I HAVE A QUESTION....

IS THERE A HELL?

Don't be afraid, it's just a question, not to test your faith but to ask logically.

I don't believe there is.

Maybe that dooms me to having a reservation down under, I don't know, but the fact I believe in an afterlife of sorts makes me feel secure. If we have an afterlife, and many religions believe life is eternal, then what is the value of our existence here and now? Think beyond your family, beyond your lifetime, beyond your imagination. Eternal is a loooooong time! How long in years? Let's use a figure like 100,000 years to start. It's small enough to wrap our minds around, I think. If you live on earth until 100, that is one of a THOUSAND lifetimes you will be able to reflect on. Will any ONE of them stand out? Will you have a favorite?

Putting that in perspective, do you remember EVERY time you got in your car the past 3 years? Of course not. It becomes routine. It's not a bad thing. Routine teaches us many lessons. We routinely do NOT step in from of the train as it passes by. We routinely do NOT touch the fire as it dances in front of us. We routinely learn new things that make us who we are.

Don't you think Phil Conner did what YOU would have done after learning he would not die? [For those of you who do NOT know the Oscar-worthy film “Groundhog Day”, I give it 3 thumbs up and would recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor.]

If you truly believe in eternal existence, the thought of anything in one lifetime being evil is laughable. No one is ever REALLY hurt. Yes we miss those that are gone. Yes it doesn't seem right if a crazy man guns down children in school. Yes there are those human beings that seem to have no redeeming qualities and “evil” is the best shoe that fits.

And yet, I do not believe in evil, or the unfair, or that there is a price to pay for eternity. What I DO believe is that, if we truly have an existence that spans millennia, I would want to be the guy who wears the white hat AND the guy who battles him. I would want to feel the pain and struggle of people who were unlucky enough to be born in a place that knows no peace. I would want to because without experiencing it, you cannot truly KNOW life and all it offers, the ups AND downs. With a limitless amount of time, wouldn't YOU want to know MORE about humanity instead of sticking your head in sand and not accepting any other ideas.

Organized religion is supposed to help us feel secure in our lives and provide a way of answering questions that may burn in our mind. It's a shame that a lot of the answers are “It's God's will”, or “You aren't SUPPOSED to know”, or the best one is, “The Bible says so”. Ugh. That's ANOTHER story....

If organized religion does so much good, why have we had thousands of years of war (some CAUSED by the clash of beliefs), a never-ending struggle for some peoples to just survive, and still many many unsatisfactory answers for many many folks. Why the need to scare people into believing?

I understand that, without Hell, there would be many less people that would go to church. That would make those business models less powerful. I say “Business models” because that is what I think they are. Less about helping people and more about imposing their will on those looking for answers. Of course I am not talking about EVERY church in EVERY neighborhood in EVERY country, but if an organization is all-powerful and has someone in charge, do you REALLY think every dollar you put in the basket goes to someone in need? Does Catholicism REALLY need it's own country??? Hmmmmmmmmmmm....

FOLLOW MY RULES AND YOU GET IN!

Sorry, but I think that is a bunch of crap. In my eternal life, the significance of doing without, eating certain foods a certain way, or facing some direction a few times of day just doesn’t have much impact. I don't disrespect people who DO believe, although many of those do NOT return the favor towards my opinions. They just say I am wrong.

And that's OK.

Because one day we will ALL find out if there IS something after this life, or if it's lights out. My hope is that, like Motel 6, they leave them on....