Monday, June 29, 2009

Heaven.... Directions please?

Heaven....

I guess the promise of heaven is necessary and came about because it gives people the promise of a better place. Something to live for so to speak (Rather die to for would make more sense?) It makes life more bearable. I find this beautiful because it encourages people, no matter how shitty or 'unfair' their circumstances to live a 'good' life and be happy. Perhaps even help someone else along their way... Heaven is like the promise of a sweet to a good little boy from his mother.


This is a topic that has greatly fascinated me. So much so that it was one of the reasons i read the Bible, Qur'an and the Buddhist texts. Not that i was looking for Heaven or anything. It was more to understand why millions around the world resort to religion. Is this not why people are religious? In the aim of achieving everlasting salvation? booking their place in God's kingdom?
-Random thought... Have you ever looked around your church and thought "Yes, these are the people i want to spend eternity with!"-
Before i deliver my somewhat disheartening opinion of heaven i thought i would give a brief outline of heaven in different followings.

1.Islam- Heaven is called 'Jannah' which comes from an arabic word that means to cover or to hide (Allah's home in the sky is not visible) This is the land of happiness etc... Nothing new or exciting there. But while reading the Qur'an i also came up with a different impression. I am quite sure i have miss interpreted this but ill say anyway- The earth is heaven and we are all stewards put here to give it our contribution before moving on. As i said this may be my mind twisting things to suite my views.

2.Christianity- Keep this short... Living place of God and the land of those granted salvation by God. This is a quote that i found is pretty good food for thought...

"Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But he loves you!"
-George Carlin.
This quote make me think that perhaps Christianity has veered over the years? Perhaps the Christian God is not as all forgiving as has been taught of late. A lot of people better hope i am wrong...

3.Buhddism- The Buddhist concept of heaven and hell is entirely different from that in other religions. Buddhists do not accept that these places are eternal. It is unreasonable to condemn a man to eternal hell for his human weakness but quite reasonable to give him every chance to redeem himself. From the Buddhist point of view, those who go to hell can work themselves upward by making use of previously acquired merit. Hell is not a life sentence. Hell is a temporary place and there is no reason for anyone to suffer there forever. This seems to me a lot more palatable.

4. My view- This was quite influenced from ideas of Islam and Buddhism i think. I have always thought that the earth is Heaven. We have life and can do with it quite a lot though i would have to admit that our circumstances at the beginning of life have a lot to do with what we can or can't accomplish. We must enjoy our time here and perhaps use it to make ourselves useful to this world. There is no point in worrying about what will happen when we die because the fact is we will and no-one can escape it. The fact is death is necessary for life to continue. Imagine what life would be like if no-one died. Famine, overpopulation... This is a very Malthusian opinion but hey.... We are constantly breeding a superior stronger form of human who live longer and 'better' lives. But what is the point of living longer at the expense of enjoyment and happiness. Why drag on life instead of enjoying that fatty burger while you can or that beer and dying at 60 rather than pushing on to reach 120 living off rabbit food? Is that really living?
Life is a highway with birth at one end and death at the other. What you drive and in which lane is totally up to you so why not make the most of it? Who knows what is at the end? And the fact is we are all going to find out. I've been asked "what is going to happen to you since you don't believe in the after life?"
I am going to cease to exist and inspire the cabbages to grow.... Lets hope they taste good. At least we all know we will be useful.
I won't waste my life away praising a higher being or anything like that. If 'God' exists is the all forgiving and loving being He is said to be, for living a good life and being nice to others i am assuming it will be overlooked that i did not feed His massive ego but ritually kissing his ass every sunday and will not be sentenced to a lifetime of pain and suffering in hell to think about what i've done. What the hell would i do in heaven all day anyway? Smell the flowers and skip through daisies all day? Sounds like a whole lot of No-fun! I don't want to live for eternity...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

God forgive you! I dont beleive in heaven and hell either, i believe God punishes us on earth.. He wont want you to burn in hell forever coz like you said he is a lovng God. I guess that is just a threat to make ppl do whats right in the eyes of the Lord..

Mullmeister said...

