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Dear Mr. Willett,
Just read with interest an article on your website called “Heaven is Hell” and I would like to make some points. Firstly, one of your problems with the concept of heaven seems to be, and I quote: The Christian Heaven is decidedly not about you; it is not so much a reward as an extra opportunity to praise God. Tell me, would you not agree that our world would be a lot better if people thought a lot less about themselves? It makes a lot of sense that if there is a God and a heaven, that heaven would not be about us and our selfish desires. How can heaven be perfect if there is selfish old me driving around in my little go cart running over people’s feet. If that were the case, it would not be much of a heaven.
Secondly, you say: The human psyche is designed to solve problems, designed by its designer, the blind watchmaker of evolution. Without challenges the human mind would go insane just like those zoo animals which rock and sway and pace up and down. Is that really what we are seeing in our world? I think the luxury of spending all our time solving interesting challenges is afforded only to the wealthy in our society. For the majority of people, daily life is either a struggle for actual survival or an interminable drudgery of daily work. That is why the Bible refers to “entering into your rest” when it talks about heaven. Most people would gladly welcome such “endless futility”.
Thirdly, as a general point, with all due respect, I think you have misinterpreted what the Bible has to say about heaven. We are made to want to be with God and we all have a God-shaped hole inside of us. We try to fill that hole with everything we can find, be it relationships, money, carreer, family, etc etc, but what we actually want is God. Heaven is where this God-shaped hole gets filled and that is why heaven is perfect.
I do apologise for this email being a bit of a hodge-podge of ideas…I’m in a bit of hurry but I felt compelled to speak out and write something after reading that article.
Thank you for whatever attention you choose to give this email, Yours sincerely, Boris Feigin |
How is heaven a reward for good living when it is in effect detention after death in an eternal Sunday School? At least the Muslims have tried to make their pie in the sky sound attractive. The Christian version does not appeal to me in the slightest. Praising God for all eternity. What kind of fun is that? Seriously, do you really look forward to a release from looking to your own pleasures and needs so you can spend eternity praising an all-knowing god who presumably has got a much better idea of how wonderful he is than all the dead souls of humanity combined who have nothing better to do but to tell him anyway?
Is that really what we are seeing in our world? Yes. That is exactly what I am seeing in this world. Many people are in harness all their lives and would be happy to have a rest, for about two or three weeks, then they would want to do something else, but that's not on the agenda at the holiday camp in the sky is it? No. There's just one item on that agenda: praise God for ever. Nobody would seriously welcome endless futility. It's better than being tortured and it might be better than being a peasant farmer or a crippled beggar, at least a bit better, some of the time. But for most people that concept just stinks, that's why selling Christianity is significantly easier to peasants and beggars than it is to rock stars, or indeed people who work in call centres, drink Chardonnay and take foreign beach holidays.
There is no God shaped hole in me or anybody else. Evolution has shaped us with needs and has shaped our minds to put these needs in order. Breath comes first, then water, sleep and food. There is some kind of a hierarchy of needs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
and there will never be an end to need. It is a myth that heaven provides the ultimate satisfaction of needs. Needs and urges are not meant ever to be fully satisfied, when we satisfy one we will inevitably move on to others. For ever. That is the human condition. Death is the only release from need. Only fools expect to see release from desire. Just look up the definition of the word satisfaction. There has to be a need to get satisfaction and the pleasure of satisfaction fades away, that is why the junkie keeps looking for a bigger dose. The faster you run after satisfaction the faster it disappears over the horizon. That's the way the human brain is structured and you cannot get over it. The religious have to pretend that they are satisfied, because the alternative is to look stupid, weak or evil. Which are you?
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Martin Willett
http://mwillett.org/