Sugarcandy Mountain – The Pavlovian Promise Of The Hereafter
8 March 2009 by KA
Heaven, n.: A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attention while you expound your own.
The Devil’s Dictionary
As per my promise, let us talk, you and I, about that most ephemeral of places, Heaven.
Almost every society since the beginning of recorded history has promised this haven from the blood, sweat, and tears this mortal life visits upon us. A promise of rest, of a surcease of worry, a womb of security and safety when the final breath ceases. From Nirvana to Asgard, from Jannah to Tamoanchan, humanity has ever yearned for peace and quiet, a commodity in any time or place in history.
It is a simple reason why this fantasy evolved so many permutations. After all, life is hard, sometimes excruciatingly so. And our evolutionary heritage, that snake that runs up our back, the reptilian hindbrain that avoids pain and seeks pleasure, that is the root of it. Subsequently, the environment around different tribes shaped various visions of an unglimpsed, unproven utopia.
It perhaps drove our primitive forbears forward – for there have been bleak epics in human history, and the only light at the end of the tunnel was the promise of a hereafter, because life in realtime seemed so bleak. But that was then, and this is the 21st century. Now it is an anachronistic holdover from backward times, but it hangs on like a terrier unto a rat. Why so? Because again, it is a promise of relief from the aggravations of modern life.
But it is a mad belief. It is antagonistic to modern life. For one, this belief channels living energy into a dark void, because the believers of such, instead of investing in reality and humanity, seek to engineer a path towards the unknown, the unproven. And the blood that is spilled , the lives that are spent, the horrors that have been hatched to ensure the building of a stairway to on high, is staggering. It also sends the mentally ill into a destructive downwards spiral, and oftentimes drives others to extremes in an effort to ‘save souls’.
It has been said that atheists don’t talk much about heaven. But this is untrue: I myself rail against the mindset that feels obligated to impinge on our freedoms to ensure that we are ‘saved’ – and not allow any of us any say in the matter. And the dangling of a carrot on the stick is an insult to many who are intelligent.
And, to top this post off, I feel obliged to point out that the Heaven/Hell option is actually a fallacy – specifically the false dichotomy.
I say the illusion of the soul is detrimental to our species. It diverts resources, both mental and physical, funneling them into nowhere. It is a form of Pavlovian terrorism, an argument from force. And last but not least, it leads those that believe to force their metaphysical constructs onto those of us who do not.
Till the next post, then.
8 March 2009, on 11:34 am
You hit the proverbial nail on the head with this entry.
Just one point I want to add: the belief in heaven / hell is antagonistic not merely to modern life, but to humanity itself. One of the bright points of being in heaven forever and forever and forever is to watch the suffering and torment of the damned as they roast in hell. It’s downright evil for xians to profer the enjoyment of suffering as an enjoyable and mandatory reward.
8 March 2009, on 12:10 pm
Deathbed conversions are, I guess, the adult theist’s version of childhood tendencies to improve behavior late in the year as Christmas approaches.
He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, he’s going to find out who’s damned and who’s saved…
Oops…I appear to have conflated the two myths! (My bad…)
8 March 2009, on 1:29 pm
It is very distressing to talk with a schizophrenic who is absolutely CONVINCED that he has people living inside the walls of his house. These delusional people who honestly believe that hell awaits their friends who have not given their hearts to jeebus suffer greatly. I remember so many tears and anguishing prayers when I was a xian and so very convinced that certain people I loved with all my heart were destined to eternal damnation. Boy, am I glad those days are over! It is such a hideous doctrine and worth every effort to destroy.
8 March 2009, on 7:02 pm
Lynda, what is it the guys at Atheist Experience say? If you have a friend who thinks you deserve eternal punishment because you don’t believe in a god, they aren’t a friend.
8 March 2009, on 7:11 pm
If you have a friend who thinks you deserve eternal punishment because you don’t believe in a god, they aren’t a friend.
What about a sister and niece who believe I deserve eternal punishment because I don’t believe in a god?
