Will It Be in Heaven?
Moral judgment, knowing what is good and what is bad, comes easy for some people. Not for me. I tend to not see things in black and white but rather to see color in life, variety. Things that are clearly wrong to some don't really look wrong to me. Things that are clearly right to some don't really look right to me.
But recently I have been working on developing a philosophy about this problem of trying to judge what is right and what is wrong. I look at it from a futuristic perspective. I look at the world from the perspective of the angels, or more precisely from the perspective of the inhabitants of Heaven.
We all know that many of the world's people simply don't believe in Heaven. Of those who do, many if not most just don't see Heaven as having anything much to do with earth's future. Heaven is someplace else, not here on earth, in the minds of most of the Christians I have ever known. But in my perspective, Heaven is a hoped for state of life right here on earth, a future condition of earth in which all of the inhabitants live in mutual respect and love and with an enlightened awareness of truth, God, and reality, and from that perspective understand what is needed for not just the survival but also the enjoyment of life on earth.
Our world isn't like that now because we haven't chosen it. The potential is there but we haven't chosen to make it happen. Instead, we have chosen the pursuit of wealth, power, and greed - self-interest. We haven't chosen to make our world a place where we do to others that which we would have them do to us.
But back to my main topic. How can I know what is right and what is wrong? I have a new test. Whenever I wonder if something is good or bad, I ask myself if it is something I hope will exist in heaven. Usually it becomes quite clear right away when I use that measure. One good example is whether I imagine Heaven to be inhabited by right-wing legalistic war-mongering religious zealots. These days it is those people who imagine themselves inhabiting a Heaven far above this earth while God burns this place to hell.
I don't envision people like that in Heaven!
But recently I have been working on developing a philosophy about this problem of trying to judge what is right and what is wrong. I look at it from a futuristic perspective. I look at the world from the perspective of the angels, or more precisely from the perspective of the inhabitants of Heaven.
We all know that many of the world's people simply don't believe in Heaven. Of those who do, many if not most just don't see Heaven as having anything much to do with earth's future. Heaven is someplace else, not here on earth, in the minds of most of the Christians I have ever known. But in my perspective, Heaven is a hoped for state of life right here on earth, a future condition of earth in which all of the inhabitants live in mutual respect and love and with an enlightened awareness of truth, God, and reality, and from that perspective understand what is needed for not just the survival but also the enjoyment of life on earth.
Our world isn't like that now because we haven't chosen it. The potential is there but we haven't chosen to make it happen. Instead, we have chosen the pursuit of wealth, power, and greed - self-interest. We haven't chosen to make our world a place where we do to others that which we would have them do to us.
But back to my main topic. How can I know what is right and what is wrong? I have a new test. Whenever I wonder if something is good or bad, I ask myself if it is something I hope will exist in heaven. Usually it becomes quite clear right away when I use that measure. One good example is whether I imagine Heaven to be inhabited by right-wing legalistic war-mongering religious zealots. These days it is those people who imagine themselves inhabiting a Heaven far above this earth while God burns this place to hell.
I don't envision people like that in Heaven!
posted by Bill | 10:02 PM
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