Who's eschatology is better?
Today I had a conversation with a friend about the blog post I made last evening. In this conversation I brought up an idea that has bugged me from time to time. It has to do with the concept of competing eschatological points of views in various religious cultures; i.e. the end of the world.
Now, here I speak in the sense of the end of the world as on an individual basis. Since, after all, that is all we can each really experience; our own personal end of the world.
Now, there are a few competing models about this particular scenario and I will try to make this point in some very broad brush strokes.
I find it interesting that in the 'Left Behind Series' which, apparently, is a very popular fictional series that is based on the notion that all of the good Christian's get 'raptured up' one day, and the rest of us sinners are left behind to live in a Mad-Max post-apocalyptic hell. It turns out that small bands of devout Christians do remain behind, mercenary warriors for Christ, who offer some of the survivors a simple choice, accept Christ as their personal savior, or be gunned down by Gods holy warriors. Or, at least, that's how the video game plays out.
What I find interesting in this premise is that in this piece of human mythology, a work of fiction, a dramatic tale that provides deep emotional resonance, we never find within it anything other than that which is living, human, and upon this earth.
It has always bothered me that the Christian idea of 'heaven' involves being whisked away to stage left, with no stories left to tell, no life left yet to live, and no dramas yet to unfold. Even in the radical Christian bizarro fiction of the 'Left Behind' series, at the end of the day, only the humans left on this material plane have an interesting story to tell.
Now, let me contrast this with an alternate spiritual world view. One that comes from a tradition thousands and thousands of years older than Christianity itself. This more ancient spiritual world view embraces and accepts human drama to such an extent that it does not limit itself merely to only *one* lifetime but, rather, to a series of lifetimes that continue one after the other for thousands of years. The story arc of a single human spirit is limited not just to one life, but the evolution of that spirit over the course of centuries as it learn, explores, creates, and evolves to become something that is closer to the source.
I find it kind of sad, in comparison, when I think of the spiritual world-view that says I have just this one life to live and, if I mouth a platitude, I get to be float around in some ethereal and undefined spiritual plane living out no more stories, dramas, or creating anything in any way, or, perhaps, are sent to an eternity of suffering and pain in hell if I wasn't born into the correct culture or maybe drank the correct flavored koolaid.
I wonder what you might say if somebody came and asked ( let us pretend you had no predetermined opinions on the topic), which one sounds more interesting to you?
I can't really say for sure, all I know is that I find it quite interesting that the most compelling characters in the eschatological pornography known as 'Left Behind' are the sinners who did, in fact, get left behind.
It seems to me that the drama of our own individual humanity is far more compelling than any number of cloud sitting angels singing hosannas on high.
But, hey, what do I know, I'm just a rambling blogger at 12:26am in the morning....
Comments
In any case..
To me, it all makes sense.. anything that can be copied from place to place, person to person, machine to machine with mistakes opens up pandora's box of evolution, be it a strand of DNA, a computer program, a personal opinion, or a social dogma (the mechanism doesn't change the meta-physical analysis). When resources, space, or human minds are limited, those concepts that most effectively compete to beat out other uses of those resources are going to be the ones that survive as time proceeds.. of course, as time proceeds, the dynamics change and the thing that was better than sliced bread a few time slices ago is now just burnt toast in the garbage heap.
I have extreme doubts that any religion, spirituality, zen concept, etc. is actually anything more than this.. Objectively speaking. We've brushed or hashed these ideas implicitly when we were debating "free will".
Subjectively speaking, if you're happy with your belief, then great. If not, there is a whole plethora to change to and try out, or to be beat into you by missionaries, terrorists, and salesmen.
Along those lines, it seems interesting to watch the evolution of the internet and computation with the viruses, popup ads, email chains, video propagations, and all the other little high speed micro evolutions that seem to be occuring in observable real time.
Yeah, that would be sad if it was true. Measuring grown-up issues against a sunday-school description of Christianity often leads people to wonder what the big deal is.
The seeming arbitrariness of "you get a reward and you don't" would be maddening if it were a one time offer - oops, you missed the boat, sorry for you. But it isn't a one time offer, it's a constant, every day, insistent invitation. After a lifetime of offers receiving only rejections, snubs, putdowns and blankings, all that would be left would be sadness that the offer was never even looked into. There's no celebration when people reject the ultimate prize.
Human drama is what Christian life is all about, and these images of floating around on a cloud aren't what's being offered - what's being offered is life in all it's fullness - art, adventure, companionship, love, passion, leadership, home.
I'd only ask you to find out what the real choice is, not give up after finding a childish sunday school view of God lacking. Meet the real God, the passionate, jealous, terrifying and smart God and wrestle with him instead.
Robin Green