Heaven and Hell: The Origin of the Oldest Fallacy

Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

H. L. Mencken

All of us have grown up listening to the concept of life beyond the grave; of a place where earthly deeds are compensated for. The belief in Heaven and Hell is a centrepiece to almost every religion. Theological arguments are incomplete without dragging in the system of delivering justice left unserved on Earth. And what better than brainwashing the general public into believing in Heaven and Hell — the supernatural compensation?

Before we delve into the history of the origin of this idea, let’s see why this concept is so important for theism to keep on existing.

Suppose you come to know about a young toddler getting brutally raped and murdered. Blood boils, does it not? Now if your religion claims the existence of a supreme being, who looks after the well-being of every person, will it not sprout a seed of doubt in your mind whether he really exists or not? Certainly, such a supernatural being should have been able to prevent the evil deed?

So, here the religious leaders presented the masterstroke of afterlife. If someone has wronged you, justice will be delivered after his death. He will be boiled in a big pan of hot oil in the depths of Hell. You, on the other hand, will be enjoying the bliss of paradise among beautiful fairies in Heaven as you didn’t seek revenge on that person during your life on Earth. This idea has gained a lot of traction among different religions but as is the case with faith, it stands without any evidence.

It was 200 BC. Greek culture was on the rise, with their hedonistic, philosophical traditions. Their statues, paintings, theatres and gymnasia emitted a magnanimous allure. It was akin to the charisma of the 20th century film and music industries. Meanwhile, the city of Judah (present day Israel), had fallen under the control of the Greeks, and a culture war had begun between the Greeks and the Israelites.

This is a heroic story of the Israelites’ resistance to the Greek modernizers.

“And he subdued countries of nations and princes, and they became tributaries to him. And after these things, he fell down upon his bed, and knew that he should die.”

— The Old Testament, depicting the Israelites’ views on ‘Alexander the Great’

The Jews saw Alexander the Great as the initial cause of their problems. Then came ‘Antiochus’ who committed innumerable evil acts including the hanging of circumcised children and the slaughter of the mothers who circumcised them. The Jewish culture was under the threat of extinction. But then, a Jew named ‘Mattathias’ came forward who refused to bow down to the Greeks. He killed a Jew who had become Greek, and then fled into the mountains. The war had begun.

However, military common sense was overshadowed by religious traditions and a thousand Jews died, because they had refused to fight on the Sabbath. (The Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as God rested from creation)

Consequently, the-no-fighting-on-the-Sabbath rule was quickly abolished.

Mattathias died at the old age of 146, and his son Judas Maccabeus took over as commander. Soon followed a guerrilla war waged by the Jews against the Greeks. Jewish militants confiscated and forcibly circumcised children, pagan altars were overthrown, and Jerusalem was recaptured. It came to be known as The Maccabees’ War of Independence.

The Maccabean Revolt (Source: Public domain)

Though a great political and religious triumph, the victory of the Jews came at a price of innumerable deaths. To justify the sacrifice of their brethren, Jewish theology evolved to include the notion of an afterlife. There was a feeling that those martyrs must have died for something. That they would have been rewarded after their death. The dead soldiers of the enemy, however, would have been punished in the afterlife.

“Many who sleep in the dust of the Earth will awaken — these for eternal life, and those for disgrace, for eternal abhorrence”

— The Book of Daniel

This guerrilla war acted as the foundation for a baseless assumption, something which would leave an imprint on the future Christian teaching, and many other religions.

The Unknown Doctor