Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Heaven's Contractor

A thought from vacation. One of the key tools that Christians, Muslims and their ilk use to sell their religion is heaven. But here's the thing. The same guy who created earth created Heaven. Why would we presume that Heaven was built any better than earth? The same contractor did both jobs -- wherefore, then, the presumption that things will be better in Heaven? Why would we consider, for a moment, that the guy who put the tree in the garden, and then blamed not only the original transgressors but all of humanity, and then invented this convoluted way to gain "redemption" for sins we didn't even commit, will have Heaven be without all sorts of equally bizarre caveats and pitfalls? We know - we know - from the Bible that either the Christian god either changes his mind or doesn't let us know all the facts. Even assuming that he's telling the whole truth now, how can this guy be trusted to deliver in Heaven? Why would anyone feel this character is really trustworthy? Or, again, that Heaven isn't too terribly different in design philosophy than the earth?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

In all the churches I went to, the concept of heaven has always been of a glorified earth. & since it is out there beyond our scope of grounded reality...it is the original La La* land.


*When our son went in for surgery when he was six, the anesthesiologist told him he was going to La La land. Our son took it literally & when he came out of surgery, he told us all about his trip to La La land. I remember it was a Warm & sunny island in the middle of the ocean. Sounds kinda like a golden kingdom in the middle of the sky, huh?

Reason's Whore said...

Excellent point, Chris! I'm sure they have some way of rationalizing these questions away, but you make great sense.

CyberKitten said...

Presumably He built Heaven first..... and then ran out of 'money' so had to go with the lowest bidder?

It would explain SO much....

Stew said...

The concept of god as a dodgy real estate developer is great. It needs exploring. He's like those time-share sellers who get you into their meetings with promises of free/cheap holidays.

Unknown said...

L>T,

If Heaven is a glorified earth then . . . won't we recreate all the problems we have here up there?

Imagine it! Every racist, every mass murderer, every misogynist, homophobe, hypocrite, filthy liar . . . everyone that made this world a terrible place, but was also a Christian, is now in Heaven! If humans continue to have free will in Heaven, and for us to be, well, us we'd have to, what prevents us from doing all the things there?

The questions! Will evil be good, and Jehovah no longer care about what people to do teach other? Will it be anarchy and chaos, as the strong prey on the weak? Will their god stop them from doing as they will -- violating their free will? And how will they feel about that? Will they like WANTING to do something but being prevented from it? Or will their god set up additional forms of punishment to compel obedience?

The Christian Heaven isn't very well thought out if you ask me. ;)

Unknown said...

Slut,

Yeah, I know they have all sorts of rationalizations, but it's fun to consider, eh? :)

Unknown said...

Cyberkitten,

Or, how about this, Heaven was his first project. Was the earth made taking into consideration the flaws of Heaven? Heaven might have even MORE bugs than the earth does! :)

Unknown said...

Stew,

Hehe, I might write a story about it. ;)

Anonymous said...

The Christian concept of Heaven as a glorified earth. What makes it perfect & acceptable is that it is perfectly Capitalist. There will be no need for greed because the streets will be made of gold.

Everyone will be rich in heaven & live in A Mansion on the Hilltop:

"I'm satisfied with just a cottage below...A little silver & a little gold

But someday yonder we will never more wander...but walk on streets that are pure as gold." :)