In my book "Awkward Truths: Beyond the Dogmas of Science, Religion and New-Age Philosophies" (2004), I explained the somewhat unfortunate consequences of believing in an ideal, perfect Heaven, or a perfect spiritual existence.
It seems prudent to share some of those consequences, given current world circumstances and that many still idealize the after-life or various spiritual states (e.g. enlightenment).
This subject is also covered in more detail in "The Dynamics of Gender, and Life".
More soon.
Excerpt, Awkward Truths
He was joking (just kidding)
For the last couple of years, thousand, it’s been customary to believe that if we are perfectly nice to each other, we’ll end up in Heaven when we die. Heaven, by all accounts, is a place for nice dead people and is presumably decked out with lots of nice things.
We can be quite certain that it’s also scarce of bad people who would disagree, argue or fight with us – that it’s a perfectly peaceful place. After all, the dearly departed destined for “up there” are always directed to “rest in peace,” not “may you argue and fight till the cows come home.”
So we might expect that the after-life, at least for those who are sufficiently nice, is perfectly peaceful, harmonious, agreeable and good. We can also expect that we’d be perfectly relaxed, without a hint of being upset or shocked.
Being perfectly relaxed, with ne’r a bip or a bump on our flat-line, we’d not want, or be allowed, any excitement ... or surprise, as anything remotely interesting, exciting or surprising would disturb some of our perfectly relaxed peace and quiet.1
No surprises pretty much puts the kibosh on entertainment, as entertainment is usually about surprise – stuff we haven’t seen, heard or known before.
No surprises and no entertainment would put the dampers on having the occasional laugh.
So, no laughing! This is serious, stop laughing!
Come to think of it, no surprises and no laughing would rule out humour, or at least any jokes worth telling, as any really good (naughty) jokes would most certainly upset some of those perfectly peaceful folk.
Being perfectly harmonious definitely rules out disharmony, so ornery individuals wanting to disagree or argue would be asked to leave, perfectly politely, you understand. So no characters, individuals or anyone called “Lucifer.” Yes, we’re all individuals, except in Heaven. Not to mention Nirvana, where we get to live in perfect “oneness,” devoid of any troublesome, disagreeable types.
No disharmony means no pet animals, at least not any cats, dogs or any other fluffy cute carnivores – just ask the next mouse as it is chased and killed by the family cat if life is perfectly harmonious.
Whoops, that means only vegetarians could get into Heaven ... in addition to which they’d all be committed virgins, since sex, and anything else remotely noisy, stimulating, rousing or exciting would, as mentioned earlier, seriously disturb some of God’s perfect peace and quiet.
So, we can expect that Heaven (and Nirvana) is filled with perfectly agreeable, peaceful, harmonious vegetarians, who never laugh, have sex, joke or show any character or individuality.2
Hell.
- 1.
Thoughts are disturbances
Even the simple process of thinking requires disturbance and excitation of the brain's neurons (they need to “fire” for us to think). There is a rise in (electrical) potential prior to the firing of the dendrites. This rise in potential (desire) always precedes anything physical that occurs.
Perfect peace and quiet would be a completely dead, thoughtless, sterile environment, if such were to exist.
- 2.
The dangers of detachment
It is common in some new-age circles to believe that we can achieve some ideal enlightened state of perfect detachment and oneness, devoid of individuality. This is a most harmful and debilitating belief which leaves practitioners of such beliefs emasculated and powerless. For it is only by becoming more ourselves (individuals) that we can more fully connect with all ... we get more spiritual by growing our awareness and mastery of self, not by trying to give up portions of our uniqueness and individuality.
