LOVE, LOSS, GROWTH, AND REFLECTION | KNOW THYSELF, HEAL THYSELF
Can This Be Heaven if My Best Friends Burn in Hell?
Bonus Prompt — Does Hell Even Exist? And Heaven?
I borrowed the title line from a song by my favorite band Sonata Arctica.
The singer Toni Kakko brings up the theme of loneliness and loyalty in particular.
And ever since I first heard Alone in Heaven, the idea has stuck with me.
In fact, the topic concerns me so much that I’ve already sought out the conversation in a Christian group on Facebook in the past, curious to see how other people who are far more exposed to the Bible than I am would explain the dilemma at hand.
I’ll reveal only this much about it:
Unfortunately, I could not find a satisfactory answer there.
Defining Existence
What actually defines our existence?
Is our consciousness in the end only interaction of innumerable neurobiological processes?
If this is the case, then our consciousness will simply disappear with death — like the flame of a candle that runs out of oxygen. 🕯️
What a hopeless imagination!
I find the idea of simply ceasing to exist distressing.
Unfortunately, this is the most logical conclusion.
For my own well-being, however, I have no choice but to believe in an afterlife.
To continue to exist without a functioning body for all eternity, however, is like a miracle.
And the existence that makes miracles possible is God for many of us.
God Has Many Names and the Word of God Has Many Interpretations
I do not believe in the one and only right religion.
Ultimately, we humans cling to the idea of a superior being that guides us — because otherwise we would be hopelessly lost.
What I didn’t like, especially in the aforementioned Christian Facebook group, were the many statements, some of which were based very literally on verses from the Bible.
The Bible itself contains a multitude of contradictions. This already starts with the origin of humans.
So according to Genesis 1:25–27 men were created after the animals and according to Genesis 2:18–19, the animals came only afterward.
And not only are there different versions and translations of the Bible, but also other books of God such as the Koran from Islam.
And now, who decides which is the “real” book according to which we should live our lives?
Moreover, we should keep in mind that the text was written thousands of years ago. We really expect a lot if we assume that the content in its former form still holds true today.
After all, society is constantly changing and so is language.
In fact, religious texts generally like to be interpreted individually — which in itself would not be a bad thing, because faith itself is also a very personal matter.
However, it becomes particularly bad when those individual interpretations are misused to gain an advantage for oneself and to harm others.
I could still give many thoughts on the subject of the Bible at this point, but that would go beyond the scope.
The fact is, however, that we cannot avoid reason and make our own moral decisions.
The Bible cannot take away our responsibility for our actions.
My Very Own Personal Belief
To come back to today’s topic: I can find absolutely no sense in the existence of a “hell”.
This already starts with the fact that I can’t believe that there would be inherently bad people.
Sure people commit bad acts and I would claim we all do. Some more often, some less often.
Some of these bad acts fall merely under trivialities, such as stealing a stick of gum from a kiosk — other acts weigh very heavily, such as the genocide of the Third Reich era.
But I cannot believe that we come into the world maliciously.
Rather, we are strongly influenced by our environments such as our parental home, our circle of friends, our nation, or even our faith community.
Then, of course, our personality plays a role.
☯ unstable vs resilient
☯ emotional vs reasonable
☯ traditional vs visionary
☯ curious vs factual
☯ compassionate vs objective
☯ etc.
All of the above-mentioned qualities are important for our living together and have their very reason to exist.
The fundamental role here is balance. Even an extremely compassionate person can become a mass murderer due to psychological instability.
But before I digress too far from the topic again, here is a short conclusion:
Hell in the classical sense makes no sense to me because for it there would have to be first of all from the ground up evil humans.
However, assuming that we continue to exist in some form after our death, I can still consider the possibility of “eternal torment”.
This would then probably be comparable with a nightmare from which one no longer wakes up. The bad conscience in the subconscious does not let us go then anymore.
Self-reproaches and self-doubt in connection with memories from our life would then be the result.
This is the only form of hell I can imagine.
And to escape it, we would have to be at peace with ourselves first and foremost.
“Fair” is something else because this kind of judgment is done on a purely subjective basis. But I have learned that God does not interfere, since He has given us free will.
Otherwise, I would probably not be able to understand why terrible things happen in the world, and why the most innocent suffer the worst while God does not intervene at all.
I think heaven is also more of a man-made definition and basically corresponds to life after death.
Finally, here is the song by Sonata Arctica — after all, I owe my headline to it!
❔ Do you believe in an afterlife?
❔ How do you think things will go after we die?
This is my contribution to the KTHT Weekly Prompts for the week of August 1–5.
Thank you to the editors Diana C., jules, Ravyne Hawke, and Spyder.
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