiritual ideas that didn't include those things. The guests didn't know how to respond. They didn't try to argue her out of her beliefs, probably because they didn't want to alienate the Christians in the audience; but it was clear that they didn't believe in heaven and hell, and their reticence to defend their beliefs struck me as hypocritical.
I remember thinking at the time, "Why does this woman want to believe in heaven and hell?" I can understand believing in heaven because we all need a rest after living a difficult life. But hell? Who needs that!
Obviously, that woman didn't think that she was going to hell -- so the hell that she was determined to believe in was for other people. She seemed to be an angry person. It was clear that she had a lot of contempt for people, and she wanted the satisfaction of knowing that they would roast in hell for an eternity. To me that seemed like a pretty sorry mindset. There have been people in my life that I hated, and even hoped would die, but I never wished that they would be punished forever. Wishing people into hell is overkill. It also strikes me as a violation of the Christian spirit that you shouldn't judge people lest you be judged yourself. Forgiveness is a powerful Christian concept, but there's no forgiveness in a person who has such feelings.
Her determination that there be a heaven was also somewhat troubling, though less so. She was clearly assuming -- despite the fact that her heart was filled with animosity -- that she would end up there. Generally speaking, Christians believe that you go to one place or the other; there's no third option. According to the Bible, heaven is such an exclusive place that only ten percent of the population is likely to end up there; so for her to think that she would be one of the lucky ones was presumptuous at best. Heaven is a place of eternal reward. Did she really think that she had lived such a good life that she deserved to be rewarded forever?
What that woman needed to be told was that heaven and hell are regressive concepts. No person deserves eternal torment, and no person has earned eternal bliss (which would become tedious anyway). Believing in hell is indicative of a judgemental and mean-spirited nature, and such a belief can only create problems in one's life (and walls between that person and others). Although it is obvious that the world has bad people in it, wishing them into hell is the wrong thing to do. We all do bad things from time to time -- in other lives if not in this one -- and it is important to recognize that we are all blame-worthy (or blameless, depending on your point of view).
* * *
The title of this article suggests that I am going to analyze the Bible to determine whether it actually says that there's a heaven and a hell (it does, more or less), but that was never my intention. I've said in other articles that we need to take the Bible with a grain of salt. The Bible is the product of the ancient and ignorant Jewish culture, and it reflects all the fears and prejudices of that culture. Modern Christians take it as a matter of faith that the Bible is the word of God, but there's no evidence of that. When you read the Bible, it quickly becomes clear that it was written by human beings. The gospels are named for their human authors. You'll find the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, but you won't find a gospel of God. The psalms, proverbs, histories, prophecies and apocalyptic stories in the Bible were all written from a human perspective.
Taking the Bible with a grain of salt doesn't mean that you aren't a good Christian. Believing in Christ and believing in the Bible are two different things. As long as you believe that Jesus was the Messiah or the son of God, you are a Christian. Speaking for myself, I believe that Christ was a highly evolved soul, but I nonetheless believe that he had the same relationship with God that we all do.
In truth, I believe that the Bible provides Christians with a test of their characters. Christians with compassion and common sense will overlook the hell-and-damnation message of the Bible, while those who lack compassion will embrace it. The test is whether you believe the authority of your heart, or whether you subvert your inner wisdom to an external authority. God gave each of us a conscience, ideals, compassion and better instincts. Shouldn't those be our authority? In my opinion, God speaks to us from within.
That last statement is precisely what the Seth material says. Seth said that we are all part of God (the idea that God contains all things within him is called "pantheism"), and therefore we are all connected through God. The conscious energy that forms God also forms everything in the universe, and God's consciousness flows on that energy. Thus, the personal god is that portion of God that actually forms us. When seeking guidance, all we have to do is to look within, to listen to our inner voice. Of course, we all know about people whose inner voices tell them to commit crimes -- but I'm not talking about the insane. The test of whether you are hearing the right voice is whether the message is compassionate. If it guides you towards greater tolerance, compassion and understanding, you are on the right track.
The friend that I mentioned at the beginning of this article is a person who has subverted what was a naturally generous and compassionate nature to fit in with the harsh judgements of scripture, and he has suffered for it. In my view, people who hew closely to the literal meaning of the Bible are far more "lost" than those who follow their hearts.
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