Paradise Lost
A lot of people around the world have a lot of faith in paradise or heaven. In the Middle East, in particular, notions of paradise carry a lot of weight, as some feel compelled to kill and die for the sake of their ultimate reward in paradise. And others, in addition, are willing to tolerate the injustice of the present, and do nothing about it, for the sake of the justice that will be meted out in heaven.
Frankly, I choose to believe that paradise does not exist, for two reasons: one, because paradise makes no sense to me, and two, because a belief in paradise may do more harm than good.
Why does paradise make no sense? Every version of paradise that I can think of quickly devolves into the realm of absurdity. Let’s consider the possibilities:
Reuniting with loved ones in heaven: Suppose, when we die, we reunite with our loved ones in heaven. Presumably we would have quite an extended family waiting for us up there, considering all the generation which have passed on. Now, consider just one question: Did you ever spend an extended period of time with your extended family? And if so, did you consider that experience to be a “heavenly” experience. I rest my case.
The Garden of Eden version of heaven: Suppose we imagine an enchanted paradise where all our needs are met, and where happiness reigns supreme for all eternity. Can you imagine such a place? Some of us picture 72 virgins attending to our every whim and fancy. Don’t get me started. The cost of headscarves along would break the bank. But I, for one, picture the Caribbean Islands: turquoise waters, sunny blue skies, palm trees swaying in the wind, luscious frozen drinks, a delicious international buffet, and a courteous hotel staff waiting on me hand and foot. Sounds heavenly, doesn’t it? But consider the time factor…eternity. How am I supposed to drag this vacation scene out for eternity? How many mystery thrillers can I read already? And who will write them up there in heaven; some saintly best-selling author? Doesn’t quite work, does it.
The heaven where the soul reunites with God: Suppose I die, and my soul drifts upward and reunites with my Creator. At this point, my soul has no body with which to function, no brain with which to think, and no memory with which to remember. In short, no nothing; no resemblance to human life. Therefore, the soul, whatever it is, is not me, and therefore it is not me up there in heaven, but rather a disembodied spiritual essence of me which I can’t really relate to, try as I might.
So, paradise makes no sense to me, but why is a belief in paradise so harmful? Because a belief in paradise or heaven defers to the afterlife what needs to be done right here and right now. The justice we await in heaven should be the justice that is meted out here on earth. Believing in heaven can inhibit us from doing what we need to, today, to make this world a better place, and to make our lives here more purposeful and sustainable. And for all those fervent potential martyrs and suicide bombers out there; do you really want to gamble with the here and now, on the possibly false hope for things to come?
The truth is that heaven and hell are with us right here, and right now. We have it within our power, and in our own hands, to make this life a paradise on earth, or to render the possibility of paradise null and void by making our lives here a living hell. We have the potential for paradise right here and right now. All the necessary ingredients are already in place. But it is up to us to realize that potential, as is the case with all aspects of human potential. Which way do we go as a species?
Suppose I’m wrong. It could happen. I say we cease to exist when we die, like we were before we were born. That’s not so scary, is it? You don’t really worry about how it was for you before you were born, unless you’re deeply in need of therapy. But suppose paradise does in fact exist. Wouldn’t it make more sense to say:
“Well, since I don’t know for sure, I choose to believe that my life here on earth may be all there is, and I will therefore make the most of my life, because my life, right here and right now, may well be all that I may ever have?” That way, if heaven does exist, it will be like the icing on the cake, to be enjoyed after living a full and happy life. If, however, heaven doesn’t exist, then we will still have enjoyed a full and happy life.
You see how common sense works? It covers you coming and going. Any way you turn, it’s right there, ready to guide your way along the path of life, like a moral compass you carry within you. It’s that special gift, the gift that comes packaged in a box, the box of core truths and universal values.
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Your call on your own beliefs but your rendering leaves a bit to be desired.
