Amerika

Let us assume for a moment that the Christian mythology is literal and that after death, we face Judgment, and some go to the heavens while the bad are shifted straight into Hell, where they will lurk in flames, attended to by sadistic demons who grinning sodomize them.

Who would go to Hell?

First up, a whole bunch of Christians, actually. The problem with theology is that if you get it wrong, even if you meant well, you end up in Hell. As Jesus clarified, spirit and works are both necessary to get to the good side of God; spirit is most important, since without it, you do wrong things.

Many Christians argue for hard dualism, or the idea that this world is temporary and a purer world awaits after death, so all that matters is striving for that purer world. Nietzsche called this nihilism, but many of us see it as simply a convenient justification for doing nothing.

After all, if you get called out for letting the world burn, you reply that all that matters is making symbolic gestures to God so that you have eternal life. This ignores the fact that God created this world and has intervened in it in the past; it is part of His plan.

In other words, if you let this place be destroyed while distracting yourself with opium-like visions of another better world, you will find yourself in another world… but a warmer one than you intended.

The same applies to the false virtuous, who think that a few symbolic acts toward the weak and pitiable make up for a general lack of morality in their regular behavior. These people abuse their children, but then go help the transsexual disabled impoverished minority midget amputee orphans in order to get into Heaven.

After that, the Christian individualists would go into the flames. These are people who argue that people are all that matters, not social order, so we need a morality that “respects everyone” even if they are doing wrong things.

Since Christianity — and indeed, all religions — are based upon establishing a moral order, this is a handy work-around, sort of like the Catholic schoolgirls who insist on certain forms of sex because “it’s not really losing your virginity.”

In fact, a vengeful and just God of the type attempted in the Bible would probably view Christians as having the fewest excuses when it came to judgment. The words are plain; those who twist them for their own convenience obviously deliberatly misinterpret them.

But, that is just based on taking this religion seriously, instead of seeing it as a personality adornment. Go ahead and roll the dice. The grinning sodomy demons are waiting.

Tags: christianity, hell