Elysian Eden

There are many stories of how ancient people once lived an idyllic existence in some sylvan setting, where life was peaceful, plentiful, and pleasant. Ahh... there's nothing like nostalgia for the good old days! The Judeo-Christian myth along this line is about our once residing in the pleasures of the Garden of Eden, before we were evicted by the almighty landlord. 

I have written before that there may well have been a historical setting for this garden of plenty: the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. Once upon a time—several thousand year ago—the area was green and fecund and provided the people with plentiful sustenance, but the garden became over-farmed, the soil became barren and the area was transformed into a desert. We weren't expelled from the garden—we trashed it and then moved on.

There are somewhat similar Elysian stories about what happens after we die—that the glories of heaven await the faithful, who will bask forever in its splendor. It would be sort of like going back to the Garden of Eden in spirit—after having endured this vexatious mortal existence.

The dualistic perspective of the Abrahamic peoples posits an exact opposite of heaven as a place of eternal residence: hell. You've got only two conflicting and exclusive permanent destines: paradise or perdition.

What I find interesting is that human descriptions of hell are far more detailed than heaven. Every religion seems to possess a meticulous account of hell—a dismal, tortuous place where torment is everlasting. For example, Dante's The Divine Comedy is an epic 13^th century poem describing an anguishing journey through the underworld. In contrast, heaven has only superficially been sketched by humans... streets of gold, the faithful reposing on clouds, or enjoying divine music, etc.

Why do humans put so much more attention to hell than heaven? I think it's possible that the story tellers (usually priests) wanted to frighten people into being good. Humans are very prone to wandering off the path of goodness and into the ditches of depravity. Most priests have found that, rather than paint heavenly scenes, the stronger prod is to scare the hell out of them.

If you think for a bit about heaven, however, doesn't it sound quite boring? If I were to laze around forever on cushy clouds, listen perpetually to any kind of music, or smile until my face cracked, I'd soon go berserk. What's more, it's the vicissitudes of life that really make it interesting. When things get too effortless, we become flabby and feeble. I would not want to go to the mythical heaven. Let me face affliction here and now, and be able to grow from it.

At the end of the day I don't fret over going to hell or look forward to heaven. I don't believe they really exist as our stories describe. It's our choice to live in heaven or hell (or a mixture), right here in this precious life. I think it makes more sense to put my attention to the here and now.

The Evolution of Hell—Part 2

When the USA was founded, most Americans leaned towards the Protestant concept of hell. They believed that hell was necessary as a deterrent against serious crime, as a way to keep citizens on the straight and narrow. If there was any doubt about the issue, the US introduced the death penalty as an additional threat to those who might contemplate committing major crimes.

But the trend on the part of some people to defang the threat of hell continued. Newer religions—Mormons and Adventists—brought some shades of gray back in. They advocated for the existence of several layers of hell—allowing one to escape everlasting damnation for the less serious sins.

America's involvement in major wars—the Civil War, two world wars, and Vietnam—convinced some of its citizens that we humans are able to create a kind of hell right here on Earth. In the wake of the two world wars many people around the world were very discouraged at the human propensity to create misery. Some of them even began to maintain that hell was not really a “place” at all that we go to after death, but is more a metaphor for the torment that we create in this life.

Evangelicals, however, have held fast to an eternal, single hell... there are no shades of gray. Yet surveys show that fewer and fewer Americans subscribe to this depiction of hell. In recent polls about three quarters of Americans do believe in God, but only about half of them believe in hell.

So we have a significant divide in America, not only in politics, but also about the nature of hell. Some say it's not real; that we make our own personal hell in this life. Others say that hell does exist and that we need it as a deterrent against human atrocities, or at least to induce people to lead a moral life. Those who believe hell may not be an actual place lean toward an interpretation of God as a loving and forgiving being. Those who take the second position believe that hell is necessary to keep people on the straight and narrow—in fact, some of them do so to literally frighten people into holding to their belief of hell.

I think it is important to remember that no one has died, experienced some kind of afterlife, and returned to tell us about it. Some people believe that they have gotten a glimpse of the afterlife, but we have no real evidence. Thus the very existence of an afterlife—let alone the reality of heaven or hell—remains a belief... pure and simple. And that belief, as I've described, has evolved over time. The truth of the matter is beyond the purview of science, so that discipline cannot help. It is the realm of faith, of religious doctrine. No doubt human views on the existence (or not) of hell will likely continue to evolve and change. Stay tuned.

The Evolution of Hell—Part 1

I was recently pondering the nature of people's beliefs about the afterlife and its influence on their behavior while still alive. The central doctrine of Christianity (the main religion of America) is that, upon death, one is judged for one's summary behavior in life, and the tally determines one's everlasting assignment: either the bliss of heaven or the torment of hell. You get one or the other.

I came upon a recent article in Aeon Magazine that helped me clarify the issue a little better. It was an evaluation of the historical account of the evolving beliefs about what hell is and its influence on people's lives—sort of the evolution of our concept of hell and what it's meant to us.

Ancient peoples (say, longer ago than 2-3 millennia) viewed the afterlife as a kind of permanent existence—sort of an eternal condition of just being... there was nothing tormented or punishing about it. The Egyptians are an example of this belief. The ancients saw punishment and reward as things that are not awaiting us after death, but happen to us while alive.

As another example, the ancient Jews did not believe in heaven or hell following death. They were convinced that punishment or reward must happen in life. I've long believed that this is the source of much of the angst expressed in the psalms: How can one account for that fact that the guy next door is having a great life, when he's really a wicked dude? I, a good person, have toed the line all my life and my life is not nearly as good. It's just not fair!

In the third century CE Origen (a Christian scholar and theologian) taught that, since God was love, hell was not eternal damnation, it was not endless punishment for one's sins. It was only a temporary place to “reside,” where one might experience some provisional punishment for sins, but everyone would eventually go to heaven; would finally return to God, fully restored and healed.

Origen's teaching did not endure, however, as 100 years or so after him Augustine established the Christian church's foundational doctrine: death led to eternal existence in either heaven or hell. It is, he insisted, a binary situation after all. But Augustine took the edge off this permanent, black-or-white, heaven-or-hell situation by introducing the concept of purgatory—as a kind of temporary hell, from which one could still manage to get to heaven. He introduced a bit of a shade of gray into the black and white heaven or hell debate.

The Protestant Reformation, however, brought back the binary afterlife. It resulted in being a kind of dire warning to people. It even made life a little scary for protestants, since one could become doomed forever for his sins, with no chance of atonement. You get once chance and that's it!

Then the Enlightenment ushered in a time when science and human reason took center stage on the human scene. Many Enlightenment thinkers rebelled against the Protestant dogma—contending that God would not be so cruel and harsh as to condemn people to everlasting torment, especially for sins that are not all that evil. Some of these Enlightenment folks even went so far as to abolish hell altogether.

More on hell next time...