Heaven, to a Christian, is not being reunited with your favorite pet or a garden spa…it is experiencing God’s love. Have you ever experienced true love? That wonderful encompassing feeling that melds body, mind, soul? Try that same feeling to the n’th degree.
pat, I think I’ve experienced God’s love. And it is a great feeling, no doubt. But why does it have to be to the n’th degree? And why defer it till death? Can’t we experience God’s love, in its full glory, right here and right now. I can imagine it, and every once in a while I can even feel it.
Here’s what I’m afraid of. It we place too much emphasis on death, and paradise, as we are often prone to do, we tend to ignore life. It’s easy to fall into this trap, “Well, my life is miserable, and there is misery all around me, but that doesn’t really matter, because one day I will experience God’s love, and that will make all the difference.”
But, pat, I don’t think that’s how God operates. I think of God as the sum total of all the creative energy of the universe. As such, He is all about creation. And common sense would suggest that if he created us, in His own image no less, then He would want us to thrive in the here and now, almost as confimation that His creation is indeed good. It is almost as if He needs His creatures to validate the efficacy of His creation. And when we kill one another, and when we defer to the afterlife the justice that we need right here and right now, I would think that He would look at that as a failure on His and our part.
What do you think?
Nissam,
I agree that one should seek Gods love in the now and attempt to create happiness.
I’m a Christian and beleive in the Bibles message. Love is something to do now, to share now and experience.
God is just keeping his word on ‘free will’, He is a gentleman and does not go back on His word. Free will means ‘we’ create our environment. That can be good and it can be bad but we create it. It’s rather simple really.
There is no failure on God’s part for keeping his word to us it is our failure to live according to the simple plan outlined in the Testiment.
You fall prey to a very simple problem, blaming God for our free will and our squandering of our birth right.
Pat, I believe in “free will,” to the extent possible. But isn’t total free will a little bit of an illusion? We can certainly make wise choices in our lives. But do we really have free will? Aren’t there circumstances that occur, beyond our control, and beyond the bounds of free will, that have overwhelming impact on our lives? A tornado comes and kills us in our sleep. A cancer is diagnosed and we prepare to die. An earthquake occurs and our house falls down upon us. A baby is born, and dies within minutes. Where is the free will?
And why would God create a world which hints of free will, but where free will is really qualified by the randomness of chance? Why is there good and evil in the world? Why not just good?
My guess is that if God wanted to create good, He had no choice but to create evil; good defining itself by its juxtaposition to evil. God likes to create every possibilty, a full menu so to speak. If He chooses to create love, He has no choice but to create hate and indifference. Each value, and each emotion, is balanced by its opposite, so as to give definition to one another, and so as to allow us to exercise free will to the extent possible, by choosing which value and which emotion and which direction we prefer to pursue. But even the randomness of life is used to balance the sense of order that we aspire to. And so complete free will is not possible, but is qualified by the randomness of human existence.
I don’t really blame God for anything, Pat. I just marvel at the majesty of it all, and in the final analysis, I don’t think He had much of a choice but to do what He did.
Does that make any sense to you?
I usually stay away from stuff like this, but give me a break here. First, I dislike the use of the male adjective to define the Creator. The feminine would certainly be more accurate, but I guess that’s a little too pagan for the big monotheist leagues. Heaven? Paradise? There is quite a bit of range there, from lounging about on islands making fun of those suffering in Hell to flying around the upper stratosphere in gowns, wings and halos. Now, it’s actually been proven that the body loses mass when one dies, in addition of course to our brain’s biochemical electrical field, so the concept of people having “souls” is an accurate one. So, where do these souls go? The clouds? Outer space? Another dimension? The truth is, everyone alive today will never know for sure until they die. Until then, they can only have faith that whatever dorma they adhere to is a reality.
Personally, I believe that we, as individual spirits given flesh and free will, have already gotten “the big ticket”, to participate in the Creator’s ultimate experiment: to prove that those given Free Will will choose goodness and order over chaos and evil, and will be able to resist the urge towards nihilism and death, to ultimately spread out into all parts of the universe and learn all of it’s secrets.
