Go Directly To Hell

I’ve talked about religion many times on this blog, and will probably do so in the future as well.

Sometimes, I can’t believe that there is an all powerful being looking over our shoulders and guiding us. Sometimes, I can’t believe in a world that does not have an all powerful being looking over our shoulders and guiding us. Sometimes, the world just seems to be too random and intricate to have been created by a consciousness. Sometimes, the world in all its complexity and interconnected biodiversity just couldn’t be a random accident of evolution. Sometimes, I just have to admit that there are some things that are far beyond my knowledge base.

 

Most of the time, I believe that religion, all religion, is simply a set of rules that we can live by. Most religions strive to lead their adherents in lives that are productive and loving. Rules such as don’t kill each other and don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t sleep with your best friend’s wife or husband, respect those that deserve respect and tolerate those that don’t. In short, all of us should strive to be the best person that we can be.

 

There is no real way to enforce people to behave, which is why our society has a police force. The threat of Hell is a concept shared in one form or another by most major religions. Some of the crazy splinter groups that make up their own interpretation of the rules seem to be in Hell already and deserve to be there on judgement day as well. To the very devout, punishment in purgatory or Hell is a very real and terrifying concept. I had a Catholic friend that would confess her sins so that she could be absolved of said sins. At the time I was more concerned that she was telling someone about what we had done or were about to do. She was concerned with her eternal soul.

 

I have a Muslim neighbour that prays to God five times a day. Five times a day! I know that in the middle ages the devout Catholics would pray seven times a day, but over the centuries the splinter group that I belong to found that they could accomplish the same thing by going to church just twice a year at Christmas and Easter. The “lesser” religions will eventually mature and manage to condense their messages to God.

 

Earlier this week the Pope was visiting Mexico. He was glad handing the faithful and allowing them to touch his holy hands. One person must have become over excited and he tugged on the Pope’s sleeve causing him to topple into a child in a wheelchair, not once but twice. Needless to say the Pope became angry and admonished the person not to be selfish.

 

Now, I am not a devout anything and wouldn’t walk out to the curb to see the Pope drive by, but I am aware that others probably know more than I do and will wait in the hot sun for hours just to get a glimpse of the pontiff. I can’t help but wonder about that person who caused the Pope to fall on a crippled kid. Does he figure he is eternally doomed? Will he Go Directly To Hell; Do Not Pass Go; Do Not Collect $200? Probably.

 

Sucks to be that guy!