Requiem for a Rabid Bat
Most people believe in a personal existence that continues after the end of the one we all participate in day-to-day. And they say that if you follow their rules, you too can participate in their version of the after life, and it will be quite nice.
But then who even wants to live forever? You can not conceive eternity. Your primitive human mind, as advanced as it is, (compared to the mind of a naked mole rat), is incapable of comprehending the never ending. Yes, I know, ‘once I'm in the presence of God all will be revealed to me and that which has been hidden during this life time will be known‘. Uh, then is it really me that goes on after death? Sounds like it would be something else that has all the eternal fun.
I bemoan the fact that I will not live to see two hundred years. And I can easily imagine a three or four hundred year sentient span. But trying to imagine a life that exists for a thousand years or two; ten thousand, a million, I can't do it.
No human can imagine staying sane while existing for a million years. And the impossible task of imagining a million year life span is infinitely more achievable then imagining the unbearable pain of eternal existence! I challenge you to think about it, (without shuddering) as best you can. If you dare.
And who gets to enjoy eternal existence? (As if being sentient forever would be pleasant. Wouldn’t even the most creative essence get bored after while?) Who gets this prize? It depends upon who you ask.
The more inclusive perspective is, “If you want to go to Heaven, where you will be very happy forever and ever, then avoid evil, repent from your sins, do good in your life on earth, and be sincere in your search for religious and moral truth. Otherwise, you will abide forever in the eternal death of Hell.” And, a more conservative, Christian point of view goes something like, “The people who get to go to heaven are the ones who ‘get right with God’ by beginning a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ.” Or, or, it goes on and on. They don’t agree.
There aren’t two dogmatists that promote the same definition of faith and the ever after. Each of them believes in a dogma of their own imagining. A fun exercise would be for you to choose the two most compatible dogmatists you can find, bring them together and see how long it takes for them to begin arguing over their differences. If you give this a try you will be surprised at how quickly they agree to disagree, if they don't come to blows first.
Christians, and I have only picked this minority because it is the one I am most familiar with, think that at least two thirds of the people alive today (those that do not profess to be Christian) will suffer for eternity. And the other third, self proclaimed Christians, will have the quality of their Christianity judged. The ones that get the thumbs up will enjoy an eternity of unimaginable bliss and the rest will suffer with the non Christians. So it seems that the odds of average, yet to be born humans, enjoying an eternity of bliss, are not at all good. Which really doesn't seem fair, when the best predictor of a persons version of religiosity is the religion of one’s parents not a dogma's veracity.
And when did this sorting of the 'are you good enough' begin? Two thousand years ago, four thousand maybe? Modern humans have been on Earth for maybe fifty thousand years! Did all of the pre Christians have souls? Is the judger going back before Christ, and what about the Neanderthals? Did they have souls? Did the Cro-Magnons have souls? I know, you don’t believe in evolution, your problem, not mine. I just have questions.
If the humans that existed before the concept of salvation through the acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord (or you can insert salvation through adherence to what ever dogma you prefer), were sent to either Heaven or Hell, did they all go to hell? Or maybe they were humans without souls, just toss away humans, like first waffles? Or were there different rules for people who lived before dogma? If before Christ, different rules were used to sort the worthy from the damned, why can’t we use the old rules today?
There is no Hell. There is no Heaven. There is no happily or painfully ever after. There is no soul. You and the rabid bat are born, live and die the same, enjoy.