I don’t believe that Heaven will take me closer to God’s love; that implies limititations on the part of the Creator. It’s true that we are subject to our environment, and cannot always control the forces that affect us. It is our conduct in response to our environment and other individual spirits that defines free will, and, no matter what various institutions, groups and authorities may say, we as individuals always have choices. That choice may be something as small as shielding a loved one from the tidal wave that will inevitably kill you both, or whispering a prayer for the baby that will die anyway. Free will is the key to the goodness in the heart, and that is the key to heaven.
And now I have to exercise good free will and find out what my baby daughter did with the fresh fruit, beans and yogurt I gave her for lunch.
Maybe that’s why God invented reincarnation……God recycles!
Eric, I can relate to a lot of what you have to say.
I refer to God as He out of convience, and as an accepted norm. But when I talk about God, I also refer to Him as the sum total of all the creative energy in the universe, which is gender neutral, as I think He, She, or It, is.
It is true that all of us living creatures will never know, while we are alive, what happens to us when we’re dead. But some of us act on the basis of our faith in things to come, and our actions in that regard can be quite destructive. If we think we’re going to heaven, or paradise, we can easily be convinced to ignore the misery around us, and we can even be suckered to kill and die in the name of who knows what. It is precisely because, as you say, we don’t know what is to come, that it makes sense to focus on the here and now, and to make things better right here and right now, because we certainly do know that we exist right here and right now, and we also know that there is a lot of suffering to address, even as we speak.
I also agree with you that we cannot completely control our environment, or the actions of others, but we can control our actions and our choices in reacting to things beyond our control. And the choices we make say a lot about who we are, and who we aspire to become. It’s like Hemmingway’s idea of Grace Under Pressure. We may lose in the end, but it makes a differnce how we get there.
Finally, I concur that the key to heaven is the goodness in your heart. And the way to prove that goodness is to act upon it, as you are doing by caring for your baby daughter. And more than anything else, she is probably the clearest window you have to what heaven is all about.
Eric,
I’m not concerned if you are offended by the masculine applied to God as I’m a Christian and I’m afraid that’s doctrinal (as it is for Jews too).
I am amused though by your own def of heaven as you seem to think little of dogma and yet your idea of God/heaven came from some source that you no longer follow so you pick and choose what you like as it fits your lifestyle. That is a very convenient and contemporary attitude, I hope you are smarter than all of those you think less of.
When you whisper a prayer, to whom do you pray?
Nissim,
First of all, nice post, you know!
You tried to explain why heaven makes no sense to you. I dont know it is common sense or not but in the first place you are rejecting the one religious belief (one of important religion related topics) and seems to building some no-need-for-belief-to-live-a-life and some without-belief-world-would-be-a-better-place-to-live! Then it seems that you’re starting a Atheism or something like this viewpoint. Certainly, your viewpoint is not religion!
Your reason for giving heaven no sense was cool, but it still isnt that powerful to convince a believer to give up and also a terrorist to not explode himself! Then although your arguments make sense to me, it would not to believers!
For example, “The heaven where the soul reunites with God” argument that you wrote here seems to be something rational, but belief will always find an answer for these. It might say, no one can understand what happens there and as God did separated Nile by a cane, he would make a soul that has our face and cognitions!! Then no one could’ve convince the believer that their belief might be false! I call it “Fighting irrational with rational”! Then you as rational would lose!
At this point you cant bring out your next argument about loving our life and enjoy it.
By the way I liked your arguments because its a Nietzschean argument about life and heaven. You know, Nietzsche was the philosopher and prophet of life in western society. One of his famous quotes: “In heaven all the interesting people are missing.” Like your first argument.