So who is this God then? A being above or an icon?

eizzy.k said...

baba, u know technically, if you dont kiss his ass even if you've lived as a saint, you wont get into heaven. (or at least thats what they say)

By hoping living a "good" life will get you in, is like you want to be proven wrong about the existence of the 'invisible man'. You refuse to accept he exists but are like "just in case, i'll live a good life..."...??

firstly i don’t believe that heaven has any earthly things like daisies, so don’t worry, doubt there will be any skipping...its meant to be a spiritual realm, we shall be doing things spirits do...who knows?!

Also i think if you don’t believe in an afterlife, there will be no afterlife for you...if you believe there is there is! We have free will right? since we are free to believe in what we choose, we are also free to choose where we will end up after death...Its like the highway you mentioned, the different lanes may diverge sometimes but the all end up somewhere...if you choose the atheist lane, you diverge a little and eventually end up in....nothing. so be it. That is what you have chosen.

P.S. Can’t believe you didn’t comment on Rastafarianism!!

Mullmeister said...

Eizzy... Watch the name... lol...

I live a 'good' life because i want to, not because i expect to be rewarded because of it. This is something i hate about people. Always want something for what they do...

What do spirits do? Interesting thought dont you think...

You make it sound like i am condemned. So where are you going?

I thought of commenting on that but i don't know enough about it and haven't read up on it too much either. Perhaps u want to do that?

eizzy.k said...

your not condemned baba, technically i aint baptized either and consciously refuse to be, and so if it is as they say it is, i'm pretty much damned as u are!
LoL

so why do you chose to live a good life if its not about reward?

P.S. About Rastafarianism, i know they smoke the holly herb to meditate and be close to their God, Jah, similar to the hippy like culture of drug consumption such as of LSD, which people describe as being kissed by God, also watched a documentary about some Amazon tribe called the Hayman i think, who sniff some potent tree sap and get high as a way of worshiping and being close to their spirit gods...so drugs i think is an interesting area to research especially on religion...

Samantha said...

I really enjoyed reading this post... esp the quote by George Carlin. I agree with what Eizzy commented.

My mother has constantly voiced her opinion that we are all put on earth to suffer, however i hope that if God gave us such a short life it was meant to be enjoyed and happy. Otherwise what was the point of creating us humans, unless it was just so that we can amuse him or gratify him.

As a young girl i was terrorized by the thought of going to hell. The descriptions of hell by my religion and the bible made it seem so horrible. However this did not necessarily help me to do good or change my overall attitude.

Now that i am older and hopefully wiser, i have read several spiritual books and come to believe or more of want to believe in something like reincarnation. That we are all old souls that go through a phase of life on earth to learn lessons of love and goodness (blah blah corny i know) so that we can reach a higher plane or "spiritual realm" such as Eizzy suggested, a so-called heaven.
So if in our past life we committed murder or was cruel to others we pay for it in the next life time therefore going though hardships, thus the question as to why seemingly good people suffer is answered.

Also, you can choose to come back to earth to learn the lessons or stay in a kinda of spiritual purgatory which is not hell or heaven but a state of nothing and longing. Because the soul can only be contented and at rest when at that higher plane. Thus eventually you go though life on earth, meaning life is a journey or an obstacle that your soul or spirit has to over come and conquer.

Also attached to that theory is that in our lives we are always in contact with the same people. For instance if we had a sphere of influence that consisted with 7 or 10 or 20 people (who knows the number) meaning that those people will also influence us in our lives over and over again as if by fate. Like partners, lovers, children, friends, parents, relatives and so on. Every life time you will meet or be in contact will the same souls however, the roles they play will have changed. For instance your lover could now be your father and vice versa. Even your gender can change, you could have been a man in one life and now are a woman. Since all that is carried to the next life is the spirit and the score of the lesson needed to still be learned, no memories are really carried over (although for some through hypnotism access to past lives may be possible). neither would you have the same personality. Because the body is just a receptacle for the spirit.

These are my views... they are a mixture of views from others that made a big impression on me.

Mullmeister said...

Sam...

I see what you mean. Very interesting. Sounds like a very Buddhist type view i think.

As for your mother, this sounds like a sure fire way of missing out on life. She better hope that there is a heaven. Be a pity to miss out on the good for nothing. After all, you cannot possibly enjoy life with such a negative view i think...