8 March 2009, on 8:38 pm
AUM:
I’ve a friend who’s been 1 for the last 30+ years. He’s also a young earth creationist. We’ve almost come to blows (& friendship’s end) over the discussions we’ve had – they get quite heated, & we don’t go there anymore (it’s always, “I don’t want to discuss this” @ least 20 times).
Suffice it to say, he doesn’t want anyone to burn, he’d rather ’save’ them.
8 March 2009, on 9:39 pm
AUM,
What gets me is that these friends don’t seem to be able to comprehend how silly it is to worship a guy that would do that to their friends. I guess the guys at Atheist Experience are right.
8 March 2009, on 11:17 pm
Suffice it to say, he doesn’t want anyone to burn, he’d rather ’save’ them.
The thing is that while these believers who happen to be friends or family don’t want us to burn, but they still believe that we are deserving of it if we don’t say the magic words. That’s kind of upsetting to me that they wold actually believe I deserved it.
9 March 2009, on 12:14 am
Stardust:
Which ones? Eenie beanie, chili weenie, the spirits are about to speak! Oh wait…
Yeah, it IS irritating. & 9 outta 10 times, they can’t figure out why you’d get peeved over it.
9 March 2009, on 1:34 am
The religious beliefs are absolutely some kind of syndrome or diseaese. And part of the symptom is proselitysing. If you really really believe then you must want that same happiness and everlasting life for everyone. Right? It isn’t until they go out and confront people like us that they are actually requred to think and quickly revert to nothing more than parroting some lame talking point or two.
…”But it is a mad belief. It is antagonistic to modern life. For one, this belief channels living energy into a dark void, because the believers of such, instead of investing in reality and humanity, seek to engineer a path towards the unknown, the unproven.”….
I’d go so far as to say that it is an impediment to reason and rational thinking also. I do find it fascinating that somehow I was not sucked in and have no real desire to understand religion. I am also of the opinion that most people are similarly inclined but without the reason to toss out the religion they only give lip service to.
9 March 2009, on 1:56 am
Begging your “indulgence”, KA…your Post brought to mind some really old shtick; which, if you’ll pardon me (or not?)…I’ll indulge in some hopefully tangential blabbing…
Personally, I think the Major Western Religions are the worst belief systems, when it comes to any kind of explanation of our current existence. The whole concept of the “Abrahamic god” is totally sado-masochistic.
It’s the old simplistic, Good-Evil, Black-White, Up-down, Heaven-Hell syndrome; with absolutely no sign of any real freedom of choice; or anything remotely evolutionary…even as to the life we’re leading right now…which…speaking of “freedom”…we had absolutely no choice in the conception or inception of our current life; the only life that’s even allowed in the Western Religions. I’m bringing up…as you might guess…the Eastern notion of reincarnation. The Mormon (Moron?) doctrine has SOME variation of the pre-existent notion…but is definitely not reincarnational.
Why am I even bringing this up?…
At least the Eastern, or certain American Indian Reincarnational beliefs (there are many variations) are more about “evolution of consciousness”…not the: “do this or burn forever in hell” bullshit. Not that there’s any real proof of any reincarnational beliefs; but there are some rather interesting anecdotal studies…like Ian Stevenson’s investigations, etc.
I was very much into the “New Age” stuff…ala Edgar Cayce, Jane Roberts, etc…for many years. [Can't you tell?]
For anyone remotely interested in that concept, there are some rather interesting books (Dr. Brian Weiss, etc.), and some curious YouTube entries.
For instance…
“REINCARNATION, past life evidence, PART 1″ (there’s a PART 2):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EWwzFwUOxA
Or…from the Sci-Fi Channel…
“reincarnation, BORN AGAIN?”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQHp9bGVDB8&feature=related
Interesting?…Maybe…kind of…sorta curious…BUT…that’s about it.
Nothing really substantial. Certainly, no real proof, whatsoever.
Actually, these days, I’m strictly a skeptical atheist; but leave open any remotely possible “afterlife” shtick to the “Ultimately Unknown”.