And he use a nice argument for your post: He disgusts heaven as the way you did and tells why we should love our life and hate the heavenly one. He explains why heaven would be boring if it be all with joy and why love and hate are not seperable, also joy and pain, and heaven and hell. He loves the life and explain why one should love it. Check him out for more
We are going no where and also no species as biological aspects goes somewhere. All species may extinct or survive and there is no pattern! I dont want explain it more here but Natural Selection has no defined pattern!
Lord, as usual, some very perceptive comments. If I may, I would like to address a few.
I don’t consider myself an atheist. I believe in and love God. And I even respect religion, believe it or not. Religion can be a pathway to God, as can philosophy, music, art, spirituality, etc. We can each pick our path to God, but as we make our way to Him, we should be mindful not to veer off the path and go astray. To keep on course, we need a compass, and I can think of no better compass than the universal compass of Common Sense. For me, Common Sense is that precious gift we were given by God, since the beginning of our time here on this good earth, to bring order to our lives, and to make our way toward our Creator.
I also believe in belief. It is good to believe, and even to believe in things that are hard to expain, or that are beyond our ability to comprehend. Belief adds spice and mystery to life. But I also believe that all belief should be viewed through the prism of Common Sense. We have brought ourselves to a point technologically, where we can no longer afford to believe what we want to believe. We have no choice, if we choose to survive, but to begin believing in what makes sense. Certain religious and other beliefs must be tossed aside, if we are ever going to come together as one. And we either come together, or we’ll surely fall apart.
You mention that it would be almost impossible to use the rational to convince the irrational among us. You’re right. It would certainly be a hard sell. Infact, most of what I talk about resides on the periphery of what is possible.
What gives me hope is that every once in a while I get a glimpse of what it would be like to actually move people. It is possible to reach people, and to sell them on a new point of view. Let me give you an example. A lot of people believe in Moses, or Jesus, or Muhammad. I say, “If you believe in them, why not become more like them? And in the final analysis, what were they? Whatever else you may think of them, they were also salesmen. And what did they sell? They sold a Vision of Hope. For God’s sake, they inspired us with a Vision of Hope.”
I like what Nietzsche had to say. Heaven would be pretty boring if there were only good people sitting around. We should convince ourselves to be good not because of our expectations for heaven, but because it would render our stay here on this good earth a better experience. When we are good we feel better about ourselves, and about our fellow man. God has blessed us with that possibility, and it is up to us to realize that portential. He can’t do that for us because being good is about making choices, and there would be no choice if the choice were already made for us.
And finally, I probably agree with you that it is hard to find a discernable pattern in natural selection. It seems a bit haphazard to say the least. But here’s the problem Lord. When it comes to man it’s not just about natural selection. We do have some aspect of free will in our lives. It’s often about the choices we make. If we choose to survive, and if we come to realize that we have been blessed with an opportunity to experience life to its fullest, then it becomes incumbent on us to make those choices, and to think and act in those ways which maximize our chance for survival. And that means thinking with Common Sense, and ditching those ideas, religious and what not, which make no sense.
wow, i actualli have no wrds for the sarcasim but wat i can say is eternal life waites for me in heaven one day i shall see my god and reuntite with my loved ones who past away, for it is known that wat i experince here on earth is nothing compared to wat i i will be rewarded with when i see my god, ooo yes and i believe there is paradise and it will be sumthing i never even dreamed of i trust god and know his love and promises will never fail so therefore if i continue to serve the lord and live according to his word i will live and blessed for eternity in heaven thers so much more to paradise then carribean islands,buffets etc, i mean like im a fan of food but the day i hit paradise food and and ice drinks will not even cross my mind, i am a 16yr old female and i can admit theres somethings i need to wrk on and more things i will learn and with the wrks of god all things are possible…..god bless you!
one last thing
i wud be a fool to not believe in wat god has in store bcuz and i kno for a fact its not the desruction here on earth that i experienced for the 16yrs ive been here
Dear Shaniqua,
Please don’t misunderstand.
I don’t really know if heaven exists, or doesn’t exist. If we’re both lucky, we’ll both end up there one day, enjoying each other’s company.
