Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
...what I found weirder about the previous poster's remark, in a cosmological sense, was the idea that there is a hell, but no heaven. It seems to me, Bible aside, that he's imagining a very dark and dreary reality. If there's hell but no heaven, that implies, as I understand it, the following:
1. There is a purpose to life on earth. It is to punish people for their actions/immoral character.
2. There is a creator--but his/her sole reason for existence is an all-consuming, dark sadism.
3. The only reason to be virtuous is to escape from life--to be rewarded by NOT being punished with an eternity of suffering.
Isn't that a worldview predicated on the darkest of emo "I hate everyone" despair?
|
Indeed. I should like to do a little more digging on this, but at a cursory glance, I believe a position like that of mykab may actually be
more defendable biblically. The concepts of heaven, hell and eternity are generally absent from the Old Testament, as they were borrowed from Hellenistic cosmology after the 4th cent. B.C.E.; after most of the books of the Hebrew Bible had been penned. If we adopt the classical Christian position of the canon, which places everything subservient to the teachings of Jesus, I think that a very good case could be made for belief in hell, without a corresponding belief in heaven. Jesus's principle thesis through his teachings is the Kingdom (or more appropriatly, the "reign") of God. He speaks of the character of a world under the dominion of God Almighty, in which the oppressed, the frail and weak, the religiously and socially marginalized receive justice (often translated "righteousness" in the NT). He preaches religious reform in that external cultic observances and acts of religious obedience are usurped by the condition of the heart, and the importance of motives and attitude.
Jesus speaks frequently about "eternal life", the "Kingdom of Heaven", and "paradise", but in many respects, these concepts may be viewed as synonymous with his notion of the renewed creation
tangibly present on earth that is a part of his Kingdom of God agenda. Jesus also spends a great deal of time dwelling on hell, eternal punishment, and everlasting repercussions of having a poor quality of faith and religion. He speaks frequently about the conditions of hell, but curiously, never describes a heaven.
I believe that the concepts of heaven and hell and eternity have poisoned and skewed much of the purity of the Christian faith. Too often, the threat of hell is used to forward a religious agenda, and similarly, the promise of eternal bliss and prosperity on a celestial plain is manipulated to one's own end. I have met too many in my life time who perform good and are concerned about being right and pure, not because these are virtuous characteristics which improve humanity, but because it is credited to their account. too many people are building an empire in eternity for the sake of it. The evangelist who wrote Matthew once wrote about Jesus teaching to "store up treasures in heaven", but in light of the tenuous and ambiguous nature of the Bible's understanding of "eternity", where does one draw the line between narration and analogy?