Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Heaven Isn't a Utopia

According to Christianity, heaven is supposed to be this big utopia--a society that reality can never attain. And similarly, hell is supposed to be this dystopia that no one would ever want to live in. But if we take them too literally, we can end up with pretty funny scenarios.

For example, when we die and go to heaven, we're reborn as angels. And what exactly is it that angels do? Sing all day and praise God? Well, I have no plans of being a singer (I don't even enjoy karaoke!) so you know, eternity as a holy angel isn't for me (there's a reason why churches have choirs, and why cherubims singing is a symbol). It even gets more interesting when Jesus is asked by Sadducees who gets to be the wife of whom when the wife's husband dies and the deceased's siblings assume their duty of being the new husband of the wife (ad nauseam six more times). The reply? They're all angels? Does that mean no more sex in heaven? (I can hear the shrivel cry of males in the world.)

Similarly, hell isn't the dystopia it's cut out to be. Flaming hot? No problem, just send in the pyromaniac. Torture? Isn't that pleasure for the masochists?

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