But the truth is, that we don’t really know for sure. I know you have faith, and I have faith as well. But we don’t really know for sure about things to come.
What we do know, is that we both have a life right here and right now. And from the sound of it, your life seems a lot harder than mine. You have seen much destruction in your life, and I am sorry for that.
But since we don’t know for sure, about things to come, it would make sense, perhaps, not to put all our eggs in one basket, not to count only on heaven. We know we have a life right here, and right now, so why not try to make a heaven out of it? That way, if there is no heaven after death, we would still have enjoyed our life here as if it were a heaven on earth. And if there is a heaven after death, then that would be like the icing on the cake to be enjoyed after enjoying a good and blessed life here on earth.
I believe, Shaniqua, with all my heart, that the life we’ve been given could be made into a heaven on earth. We can make that happen by Selling one another on a Vision of Hope:
We will use An Ideology of Common Sense to speak to one another with common sense and with a sense of personal dignity.
We will invest in one another to creat jobs which will protect the environment.
We will use Ideology and Investment to inspire one another with Hope.
We will sustain the hope with Public Diplomacy, including: a program to Empower Women like yourself, a Media Campaign, a Student Exchange, a Cultural Exchange, and expanded version of the Peace Corps, and a series of International Conferences on economics, education, and religion.
We will fight against the forces of extremism, but we will also position the fight within a Vision of Hope. We will raise the fight on the ground to a higher moral plain by giving the fight a moral clarity of purpose. We are not fighting a war against terror. We are fighting a war to realize a Vision of Hope. There’s a big difference.
If we do all these things, Shaniqua, will this world not become a heaven on earth, and will we not find favor in God’s eyes?
ok! i can admit i honestly do understand where u are coming from if im not mistaking u are tryin to say why be here on earth suffering and believing that theres a heaven that waits for us after death because we never know we just my end up dissapointed in da long run when weve come to realize there was never a paradise??? if so i understand and earlier i misunderstood but its like i just cannot see (i can speak for myself)me enjoyin life enough to look at is as a heaven its, although at times things can be going fairely well at the end of the day this earth is full of pain n hurt, sickness, death and i just know theres no way that it can be a heaven, do you get my point im not trying to hange what you believe i just want you to understand what im saying just like i understand you….i mean we put so much faith in GOD already and believe that in the begining GOD created the heavens and the earth and end the end ,after death there will be a new life!!! =) but i know its ok GOD wont let me down he wont fail, and …..by the way ill see u someday GOD BLESS
Shaniqua, try to put yourself in God’s shoes.
Like you say, He created the heavens and the earth. For me, He is the sum total of all the creative energy in the universe. More than anything, if you were God, you would probably want to know that your creation meant something. You would want to validate the efficacy of your creation by proving that meaning is possible. But how would you do that?
You would create a world that was not perfect. Like you said, it is a world filled with pain and hurt, sickness and death. You would have your creatures struggle with all of that, and if they could overcome it, it would be proof to you that your creation was indeed good.
God does not impose evil on us. But he gave us the choice to be good or evil, and by choosing to be good, we bring meaning to our lives, and we prove to Him that His creation is indeed good, not becuase it is perfect, but because we choose to be good despite the temptation to be evil.
My guess is that if enough of us choose what is good, and begin to invest in one another, and begin to protect the environment, and begin to make sense of our lives, then we will come to have hope for the future, and with hope, all things are possible, even the impossible dream of peace, and even the impossible dream of heaven on earth.
I too love God. But I want to honor His creation by showing Him that His creation is indeed good, even if He is not so sure. In that way, for me at least, it will be like heaven on earth. And if I end up in heaven after death, then so much the better.
well my friends face reality even though its a bitch there is no pie in the sky wen u die u just rot and become maggot food thats it its the cycle of life
Joey, even if we become “maggot food” as you say, we can still go to that good sleep knowing that we lived a blessed life, filled with goodness and hope. For me, that is good enough, in and of itself.