Like Buddhists, I definitely don’t believe in ANY “gods”, whatsoever.
Are there other parallel Universes…or dimensions…even, ala the Matrix, for example…yada, yada? So far…there’s certainly no tangible evidence. Likewise any independent consciousness existence, separate from the brain…ala…any “Soul-type Energy-Entity”. Bottom-line, we’ll all either find out something when we die…or NADA!
Hey!…what’s wrong with NADA?…you know…fade to Eternal Black?…no further problems…EVER!
[permanently holding one's breath? "GASP!"]
I definitely, however, totally reject the rather unattractive, even insane, “Western Religious” notion of some “Heavenly La-la land”. One, even somewhat asinine, life…and you go to follow and try to chum around with (non-fucking, lame-ass dork?) Jeebus…FOREVER!
YIKES!! How B-O-R-I-N-G!!! Or, the old comic book:
“AAIEEH!” (or, YEEH?) comes to mind.
Especially, if all the fundie morons end up there. Wait…that’d REALLY be fucking Hell in disguise!
Yeah…the even MORE insidious, vile, unjust notions of eternal damnation. What fucking sado-masochism has been foisted for Eons, on us poor, ignorant humans!
I know…it’s really pathetic!
And then (to end my futile blabbing) back to current day “Reality”…
There’s the fucking Economy!!!
(feigns checking large sized (”hari-kari-style”?) kitchen butcher knife assortment…
I’m KIDDING, GifSters!)
9 March 2009, on 10:32 am
In that picture of heaven and hell, what are the people in hell doing?
9 March 2009, on 10:43 am
In that picture of heaven and hell, what are the people in hell doing?
Lynda, it appears that they are tethered together, standing around doing nothing. The one of heaven appears to be a celestial cocktail party of some kind. Weird what is inside some people’s imaginations.
9 March 2009, on 11:12 am
I was raised as a catholic and one of the reasons I turned against religion was that heaven didn’t sound very interesting to me. I also had lots of unanswered questions. For example, is there lasagna in heave? If not, how could it be heave? What about unfettered access to all the original Twilight Zone episodes? Nah, even if it existed, heaven would bore the living crap out of me – and for enternity!
11 March 2009, on 1:51 pm
Hmmm, so interesting all this. I also did not realise that the modern (western) idea of heaven and hell – the levels etc and the being torn apart – is all based around ‘Dante’s Inferno’ – and not actually the bible’s description. Dante’s inferno just elaborates and stretches the idea.
Personally the fluffy idea of heaven sounds utterly boring. I too if there had to be anything would prefer the reincarnation thang.
11 March 2009, on 3:01 pm
Moony, ^^ I hear ya! If I had to pick something to believe in, reincarnation would be pretty cool, especially if I could come back as a superstar or something. My worse nightmare would be, however, coming back as a Muslim in the middle east or worse, Somolia!
11 March 2009, on 3:40 pm
Heaven is being in the position to enjoy the everlasting snuff film that is Hell. Presumably with bottomless popcorn and Coca Cola. Or something.
Mark Twain nicely skewered naive notions of heaven pretty good in his fiction.
I like the South Park take, where most everyone is in hell and it’s a really cool place; Heaven is for Mormons only, and God doesn’t believe in himself because personally he’s a Buddhist.
My fundie ex-mother-in-law apparently cried real tears of anguish when she learned I was an atheist, because she just “knew” that I, someone who seemed so nice and kind, was destined for hellfire. She also declared that I would bring her wayward daughter back to Jesus. Which, after we divorced, turned out to be the truth. I think she had expected I’d be coming along, but ah well.
Nowadays I wonder if my Ex believes I was a temptation sent by Satan himself; I’ll forever be the atheist “bad boy” she fooled around with in college, I suppose.
Slightly OT, but it amuses me to hypothesize that even if “ghosts” are on some level real and connected to the previously living, it’s still no proof of God, or a Supreme Being, or the truth of any particular religion, etc. It would just be proof that the universe is even more bizarre than we currently understand.