Hellish Heaven
Why would man never be satisied with Plato's Utopia? because of greed and luxury, he argues. Men are not content with a simple life; they are acquisitive, ambitious, competitive, and jealous. They soon tire of what they have, and pine for what they have not; and they seldom desire anything unless it belongs to others.
Isn't Heaven as it is described to us a Utopia of the sort. A garden where everything is served, all the physical needs. How are the other human needs served in Heaven though; power, ambition, competiteveness, self-esteem? or is part of being in Heaven, is that our needs change, we become content by having everything we can imagine. We seek nothing further, we have answers to all our questions, and we are fulfilled. Then my old question comes back to life; for how long? what kind of a heaven is this, where we do nothing, seek nothing, get everything, look-forward for nothing, happy with everything! For how long is that sustainable? For how long can we call that Heaven? for how long can we bare that? That is certainly not a humanly heaven. Humans would not be content with that. Life on Earth can easily turn to such a Utopia if that's all we humans need. But as Plato rightly noted, it never arrives.
Heaven then is not for us Humans as "we" are. It is a heaven for different beings. For beings that can be content by the heavenly fullfilment of their needs. It is a heaven for pure souls maybe. Souls that God collects back. Souls that can be one again with the One. So it is not a heaven for us, but for Him. Were do we go though, the remaining of us, our impurities: we go to hell.
Can Hell really be fire and pain. Endless pain. How would that be different than life? When we go to Hell, and in our endless suffering, do we ever try to improve our status there, reduce the pain, question why we went there, look for ways to turn off the fire? Do we become believers then. Will we see that sign, or like the many signs before it in life, we'll choose not to. If we don't, won't we work hard to change our destinies to get out of Hell. Does it remain Hell then, or another form of life? If we do see the sign and believe, do we get that one last chance to move to Heaven --where its really a heaven for us, but for a different part of our beings. If we remain there, accepting the endless pain, do we turn it by that into another form of heaven?
We are not reincarnated the same. We become different, and our needs and definitions must be different. So, will "I" be pleased or agonized in the hereafter, or some other form of me, and how do I relate to that thereafter then? What will be the definition of pain then? the fact of infinity?
5 comments:
You have a main assumption here: humans are unchanged after their death. I think that is not possible. You become something else, you see things differently, or so we choose to believe. I think heaven is the end of all searches for things we need or don't need, the end of the endless questions and all mighty human weaknesses. And hell? Maybe just an over sized version of today's world where only its flaws are taken into account.
i agree.
i believe that,upon death,our souls are liberated by God,purified from materialism,feelings would not be the same,and hence concepts like 'eternal bliss' and 'suffering' would have other evolved meanings,deeper ones that is.
Our souls then are free to experience such new world of heaven and hell , not as different beings , but as evolved ones.
hi mohammed,
good blog you have here, i came across it from another blog.
I read the bit about who is your father and well respect to you for your views. A lot of egyptians take it as a perfectly legitimate formality that needs to be ascertained in a lot of situations be they job interviews blah blah. REading your blog gives a flicker of hope that not everyone thinks in this retarded fashion.
Anyways, I found it quite novel that with a name like yours, you have so many questions about something which is such a certainty in islam. I guess from your enquiries that you are probably leaning on philosophical arguments more than any religious text.
I'm not going to philosophise though but i shall share a few truths. Being a christian, I look at heaven and hell as the bible looks at them. Heaven is therefore not a place were all our needs are met. Heaven is a place where we give to God, not the other way round. Yes it is a wonderful place, but it is a place where we give glory to God every day (if that will exist) for eternity. Now you might say that might get boring etc etc, but if that's what we live for here and now, then to be able to that in pure form is heavenly.
Hell according to the bible is described in horrific terms as the 'wailing and gnashing of teeth'. Hell is pure and simple the absence of God, the absence of anything good. You say that now we;re in pain, but at least every now and then we get some sort of respite. I don't think it is in the same class of pain that brings on wailing and gnashing of teeth. If God is love according to 1 John 4:16, then a world without God would be a world without love, without sympathy without kindness without justice without forgiveness. This world might be screwed up but it still has some good, some love. Hell would just have all the bad things of the world multiplied over and over for eternity.
Correct me if i'm wrong but I think your question is: is there really a hell? is there really a heaven? The next questin that follows on would surely be: what can be done if anything to avoid hell and get into heaven?
Hi Muhammed,
Nice blog of yours. well there better be hell and heaven. because i beleive this is the only thing that can keep us going. i don't beleive in human justice and sometimes my mind would stop when i keep thinking of those people who have so much been oppressed in this world, either through poverty and ignorance or because of any of their directions in this world. To live your days without believing in hell and heaven and in the final judgment is Hell to me. every sunset is an end to one day in your life that would never comeback. so if their is no after life, no heaven and no hell then this world would be a true jungle. how does hell look like..??? how does heave look like..?? i guess you have to believe god in his words in that.. the bigger question is which god to believe, Jesus, Moses, Budha, Allah....their are hunred's of god's that people all around the glob believe in, I'm a Muslim for at least I found reason in the fundamental grounds of Islam, besides i like the discription of hell and heaven in Islam, i like to believe that heaven is full of wine and women, that makes me tolerate the time on this earth waiting for a better fun. and i like to believe that hell is a strong fire with constant pain, this makes me further from mistakes, the best of all i like to believe in God, for it provides me with my self unity, it gives me the strength to fight any hard situation knowing that i'm not alone,in this world and no matter i'm misjudged their is always someone to look after me. i guess this is what makes me go on from one day to another.
interesting elbadrym
"heaven is full of wine and women" Are you referring to anything in particular, or is that just your wish?
So heaven is about self gratification? The same self gratification to be avoided on earth becomes somehow ok 10,000 feet up?
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