There is good and evil in this world. Maybe it's not all black and white, but it exists, in greys. There is a god. And God exists somewhere in our minds, or our souls. Maybe heaven exists there too. We're advocates of good, so we believe that we will go to heaven for our good deeds. And others, with their bad deeds, will go to hell.
These bad people, who do bad things to us, they must be hell-bound.
People who have a problem with absolutes---well, the smart ones, not just the posers---have a problem with the idea of heaven and hell. Everyone has reasons to do what they do. So how can what they do be wrong? In most cases, they do it with the intent of saving themselves, not necessarily with malicious intent. So why would they go to hell? Well, in all likelihood, they wouldn't. They'd beg forgiveness, spend some in-between time in purgatory and then go to heaven eventually.
But what about those who are truly evil? The ones who perform heinous acts against innocent poeple. Rapists, child molestors, serial killers. What about Hitler? If he was truly evil, he must have gone to hell, right? Unless free will doesn't exist. Because if what he did was pre-ordained by God, then why would God punish him?
He wouldn't.
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Alternatively, there is no good and evil in this world. Everything that happens, happens. People are bad sometimes, but they're essentially good. There are exceptions, of course, and they're usually mentally configured to do these things. They will not be punished by God, because God does not exist. If God does not exist, no one has any say about their actions. They are free to do as they wish. And they do. They kill, they rape, they molest, well, they hurt. We can't stop them before they do, just after.
3 comments:
hmm... interesting... made me think and here's wht tht is:
husband says the concept of god is one of 'bounded rationality'.. you are uncomfortable to believe what you can't understand and hence you frame God and his ideas into a simpler, easier version that can be understood by all... So the simplistic division of heaven and hell, perhaps. While I believe in God, and also wonder a lot about how would afterlife be like, I feel it's all counted here while we live.. we live our own hells and heavens before peace comes in the form of death... the concepts are just so that while we live, we try to be a little less hellish.
I think God does exists.Heaven exists.Nobody is perfect hence everybody is good and bad.But its our job to be more good.More like God.Cos God is good all the time.And 'pre-ordained by God'definitely doesn't work that way.Judas did sin.
And the first two words in this comment is redundant.
When it comes to good and evil, I’ve become so settled on my fence, tipping ever so slightly back and forth between the no free will of Lila and the no free will of an impersonal energy/creator, that it was good to cycle through some of these thoughts with you. I smiled at greys. Immediately I thought of the Bible verse that says sin is sin, whether it’s stealing a pack of gum from a store or killing a person. I liked your presentation of everyone having what they consider good reasons for doing what they do, to include Hitler, so how can they be condemned as bad and hellbound? Similarly with your no good/no evil idea—if there is no good or evil, then helping an old lady cross the street is no different than stealing her purse or killing her.
There are a few interesting theories on Judas. One of the more recent ones I’ve heard suggests that he was Jesus’ favorite disciple, the only one Jesus trusted to carry out his command to hand him over to the Romans. About that theory I would ask why then would Judas have killed himself? He wasn’t as mentally tough as he thought? Whether Judas did what he did out of loyalty to Jesus or greed for a measly thirty pieces of silver, who can but only think they know? I’ve always considered speculation a futile exercise, especially in the spiritual arena, but I can also see it as just us trying to work out where we stand within ourselves, within the universe. And I feel like I’ve come to the place where I’d say either way, loyalty or greed, Judas did what he was “programmed” to do, what his personality dictated.
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