Formal Religion
I’m sorry God, but I just can’t agree with formal religion anymore and I am completely rethinking the way I view you as well. I do not yet dispute your existence. I believe your form is potentially different for every person. Of course, I’m aware that I can only ever hypothesise about anything because there is no concrete proof on anything.
I feel like I should question everything about me all the time. My questioning is based on the fact that I believe no human being can be correct about anything and hold onto those beliefs their entire life. Should I hold dear to a decision I made when I was 12 or 14 years old convinced it's truth? Yet, that seems to be the nature of religion. Although it’s also the nature of a perceived lack of religion; if an atheist decides at 13 there is no god, does he ever question the belief again?
I was questioned recently about my views on heaven. I concede I remain unconvinced of an afterlife at all. The only reason I have any slight concept of heaven or hell is because of my religious upbringing although not due to any conviction. In day-to-day life, I fail to see any evidence of an afterlife. The Bible mentions it, but that’s debatable. The biblical translation was not conducted by me over the last 2000 odd years so I will always debate its authenticity. I am not a Hebrew literary scholar, or even an English scholar, so I feel that I am fully unequipped to interpret the bible in an academic way. I also feel that changes through time and deviations in education of scribes over all this time could render the translations varied from any original sentiment and make it not as clear as how Christians have described it as being there in “black and white”. Anyway, I got sidetracked over the whole Bible reliance thing. I’ll discuss that later.
Heaven... Why is everyone so convinced it exists? Do we need to feel that after our death there's something meaningful? I should have thought our life was meaningful enough. God... Why are the majority of humans convinced there’s a superior being? Apparently Marxism implied that humanity had a reliance on religion because they weren’t entirely happy with making their own decisions and needed faith to reassure them. [My culture taught me communism was wrong, not my tertiary economic education.] Anyway, I’m sidetracked again.
My belief on heaven is, as yet, uncertain. I can’t be convinced one way or another as to its existence. So, the question on it made me wonder why I couldn’t be convinced. I have to go back to the Bible, to what I learned originally (in order to dismiss all that I had been taught) and come up with a new concept. Funnily enough, I just came up with a slightly different angle on the original biblical slant. Still, I offer no conclusions; only further contemplation. Apparently God separated light and darkness and called them day and night. According to the book of Genesis, the earth was created on the “third day” and it was then covered with grass and trees and fruit and all the rest of it. I love how human translations use the word “day” to describe time when the Bible states the sun and moon weren’t created until after the third day. Logic tells me that there’s been a translation error somewhere in time because how do you have day in our modern usage of the word without a sun? If day and night existed and the sun and moon were created to rule over day and night, could the sun and moon be scientifically “extinguished” and day would continue to exist. That’s beyond my ability to fathom but it’s food for thought. Could we have misconstrued the creation story, however slightly? No, surely not. Christians would never get these things wrong! Theologians would surely expose me for the heretic I am. But these are my musings and I can question whatever I like. How then can I be sure that the rest of the Bible is translated correctly when I’ve found something odd in the first chapter of the first book? Anyway, let’s ignore that for the moment and continue on exploring the idea of God and heaven.
In exploring the idea of God and heaven, let me go right off the deep end here, in true HG Wells style, Genesis depicts earth being created earlier than humanity. Why? If human beings are so important and the master of the earth, why didn’t God create them in a space bubble first and then design the earth based on what humanity required? Is earth potentially more important that humanity? The Living Bible describes God giving humanity dominion over the earth to a certain extent: “ ...you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals. And look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth, and all the fruit trees for your food.” Voila. Humanity has been perfectly catered for in a dietary perspective sans the space bubble. The next passage is, “And I’ve given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for their food.” This implies to me a sentiment of environmentalism, not complete and utter conquest and degradation of the earth without regard for everything else. Why then, aren't the creationist leading the environmentalist movement?
There are many different versions of this Bible verse: “Let us make man in our own image.”; “So God made man like his Maker. Like God did God make man.”; “And now we will make human beings and they will be like us and resemble us.”, etc. What could this mean? Does it mean we look like him physically? Could it mean our spirits are similar? Does it just mean we have dominion over our own existence and freedom to make our own decisions? It could be all of them to some extent in my view or none of them because we have no real concept of God.
Selfishly, humanity seems to consider its own existence in relation to the meaning of life. Yet, where do we see "God" in all of this? Where is "God" in today’s life? I believe it’s everywhere. I believe you only have to look outside to majestic mountains and tall trees and a roaring fire and a magnificent waterfall to see "God". I think the whole of creation was made in "God"’s image not just humanity. We have merely been given command over the earth.
We respect "God" through respecting creation: humanity and earth alike. Without humanity, the earth would become a wild wasteland. Without earth, humanity cannot survive. They’re in communion with each other. Isn’t that something of what Jesus recommended?
Why are our bodies buried in the earth rather than just piled high somewhere or thrown in the river? It causes diseases that are detrimental to all other members of humanity. No, we are burned at high temperatures or buried deep in the earth for our bodies to disintegrate cleanly. Respect one for the other. Earth to the body, body to the earth. Heaven? I remain unconvinced. I will live for the here and now on Earth. Create “heaven” on Earth. At least I’ll receive a pleasant surprise upon my death if I’m wrong...