Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Slaying the Hydra

"I just can't believe a loving God would create people to send them to hell."

Universalism comes in many forms but essentially it boils down to this: everybody's in.  God is all loving so all dogs, eventually, go to heaven.  Since one has to have their ears plugged to the gospel and their eyes covered when they read the Bible to believe this, i'll stick to what Romans 1 refers to as, His invisible attributes, discerned clearly in creation.  In other words, stuff we can all see and ascertain for ourselves.

This will focus on two points.  Existence and justice.

First off, if as you say, we all go to heaven.  Then what is this life for?  Why all the hoopla?  Most folk who profess this belief obviously think the next life is better so what are we mucking about here for at all?  Pass the Kool-Aid Jim!  Vanity, meaningless!  Everything is vapor and a vain chasing after the wind!  What are we doing here?  Why waste seventy or so years in pain and suffering when utopia is sitting on the other side?  If we truly believe this, we will off ourselves immediately and get down to the real business of living.

Which brings us to why we don't.  Other than the obvious, that we don't truly believe this, and that is guilt.  Why do we have guilt?  We all have it.  We all experience it.  We call people who don't "sociopaths," though maybe we should refer to them as "enlightened."  We know some things, like suicide, are truly wrong.  We know when we've done them.  We feel bad about them.  Why?  If everyone goes to heaven, there is no punishment, so therefore there can be no real sin.  Everything is obviously permissible.  God's just gonna write that off.  So how bad can it be.  Which brings us to the problem of justice.  Because this means Hitler is gonna be knocking around heaven with the Jews he tortured and gassed.  The rapist is going to be rubbing shoulders for eternity with his victim.  The child molester too.  Everyone who has ever used their wealth, power and prestige to walk all over everyone else to get to the top and used all their resources for their own glory is ahead of the game.  They had a great ride here and now they're in heaven to boot.  The homeless fellow, well, he's better off now but how loving is it if there isn't any consolation for having lived a good life?  Wait, sorry, there is no good life.  Everyone's in.  It's all good!  Everything is awesome!  In fact, if God doesn't see a reason to separate sheep from goats, we'd better empty the prisons.  That's just mean.  Though i guess there's no real reason to, not like we'll be rebuked for it. i don't know how we came up with this idea of justice.  What a farce.  So, do as you feel, love the one your with, eat, drink and pinch Mary cuz tomorrow we go to heaven!

If only we could just silence that nagging sense of guilt.

4 comments:

  1. Totally get where you are coming from Shane, but I also take refuge in the fact that we are not God and He judges by His own standards.

    In the end, it only matters what is true, not what the Hoomans think.

    Personally, I think God made us to love us and put us here so we can learn how much He loves us, every day becoming a little more aware of how much we need that love.

    I have no idea how God judges but I have been brought up to believe that only those who want to be in hell end up there. I think this time is where we decide and show by our actions what our choice is and a lot of the time, we fuck up too...ON PURPOSE!

    I actually had a friend of mine (extremely anti-Christian)post a meme online that said, "if you have to have the constant threat of hell to behave well, you aren't a good person." I don'think the threat of hell is a good enough reason to love God. That just means that there is lip service to Him, nothing real.

    Why talk about hell and fire and brimstone when all it does is scare people away? Talk about GOD, (he is sort of the entire point of the Bible) first, not hell.

    Do I know that God is a Universalist? No. Do I know He's not? No.

    Do I have faith that He loves me? Yes.

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  2. Check out "Vapor" by The Liturgists on YouTube

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  3. i hear ya Sarah. Love ya enough to let you go with nothing more than your own words,

    "In the end, it only matters what is true" and the hope that you care enough to find out because the rest just sounded like what a hooman thought.

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  4. Beautiful tune Mike! Gotta suggest that one to Jim.

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