A friend asked me that question today. What's the worst that can happen? At first I thought he was just talking about a little problem I was trying to help another friend fix -- she was having trouble getting my novel and she was in recovery from a stroke so everything was very difficult for her -- but I realized he meant it on a metaphysical level. So I thought about it, and this is what came to me:
The worst that can happen? If the fundamentalist Christians are right and not loving a God who is A-OK with seeing -any- of his children burn in hell for eternity is what will put you in hell, burning for eternity.
[5:27:09 PM] Sarah Simrill Ray: IMHO
You know, those guys who sat around that table so long ago, the Council of Nicea, (the guys who decided what books should go into the Bible and what Christianity should be) were pretty smart marketers. I think they must have asked themselves that question too, and then put it up there as what was going to happen to people who didn't listen to them.
But like I said, that's just IMHO. In my humble opinion.
That's just a purely human political spin they put on it to gain power. Religion, as an institution, is dedicated to control and power.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. As an institution, it's about power. That's not to say that I don't believe in God, I more than believe in a Divine Source, just not that image that the fundamentalists have created of a Father who would set up a system where His children's existence in eternity, whether agony or bliss, could be based on an eyeblink of a lifetime. Because when you look at how small we are in the Universe and how really loooooooong eternity is, that's what He would be doing. Imagine taking one random millisecond of a thought out of someone's lifetime and, based on whether that thought was "good" or "bad," turn the rest of that life into bliss or agony. Is that fair? Or even sane?
ReplyDeleteIn Unity, we say, "Religion separates, spirituality unites." I'm happy to say that "spiritual but not religious" is the fastest growing group.