Hell-Dreams
Many humans long to believe that they are right and other people are wrong, that people will be punished for what they do that is wrong. We like to believe that those that do right will be rewarded and the rest will be punished, that the world is, in the end, a just and fair place. It bothers us, sometimes, that those we do like but believe differently may also be punished, and we try to correct them to believe as we do, but all in all, people like the idea that bad people are punished and that only other people are ever the bad people.
An eternity of punishment, however, is not something that anyone deserves, nor is it just, no matter what the crimes of the person. Hanging a threat of future punishment later as the way of justifying certain behavior now only encourages people to hedge their bets and find ways to play both sides of the issue. Some people will behave out of fear, but most people will simply do as they will anyway, and rationalize their behavior in a way that allows them to do what they would see as wrong in another, but acceptable in themselves.
The other problem with believing in a life of punishment, whether it’s an eternal afterlife or karma giving someone bad lifetimes until they learn, is that it takes the burden of judgement away from the Divine and into the hands of mortals. It gives comfort and smugness, knowing that those we like are going to be happier and those we don’t sadder. It doesn’t serve any real purpose to believe in such things. It doesn’t make people good or keep behaviors we don’t like from happening. It just causes more justifications and pain.
Hell, or bad karma, or whatever the horrid afterlife we might wish upon other people, is simply something that isn’t acceptable. We have no right, nor cause, to speculate upon what will happen to other people in the afterlife. We are all of the Divine, all special and sacred to the Universe, and should be treated as such, even when we disagree with the conclusions that people come to. If we truly have faith in the Divine, we need to also have faith that the Divine will choose to reveal Itself as It sees fit, and that we cannot dictate how that will happen from one person to the next. To do otherwise is to have no faith at all.
Questions:
Why do we wish bad lives or afterlives on other people?
Is there a more effective way to attempt to control people’s actions? A moral way?
What advantage do we get by believing in afterlives we can control? Is it a false sense of control? What are the dangers involved?
An eternity of punishment, however, is not something that anyone deserves, nor is it just, no matter what the crimes of the person. Hanging a threat of future punishment later as the way of justifying certain behavior now only encourages people to hedge their bets and find ways to play both sides of the issue. Some people will behave out of fear, but most people will simply do as they will anyway, and rationalize their behavior in a way that allows them to do what they would see as wrong in another, but acceptable in themselves.
The other problem with believing in a life of punishment, whether it’s an eternal afterlife or karma giving someone bad lifetimes until they learn, is that it takes the burden of judgement away from the Divine and into the hands of mortals. It gives comfort and smugness, knowing that those we like are going to be happier and those we don’t sadder. It doesn’t serve any real purpose to believe in such things. It doesn’t make people good or keep behaviors we don’t like from happening. It just causes more justifications and pain.
Hell, or bad karma, or whatever the horrid afterlife we might wish upon other people, is simply something that isn’t acceptable. We have no right, nor cause, to speculate upon what will happen to other people in the afterlife. We are all of the Divine, all special and sacred to the Universe, and should be treated as such, even when we disagree with the conclusions that people come to. If we truly have faith in the Divine, we need to also have faith that the Divine will choose to reveal Itself as It sees fit, and that we cannot dictate how that will happen from one person to the next. To do otherwise is to have no faith at all.
Questions:
Why do we wish bad lives or afterlives on other people?
Is there a more effective way to attempt to control people’s actions? A moral way?
What advantage do we get by believing in afterlives we can control? Is it a false sense of control? What are the dangers involved?
posted by Vieva @ 10:26 AM
1 Comments:
At 9:00 AM,
Star said…
Not sure I agree with you on this one either... I mean, generally I'm not in favor of heaven/hell setups, and karma's never really hit me as "ohmigodthat'ssotrue", but... I don't think that merely believing in a punishment system takes the job of judgement out of the Divnine's hands. Just because a fundie believes I'm going to hell doesn't make it so, after all. I won't argue that it does provide an excuse to feel like we and those we like are superior, because we're going to be rewarded--but I think it's entirely possible to believe in a reward/punishment system while recognizing that you can guess at what's going to happen to an individual but in the end you have no control over it. And... really, I think in the end that's really how most people do see it. Pronouncements of "you're going to hell" or "karma's gonna get you" really seem more like attempts to second-guess the controlling forces than attempts to control. At least to me; YMMV. *G*
Questions:
1. We wish bad afterlives on people because they have done something we think is wrong, and we want them to suffer for it. In cases where (our perception of) Earthly justice prevails and we see them punished here--sometimes, depending on what's been done, that's not enough to satisfy us on an emotional level. So we tell ourselves that they're gonna get it later anyway. I think some people also try to use it as a means of control, but... I don't think it's effective. I think those attempts fall mostly into two categories. In the first, the subject doesn't believe in that afterlife anyway, so obviously the threat is empty to them and thus ineffective. In the second, where attempts may appear successful, there are other factors at work, playing on the relationship between the subject and the person attempting control, which influence the subject's decisions probably more than the threat of a bad afterlife does. (Not that I have sources to back this up; this is just my guess and opinion. Could be way off.)
2. That probably depends. If you're talking about controling the actions of people you have a relationship of some sort with, I'd say certainly--abuse and peer pressure are two methods that come to mind. Random strangers on the street? I don't think it's possible at all. People who are smaller and weaker than you can be physically restrained, although this doesn't do anything about thought-behaviour. Certain drugs, I'm thinking, might put people into a highly suggestible state. As for morality... I think most of those methods are pretty immoral. I do see some merit in trying to control others' actions in some circumstances--keeping a child from the edge of a cliff, for example. The problem is that in the real world, the line between "for their own good, they don't know what they're doing" and "abusively controlling" is pretty thin and blurred. Not all the examples are so clear-cut.
3. We get to see ourselves the way we want to see ourselves. Either as good people and worthy of a good afterlife, or as constantly falling short and in danger of a bad afterlife. We get to feel like our actions mean something, like there's someone keeping track of what good (or bad) people we are. I think, though, that it *is* a false sense of control. I don't know whether I believe in an afterlife or not, but assuming there is one, I don't think it makes sense that we would be able to decide who gets what--see my paragraph before the question-answers. As for dangers, I think it's dangerous to start trying to figure out who's getting what because it makes us feel like we are in control, or like we know better than they do what's going to happen. That leads to a false sense of superiority, and possibly to arrogance, which is going to make it difficult to deal with people here and now.
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