There are other things missing in Heaven too: compassion, empathy and mercy.
If all the suffering is in Hell;
and all the sufferers deserved their fate;
and everyone around you is in a state of bliss and deserves their reward;
then there is no need to possess any of those qualities because there would never be anyone around you either suffering or wronged.
Because there would never be anybody in the wrong place, there would be no need to feel what the other is feeling.
So Heaven must be a place of stern, uncompromising severity with no compassion nor any need of it. If not for the eternal bliss of union with God, that sounds like the very worst kind of dystopia going.
"Hell, I'm gonna grant you your greatest wish ... I'm gonna show you a world without sin." -- Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity
If I weren't an atheist, but still had a lingering desire to believe in something, this whole line of reasoning would probably take me straight down the Left Hand Path with my eyes wide open and a smile on my face.
A classic track I first heard at the age of 12 seems germane at this point:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGmz1nVgUE
"Here, there are lots of things to do
And a panoramic view
Of the Universe completely surrounding you.
And here you cannot buy souvenirs
For you're never going back, never ever.
"Basically, I guess it could be worse.
Yes, I do suppose it would be worse.
"Here there are many, many sheep
And the people only sleep
And awake to tell how gory and gruesome was their end.
And I don't have many friends
And it's really very clean, and I'm thinking.
"Juliet, you broke our little pact.
Juliet, I'm never coming back."
Chorus:
"Up here in heaven without you.
I'm here in heaven without you.
Up here in heaven without you.
It is hell knowing that your health
Will keep you out of here
For many, many years."
"Dear, do you often think of me
As you overlook the sea?
Do I qualify as 'dearly departed' or am I
That sucker in the sky
The fall guy for the first and the last time?
Juliet, I thought we had agreed.
Now I know why you let me take the lead."
(Chorus)
"Second thoughts - is that what you had?
Second thoughts - first I broke my back.
Second thoughts - as I hit the sea.
Second thoughts - for eternity, for eternity, for eternity."
(Chorus and fade)
© Ron Mael